Okay, is this annoying or am I just weird?

[effervescible]

What is the deal with (some) yaoi fans listing their pairings as A x B/B x A? I'm aware that the order indicates who's on top, but it is really important enough to justify writing it twice like that? There's a lot more to romance/sex/whatever makes you write a pairing than just who's being schtupped, and the way it's written makes it look like they have multiple personalities or something. Plus it seems too me that by making a big deal out of what is, to me, just an fyi for those who want to know what characters are in the fic, it's being kinda pretentious, and that makes my head explode.

But then, I wouldn't categorize myself as a yaoi fan, so maybe it's just something I'm missing. mistressrenet? uiggu? What say you? Does it really matter?

Comments

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

Actually, the A x B/B x A, or AxBxA means you don't care who's on top, or something like that. Like, there are people out there (not me!) actually think if you say, say, VashxWolfwood, that means Vash is gonna be on top. So sometimes people will do the repetition to show they're not those kinds of morons. I generally feel that if people care about such things they're reading the wrong fic, so I don't bother, but I do understand why people do it.

[jaina.livejournal.com]

Ah, so it's an attempt to show that you're NOT being anal--okay, I get that. That makes sense, though I still think fondly of my non-anime fandoms, where nitpicking about pairing order will get you a blank stare and some snickering.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

I've actually been in non-anime fandoms that cared about such foolishness, or that just assumed one character or the other was the 'bottom' because they were shorter/less outwardly aggressive/whatever. The whole thing is absurd, IMO...but you probably guessed I felt that way!

[jaina.livejournal.com]

Man, I guess my fandoms had entirely different brands of crazy.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

I once read a Sentinel story (described by someone far witter than me as "giving multiple marriages a bad name. Not to mention Sentinel viewers, slashers, internet people and science-fiction fans in general. Not to mention the human race.") where two characters who really wanted to have sex couldn't because they were both bottoms. Uh-huh.

[jaina.livejournal.com]

Dude. There are no words for that. Just no words.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

It may be the worst fanfiction I ever read (I just started it, never finished it...think there are something like twenty parts...oh, the pain). And d00d, that's saying something.

[sarahtheboring.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, but AAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA.

that's all.

(Can't sum up the A/B vs. B/A thing better than has already been done. Yes, it matters THAT MUCH to some people who are rigidly hidebound about their roles and are also, more often than not, idiots.)

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

I'm just glad I don't have to have sex with them because they must be hella dull.

[angstymcgoth.livejournal.com]

Once we were contemplating Yami pairings over lots of drinks, and madamanda was like, "Tsuzuki/Hisoka? What the hell are they going to do, sit around and fondle each other? What'm I going to do with two bottoms?!" and Jason was like, "Anything you want...."

Oddly enough, I think I might've told you that story before, but it's a good one.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

It is! And you haven't told me before. And I love Jason now. Also, Hisoka still is OMG so not a bottom.

[angstymcgoth.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, but we're dealing with people who've just seen the series and we were throwing pairings out there. Madamanda and Jason aren't the biggest fic-readers, but they do like to speculate XD

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

Bless their hearts. &heart;