bironic | A question of enormous import, clearly.

Why don't you see mentions of things like hemorrhoids and anal fissures in anal-intercourse fic?* Yeah, they're not sexy, but you do see characters fret over hygiene, STDs and other infections. You get enemas often enough. I remember at least one fic, maybe two, in SGA fandom where one partner forgoes anal sex on a particular occasion because of what he ate earlier in the day. And yet, I have no recollection of coming across hesitance to perform anal sex because of conditions affecting the rectum or anus etc., which affect plenty of people (e.g. the NIH says hemorrhoids strike about half the U.S. population by age 50).

*Okay, so by "you" I mean "I," and I have obviously not read anything near all the fanfic on the Internet, but I'd suspect that the amount I have read has to be representative of what's out there in some way.

Am I wrong? Are there examples? Are there answers? Is it fandom- or time-dependent?

Uh, sorry if that was gross. I've just been wondering about it for a long time.

ETA: Now with bonus comment!fic by

topaz_eyes!

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From:

elynittria.livejournal.com

My best guess is that the underlying reason is age related: most fanfic writers are young and haven't yet personally experienced problems such as hemorrhoids. Thus, such things don't enter the writers' minds when drafting scenes about anal intercourse.

Another factor might be the (non-age-related) tendency to gloss over the messier or less glamorous aspects of being human.

From:

thingswithwings.livejournal.com

well, as someone who wrote one of the fics in which John and Rodney don't do anal because they had spicy food earlier in the day, I can tell you that people commented on that story telling me how squicked/grossed out they were by that passage. Like, it's a story in which Ancient wall tentacles sodomize Rodney, but the part that people are freaked out by - the part that people tell me almost made them stop reading the story - is the part where John thinks about how anal sex can sometimes get shit on your dick.

SO, what I'm trying to say is: we still have a very, very neat and clean conception of all kinds of sex, not just in fandom, and there is a lot of resistance to the idea of portraying the often hilariously nasty aspects of certain sex acts. The fact that we haven't covered hemorrhoids or anal fissures isn't surprising - in contrast to your implication above, we haven't even really covered hygiene, and a lot of people still refuse to deal with the realities of STDs (peeps who think condoms are "too realistic" or "take away from the sexiness of the scene"). I don't think there are a whole lot of enema fics out there. There's a real resistance to bodies, and the occasional grossness of bodies. I mean, I do it too, I'm not any better, but it is frustrating when taken as a whole. I like reading idealized sex most of the time, because I find it pleasurable, but I also find squelchy gross sex pleasurable sometimes, if in a different way, and it's harder to find.

From:

topaz-eyes.livejournal.com

Because fanfic!sex is practically perfect in every way. Although, "Not tonight, dear, I have a hemorrhoid" sounds like a fabulous crack!bunny. XD

I seem to recall writing a fic where House warns Wilson not to fart while House is rimming him, but I too prefer not to think of those things.

From:

nightdog-barks.livejournal.com

What

elynittria and

thingswithwings said. Also, I believe there's a real tendency to simply not give "Our Heroes" (or "Heroines") warts, hemorrhoids, premature ejaculation, anal fissures, IBS, yeast infections, or anything else that might detract from pleasure, because they're Heroes.

While folks may write House having leg pain or being tortured for five years by brutal prison guards/shadowy villains/bus drivers from Sandusky, they're not going to write about the person who is the protagonist of their story popping a Dulcolax in the morning.

ETA what

topaz_eyes said also. Case of simultaneous typing. Hee.

Edited Date: Sep. 29th, 2008 04:01 pm (UTC)

From:

chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com

there was something I wrote where House is doing oral on someone who warns him, "pull your head back, I'm gonna fart" but I edited that out because it wasn't sexy or funny or anything. i was trying to go for realism but decided against it.

From:

purridot.livejournal.com

For me, fanfic is escapism. Real life is imperfect enough!

From:

euclase.livejournal.com

Because I wouldn't want to draw it. :P

From:

roxy-palace.livejournal.com

Sorry to nose in here, but I wonder about this too. Do you think maybe it's because, in slash, theres a subconcious wis-fulfullment thing going on? So even though they're writing about anal sex, subconciously slash anal sex is really a description of vaginal sex? Not exactly because of sanitisation issues, but because there is a level of self-insertion in any fan-fic?

I don't think I'm getting my point across very well. Gah!

There was a fic I read a while ago - excellent read, SGA AU John is a senior in college, Rodney a junior, they write the student paper together. John relieves Rodney of his virginity. It's a very, very hot fic, beautifully written. Also, in the sequel, Rodney goes to the bathroom the next morning and is freaked out by the effect anal sex has had on his bodily functions. He and John actually discuss that particular issue, and far from being gross and off putting, it actually enhances the relationship between the characters. Elevating the level of intimcy I guess. Anyone know the fic? I'll post a link when I find it...

From:

synn.livejournal.com

I actually think it has less to do with most fanfic writers being 'young' and more to do with the whole thing being fantasy, and people being easily grossed out.

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