http://samuelocean.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] samuelocean.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] criminalxminds 2010-02-01 01:10 am (UTC)

As I am a) not a woman and b) prefer slash over het, I'm fairly stringent and picky when it comes to reading fics. I like decent, realistic fics. I don't like it when any of the characters are portrayed as 'weak' or 'the woman,' even if het fics. Granted, there's almost always going to be a more dominant personality and a more submissive personality, but that has nothing to do with weakness.

Some of my favourite CM pairings are Gideon/Hotch, Rossi/Hotch, Hotch/Morgan, Rossi/Morgan, etc. I prefer it when the partners have an 'equal' standpoint (even in BDSM fics), because it seems like there's more realism and structure to the relationship, than in many Morgan/Reid or even Hotch/Reid fics where one or the other is protrayed as being the 'victim' or the 'female.'

One thing that always turns me off from a fic that involves Reid is when they make him a poor, weak twit that can't take care of himself. Perhaps I'm biased, since I do have a lot in common with the character, but it annoys me. Yes, he's shy and awkward and tends to avoid trouble, but he's also very confident when he's comfortable and knows what he's doing. And reading fics where he's just... crying in an emo-corner totally dependent upon everyone else just makes me want to stab someone in the face. (I also have this same issue with House/Chase, House/Wilson, and Gibbs/DiNozzo fics)

I can understand it when a character is having a breakdown or whatever (IE, Tilting at Windmills, Hotch/Ried fic whose author I cannot remember) that is out of character for them, as long as it can be portrayed in-character if skillfully written (as the aforementioned fic was).

For het, it's just... mreh. I'm very picky with it, moreso than slash (mainly because women squick me, lol). And seeing women(or men) turned into slutty sex objects is just... not my thing. Women in het fics are portrayed almost, if not worse, than most 'bottom' males in slash fics. I've yet to find a het fic where the women and men are more 'equal' in their relationship. Which disappoints me, because I know that there's decent het fic -somewhere- out there. The women are either Mary-Sues(even if they are canon) or just weak twits.

I don't know. Perhaps I just have issues with characters being turned into simpering fools, in general.

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