This was an 8:00am session at the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Annual Meeting (April 2009) with 4 papers, 2 on Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, 2 on the Black Dagger Brotherhood. Since the caffeine had not kicked in until the Ward papers, I present my notes on those only.
Maria Lindgren Leavenworth, Umea University, Sweden, “Lover Revamped: Sexualities and Romance in the Black Dagger Brotherhood and Fan Fiction”
This was a fantastic paper.
Fan fic addressed [you can Google these]: “One Treasured Memory”, “Skin to Skin”, “Forever Lovers”
Fan focus on gaps in the source text and develop alternative readings. Slash text challenges heteronormativity in the source text and recasts relationships as m/m erotic relationships. Slash may seem to offer a great deal of freedom, but the heteronormative framework of the source text is quite limiting.
The vampires’ vampirism does not seem to matter in the BDB. The main thing is the relationships.
Homosociality and homosexuality is a blurry line in the BDB. Homoerotic attraction is presented as problematic in the text, while homophobia is rejected. Homosexuality is fine, just not with them.
V. repeatedly states that “everything about Jane feels right”, a rejection of homoerotic desire as something that needs to be cured.
This tension is addressed in the slash, but the desires are presented as unreal or temporary. They are written as dreams, or as events, the memory of which can be destroyed via magic. Denial of homosexuality as extending beyond this particular association. This attraction jeopardizes Butch and V.’s friendship and the relationships of the BDBD.
A temporary space where homoerotic desires can be explored has, but there are no real consequences for the characters outside the space.
Women are presented as being attuned to the sexual tension, and allow V. and Butch to engage in sexual activity.
Refers to simultaneous orgasms as a “perpetuated myth of the genre”. Hah.
“Genre itself is limited to heterosexual desire”, so Ward is limited and even the fanfics are limited.
[Maria attributes this to the genre, not the Ward.]
She also notes a tension between the opening up of the universe on Ward’s own website by having the characters “show up” and be interviewed, yet her militant protection of her own copyright and rejection of the use by fans of her material.
Jessica Price, University of Cincinnati, Women’s Studies and Gender and Sexuality Department “Heteronormativity and Masculinity: Sexuality and Gender in JR Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood”
[Price make a number of interesting points. I can’t say I felt them gel. As with many papers at this conference, the difference between a fan and a scholar was not coming through to me on this one.]
Price mentions attending a Ward signing. She asked Ward whether there would be more homosexuals in the BDB. She notes that at the signing, the idea of more homosexual men was received with great interest, but when she asked whether there would be a lesbian warrior was greeted with silence.
Ward herself said she “writes men”. Price notes that Ward herself has admitted to being influenced by fan desires. On the other hand, Price notes that Ward has said “The stories in my head are in charge”.
Price notes the tension here in Ward’s account of how she writes. Price asks, “So why can’t Payne show up in Ward’s head and say ‘I want to fuck a woman?’”
Representation of alternative sexual expression – “V. has very specific ways of having sex” [My note: we all have “very specific ways of having sex”. We just don’t call vanilla hetero sex “a very specific way” because it is widespread and normative.]
Notes that female characters are either virgins, women who do not enjoy sex, or prostitutes.
Jessica notes that Ward participates in her own fan fiction, inserts herself as a character interacting with the brothers.
Xhex [Price pronounces it “Hex.”] is only example of sexuality without a penis in the BDB. But Xhex will be paired with John Matthew, thus denying her her own book.
The BDB attempts to queer the notion of the romance novel. Asks the reader to open their minds to different sexualities and gender performances.
Audience questions:
Q: How has the imposition of the romance genre changed the vampire genre? It is a very different experience of the vampire, and it has becomes so huge.
A1: Candace: “The literary vampires often cannot get a hard on, They use fangs instead. With the romance novel vampires…good lord.”
A2. Jessica: “Yes, it’s a hypersexuality. It’s all about getting inside something.”
A3. Candace talks about a novella in which the heroine gives Viagra to the vampire hero!
[My note: raises the question of whether vampire romance needs vampires.]
A4. Candace described Lara Adrian’s series as “BDB lite.” Says “You’ve got this lovely situation where vampires do not turn human lovers, but if they mate, the woman gets all the benefits of vampirism without bad consequences. It’s an interesting take on it.”
Sarah F: Would be interesting to do a study on how the genre affects how vampires are constructed. [My note: there have been negative studies, on how romance and the proliferation of vampires across genres has diluted the originary vampire myth and is “not really vampire.”]
