There's something I have to tell you, Bill . . . Or, More About Fanfic

Again, this begins with me admitting something. Now and then, I likes me some smut. After an afternoon of discussion sections about post-colonial South America (NB: I work on the early British empire, my historical expertise ends roughly around 1760, and I have read nothing about this subject other than what the students have read. This makes discussion section fun, because I am not hampered by extraneous information) the prospect of returning to my office and reading short stories about people getting it on in space looks better and better.

However, there is a recurrent theme to the fanfic that gives me pause. It is not the usual fanfic objections, like poor characterization or bad writing. It is what happens to the female body when fans begin to fantasize, and it happens even when the writing is good. Maybe even especially when the writing is good.

Let us call this the Roslin's Bulky Sweater Effect.



I call it the RBSE, because I have run into two Battlestar Galactica fanfic stories that seem to take off from the fact that in the episode of BSG when the Cylons discovered and invaded New Caprica, there is a shot of Laura Roslin wearing a bulky sweater.

The idea of a woman with an elegant body wearing a bulky sweater seems, for many people, to beg a question. What is she hiding?

So far, I have seen two answers to this: pregancy, and having been beaten, brutally, by Cylons.

The first is an idea that appears in a surprising amount of Roslin fanfic, and comes up even outside Bulky Sweater contexts. I have seen at least one sweet and well-intentioned rendition of this (entitled "If Not, Winter", and available here) in which the author does a clever end-run around the fact of Roslin's age. There are other stories involving Roslin unexpectedly becoming pregnant, with the outcome varying depending on the mood and purpose of the story.

The second story, about Roslin being beaten by Cylons during interrogation on New Caprica, is being posted in sections like many fanfics, and the author is still working on it. He/she should finish, because I really want to know how it ends.

I read what the author has up so far, and I want to see where he/she goes with the sexual aspect of the violence. Sex is there, no question, as an exhausted Roslin reluctantly tells Adama about what had happened to her, and shows the bruises, the cuts and marks left from the ordeal. It's not written as a story primarily about sex, or primarily intended to titillate, but the fact that this is a story of things happening to Laura Roslin's body, and part of what moves the story forward is Roslin showing progressively more of her body to Adama. (This is not intended as a criticism of the story, btw. It's what really struck me about it, in fact.)

So, we have Roslin pregnant, we have Roslin beaten up. We also have, in the show itself, the slow deterioration of Roslin's body as a major story arc.

Where does this go? Why are stories relating to Roslin's physical body so compelling?

It remainds me of the X-Files, where again, it's Scully having cancer, Scully becoming pregnant, Scully being physically abducted that drive many of the big story arcs.

I don't think this is simply a "women get objectified" issue. I mean, women get objectified. Duh. I've had my 28-year-old ass whistled at enough times to know that. Women also objectify other women, and men too. Both in reality, and in fiction. I admit to wondering about various combinations of characters in my own stories and what would happen if they were overcome by raunchy thoughts, and playing the scenario out in my head, purely for my own gratification (it is not lost on me that this would be writing fanfic about my own fic. It is a form of mental masturbation, and let's just leave it alone, for now)

I think it's something else. Why are scenarios of invasion, or threats to human integrity, or speculations about the nature of existence, or thoughts about why a bruise could be sexy, or hopes for the future, played out via things happening to female bodies? Does a woman's body carry emotional resonance in the way a man's doesn't? If so, why? Would BSG as we know it work if Laura Roslin was Lawrence Roslin?

I don't know. But I'm probably going to read further fanfic, raunch included, and possibly I will find out.