Bad hair day and fic

Weiss Kreuz fic: Fire, Schuldig/Aya, R

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Does anyone else ever feel the lack of a bad hair day icon? Today is one of those days where you feel greasy all over, as though someone's covered you in a fine layer of lard. Anyway.

There's a very interesting discussion over in hp_fictalk about the way writers symbolise increasing intimacy between their characters by using stages of sexual intimacy. You start with hostility/no interest, move to kissing, handjobs, oral sex then finally penetrative sex. alchemia's main point is that this is rather a tired plot device, ie, once anal sex is achieved then conflict between the characters is resolved and the characters are bound to each other far more deeply than if they only stuck to blowjobs. It's a cliché, but it's mixed up with compelling romance tropes that still work for me. I like to read about building intimacy between characters, especially characters that put up strong barriers between themselves and others. The breaking down of these doesn't necessarily for me have to be symbolised by increasing sexual intimacy, but I can see why they are used so often as a device for this particular type of romance plot. Perhaps it reflects the accepted notion that penetrative sex is 'real' sex, or the most intimate part of sex. It can be, but it isn't necessarily so. I'm really bit too lard-covered and grotty to talk about this properly now, but I do recommend the discussion- it's excellent.