Keeping Track of an Ace Trope
Monday, 2 November 2020 03:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
queer_scribblingI can't remember exactly how I found myself looking at the Ace Tropes series on The Asexual Agenda, but I kept a link for 'Ace Tropes: Cis-ace & Trans-allo' in a draft because I've got a WIP featuring this.
{Heads up: Yeah, I know that shit's gone past a tipping point regarding JKR's slide into TERF tweeting this summer. As a trans fan, I've seen other trans fans point out her Twitter sliding in that direction before 2020, but I've made the decision to keep going with writing HP fanfic. I appreciate leaving JKR out of any comments on this particular post.}
First, the Cis-ace & Trans-allo trope:
I didn't really want to deal with actively fixing Severus in the fic, so there was kind of a Fix-It wand wave before the story starts, so I could dial back the canonical typical assholery a bit. It's set in the books' era, if you will, which means the UK from 1991 - 1997. I read that there was an unknown male Muggle Studies professor (fall 1991 - spring 1993) before Charity Burbage took the position on a fan wiki, and I ran with the idea that the unnamed character was Charity Burbage before she decided to publicly/socially transition at Hogwarts, and she considered herself friends with Snape, in part, because he was involved in her initial access to Transmogrification Potion (stabilizes and maintains the enchantments that enable physical transitioning long-term; taken by wixen as an HRT proxy). They're also closer in age among the staff and are basically stuck in the castle during the academic year for several years, so I don't think I failed at setting up the friend bit.
And now, the trope and the fic:
The current (but stalled) planning notes have the breakup revolve around Severus not wanting to have sex, but I don't have enough cushioning (counterexamples of her transness and his aceness not being the problem) to keep the current notes from coming off as transphobic and/or 'unable to fix the broken ace'. While I didn't intend to plant the seeds for it, there could also be some squinting at the extent to which Charity may not have felt like she had other options, or potential partners who would accept her while not 'fully' Transmogrified, so she stayed longer than might be reasonable [1]. Given the current timeline, it also might come across a little more like she's trying to play a waiting game and wearing him down until Severus agrees to have sex.
I didn't try to figure out a historically plausible offline asexual community or anything that would put Severus in contact with the concept of asexuality or other explicitly labeled 'ace' characters. This is not an educational take on an ace character, and that does come through in how Severus' internal dialogue explains certain things. While not quite of an issue on par with the above paragraph, this does create some inconsistencies that kind of come off as strange to a modern reader who's heard of ace people. I haven't really worked in allusions to an outside trans community enough that a reader would definitely believe it existed in the currently written chapters, but I already knew that I'd have to fix this in order to explain certain headcanons introduced into the story. For example, there's a sort of fan theory that the reason none of the boys ever deal with visibly inconvenient erections is that Wizarding boxers and briefs have an Extension Charm. In order to explain how Charity heard about and got access to underwear that's commercially marketed towards women with an Extension Charm added [2], I have to explicitly reference some portion of a trans community that's filled this need.
The description of the cis-ace and trans-allo trope uses implausibly flawless handling of issues not related to one's experience as an example of problematic representation, but I think my fic has a few spots where it swings the other way in regards to Severus' handling of Charity's transness. In the process of trying to show somewhat more realistic adaption and some element of him not already being 'an expert' on this, I have to be mindful of how it can come across like not accepting that Charity is a woman. I also don't want it to come across like his aversion to having sex has to do with a specific aversion to her body or genitalia. I don't think I've completely and totally dropped the ball on this, but it's something to be mindful of when implementing fixes that I don't create this impression in the readers.
Some thoughts on how to fix stuff:
Relationship Trajectory - I kind of lost track of spreading out scenes related to their relationship, which might be how I have the breakup so far off into the future. I don't necessarily think I have to immediately pounce on the issue of sexual incompatibility, but if I decide to keep that as a factor for the breakup, I need to tighten up the pacing or establish reasons for why that wasn't a deal breaker sooner.
Breakup - I don't want to downplay how sexual incompatibility might be a factor in a relationship not working out, but I'm considering not having that be quite so focal in the breakup scene itself. There is the matter of Severus hiding the faded Dark Mark before V's return, the Dark Mark strengthening in color, and that whole Second War thing. Like, there could be more than one factor and a not quite so clean cut ending with assignment related strain, or something.
Severus - I don't want to do a deep dive into past relationships, but at least for Severus within his POV, it might help to have references to something to help establish that his sex aversion isn't Charity specific. Does he like doing X but not Z because that's too personally connected with sexual advances? Has he not had a lot of experience with getting past a certain point in a relationship because of not wanting to have sex? How has he created an internal explanation or an internal logic for handling this, and how has that faired with any previously attempted relationships? (Also: Internalized acephobia? Previous pressure to have sex?)
Charity - Not to Severus bash, but like, why him? Is it some sort of unexplainable attraction thing? Is it because they were already friends, interact a fair bit as Hogwarts staff, and are closer in age [3]? How does she make sense of him not being interested in sex before there's any conversation about it? Is a romantic-and-sexual relationship her ultimate end goal, or is the sexual incompatibility not nearly as much of a deal breaker as something else? How is she handling the strain of the Second War as a Muggle-born teaching Muggle Studies? Just how not so clean cut of a breakup would make sense to a reader? Would they really remain friends afterwards? Is it a hair too complicated to have unavoidable contact due to Order assignments?
[1] I can't tell if it's funny or not, but I flat out have to change the pacing of the relationship and breakup because I'm pretty sure I've drastically overestimated how long an allo person who wants a relationship to include sex would tolerate not having sex. Unless I mistyped in this section of notes - almost two years? I think that's a smidge too long.
[2] While this could still address erections, the more explicit reasoning for why the trans community would've addressed this has to do with having a Wizarding alternative to tucking.
[3] I should note that I wrote Charity like two Years below Severus, and then found later that she's actually listed nearly ten years younger in a fan wiki. So, uh, yeah, sometimes I just write whatever the fuck makes sense for a fic detail.
{Heads up: Yeah, I know that shit's gone past a tipping point regarding JKR's slide into TERF tweeting this summer. As a trans fan, I've seen other trans fans point out her Twitter sliding in that direction before 2020, but I've made the decision to keep going with writing HP fanfic. I appreciate leaving JKR out of any comments on this particular post.}
First, the Cis-ace & Trans-allo trope:
Many (though not all) of the stories which use the cis-ace/trans-allo trope contain problematic ace representation and/or problematic trans representation. For example, most of the cis-aces are presented as being completely flawless in how they handle trans issues, and the trans allos are usually presented as being just as flawless in handling asexuality.Second, I might as well get the fic out of the way:
In particular, the trans character will often allo savior the ace character and/or the ace character will cis savior the trans character [...] Sometimes the trans character even reads like a Magical Queer.
Also, the ace character will often have no contact with other aces, and the trans character will often have no contact with other trans people. The ace character not having contact with other aces can often be justified, but trans readers tend to find it implausible that a trans character would not know other trans people.
- Severus POV; ace-adjacent, but not really getting into current Ace 101.
- A relatively minor character from the books is headcanoned as a trans woman. There's a slight Fix-It for her to live through the end of the war, and the fic ending will feature a brief switch to her POV after Severus' death.
- I started this out with the goal of a 'realizing we're better off as friends' type of breakup.
I didn't really want to deal with actively fixing Severus in the fic, so there was kind of a Fix-It wand wave before the story starts, so I could dial back the canonical typical assholery a bit. It's set in the books' era, if you will, which means the UK from 1991 - 1997. I read that there was an unknown male Muggle Studies professor (fall 1991 - spring 1993) before Charity Burbage took the position on a fan wiki, and I ran with the idea that the unnamed character was Charity Burbage before she decided to publicly/socially transition at Hogwarts, and she considered herself friends with Snape, in part, because he was involved in her initial access to Transmogrification Potion (stabilizes and maintains the enchantments that enable physical transitioning long-term; taken by wixen as an HRT proxy). They're also closer in age among the staff and are basically stuck in the castle during the academic year for several years, so I don't think I failed at setting up the friend bit.
And now, the trope and the fic:
The current (but stalled) planning notes have the breakup revolve around Severus not wanting to have sex, but I don't have enough cushioning (counterexamples of her transness and his aceness not being the problem) to keep the current notes from coming off as transphobic and/or 'unable to fix the broken ace'. While I didn't intend to plant the seeds for it, there could also be some squinting at the extent to which Charity may not have felt like she had other options, or potential partners who would accept her while not 'fully' Transmogrified, so she stayed longer than might be reasonable [1]. Given the current timeline, it also might come across a little more like she's trying to play a waiting game and wearing him down until Severus agrees to have sex.
I didn't try to figure out a historically plausible offline asexual community or anything that would put Severus in contact with the concept of asexuality or other explicitly labeled 'ace' characters. This is not an educational take on an ace character, and that does come through in how Severus' internal dialogue explains certain things. While not quite of an issue on par with the above paragraph, this does create some inconsistencies that kind of come off as strange to a modern reader who's heard of ace people. I haven't really worked in allusions to an outside trans community enough that a reader would definitely believe it existed in the currently written chapters, but I already knew that I'd have to fix this in order to explain certain headcanons introduced into the story. For example, there's a sort of fan theory that the reason none of the boys ever deal with visibly inconvenient erections is that Wizarding boxers and briefs have an Extension Charm. In order to explain how Charity heard about and got access to underwear that's commercially marketed towards women with an Extension Charm added [2], I have to explicitly reference some portion of a trans community that's filled this need.
The description of the cis-ace and trans-allo trope uses implausibly flawless handling of issues not related to one's experience as an example of problematic representation, but I think my fic has a few spots where it swings the other way in regards to Severus' handling of Charity's transness. In the process of trying to show somewhat more realistic adaption and some element of him not already being 'an expert' on this, I have to be mindful of how it can come across like not accepting that Charity is a woman. I also don't want it to come across like his aversion to having sex has to do with a specific aversion to her body or genitalia. I don't think I've completely and totally dropped the ball on this, but it's something to be mindful of when implementing fixes that I don't create this impression in the readers.
Some thoughts on how to fix stuff:
Relationship Trajectory - I kind of lost track of spreading out scenes related to their relationship, which might be how I have the breakup so far off into the future. I don't necessarily think I have to immediately pounce on the issue of sexual incompatibility, but if I decide to keep that as a factor for the breakup, I need to tighten up the pacing or establish reasons for why that wasn't a deal breaker sooner.
Breakup - I don't want to downplay how sexual incompatibility might be a factor in a relationship not working out, but I'm considering not having that be quite so focal in the breakup scene itself. There is the matter of Severus hiding the faded Dark Mark before V's return, the Dark Mark strengthening in color, and that whole Second War thing. Like, there could be more than one factor and a not quite so clean cut ending with assignment related strain, or something.
Severus - I don't want to do a deep dive into past relationships, but at least for Severus within his POV, it might help to have references to something to help establish that his sex aversion isn't Charity specific. Does he like doing X but not Z because that's too personally connected with sexual advances? Has he not had a lot of experience with getting past a certain point in a relationship because of not wanting to have sex? How has he created an internal explanation or an internal logic for handling this, and how has that faired with any previously attempted relationships? (Also: Internalized acephobia? Previous pressure to have sex?)
Charity - Not to Severus bash, but like, why him? Is it some sort of unexplainable attraction thing? Is it because they were already friends, interact a fair bit as Hogwarts staff, and are closer in age [3]? How does she make sense of him not being interested in sex before there's any conversation about it? Is a romantic-and-sexual relationship her ultimate end goal, or is the sexual incompatibility not nearly as much of a deal breaker as something else? How is she handling the strain of the Second War as a Muggle-born teaching Muggle Studies? Just how not so clean cut of a breakup would make sense to a reader? Would they really remain friends afterwards? Is it a hair too complicated to have unavoidable contact due to Order assignments?
[1] I can't tell if it's funny or not, but I flat out have to change the pacing of the relationship and breakup because I'm pretty sure I've drastically overestimated how long an allo person who wants a relationship to include sex would tolerate not having sex. Unless I mistyped in this section of notes - almost two years? I think that's a smidge too long.
[2] While this could still address erections, the more explicit reasoning for why the trans community would've addressed this has to do with having a Wizarding alternative to tucking.
[3] I should note that I wrote Charity like two Years below Severus, and then found later that she's actually listed nearly ten years younger in a fan wiki. So, uh, yeah, sometimes I just write whatever the fuck makes sense for a fic detail.
no subject
Date: Tuesday, 2 January 2024 12:09 pm (UTC)Ohhh, I really like those headcanons about Severus and Charity! Accepted!
no subject
Date: Tuesday, 2 January 2024 07:10 pm (UTC)Her death scene in the books contains "Severus... please..." with no mention of friendship (Potter Search), so it's not like there was a lot to go on or contradict.