fanfic min-rant (a rantlet?)

[ratcreature]

Okay, so in general I don't care that much about safe sex issues in fiction, not even in contemporary fandoms where you could reasonably expect it to come up. But if characters are about to have unsafe sex, then one actually comments on this being unsafe, and the other replies with something like "It's okay, I'm always careful." and the first one is then okay with it, my reaction is pretty much WTF? because isn't s/he just about to engage in unsafe sex just then? That pretty much contradicts the whole reassurance. It's different if they have this conversation once they're exclusive and assure each other that they've been tested for STDs recently or whatever, but during first time sex, not so much. And it's not that I don't believe that people sometimes act stupid like that, and there's a few characters for whom behavior like that might be in character, but in general I'd rather not see my favorite characters act stupid.

Comments

[liviapenn.livejournal.com]

I agree. An author can ignore it entirely, and in certain types of stories, I usually won't notice or care, because it's fine to be unrealistic in romance (and it's fine to be unrealistic in porn.) But if you *bring up* condom use and are specifically choosing to put the characters in a situation where they're aware of the risks and the reasons for using condoms, then the characters had better have a really, really good reason for not using them.

Like, in SGA, if John and Rodney are like "Condoms?" "Well, I haven't had sex in a year, and I've been tested five times since then, and I'm clean-- you?" "Yes, me too," -- then, okay, fine, whatever. I wouldn't mind that so much, even in a "first time" story.

But in a lot of stories it seems like the subtext is "Condoms?" "No, condoms aren't romantic." or "Should we use condoms?" "Why, don't you trust me?" and it's just like ARGH. Because seriously, in terms of "what's more romantic," when the choice is between (1) using condoms or (2) using emotional manipulation to convince your partner to practice risky sex acts, I definitely choose "using condoms!"

[ratcreature]

At least in SG they probably could find a Goa'uld healing device or something for their acquired space warts later on.... *g* But yeah, the condoms are not romantic thing is awful.

The story I just read wasn't quite as bad, it was a college story, first time they had sex and no mention of any health check, and they actually used condoms later on for anal sex, while the discussion was for the swallowing during blow jobs earlier. And though I can sort of follow the reasoning that anal sex is considered far more high risk in particular for AIDS, it's not as if there a variety of other STDs ranging from unpleasant to dangerous that are transmitted by unprotected oral sex, nor is the AIDS transmission risk totally absent. And I know that some people consider unprotected oral sex an acceptable risk for themselves, but once one character brought up it up as unsafe it still threw me that they then disregarded that because of being "always careful" (though really, clearly not!).