kinks I want to see more of

[pauraque_bk]

Keyboard update: Cleaning the key mechanism fixed it. Hurray!

And now that normal typing is possible once again, today's topic comes from writcraft, who wrote: I would love to hear your thoughts on a kink you feel is rarely portrayed/lacking representation in fandom that you would enjoy seeing more of in fic.

There are a few different levels on which I can answer this question. I could name my pet kinks (ooh, pet!kink...) that aren't so common in fandom, like ageplay, which I love so much that I once wrote a whole post about it for kink_bingo and got so overwhelmed trying to express all the things I love about it that I ended up focusing on just the intersection of ageplay and bondage, and even then it got long.

I could also answer by saying that sometimes my favorite kinky fanworks aren't my favorites because of the kink itself, but because of the way it's written. I can never get enough of stories about characters doing kink. I love seeing exploration of how the characters' kinks develop, how they navigate them, how they struggle with them, how they deepen their relationships, and how they affect the way they feel about themselves. I love love love stories that show the moment when a character tells someone else about a secret kink for the first time. And if the other person responds by telling them they don't think it's weird and things are gonna be okay between them? That's swoon-level romantic for me.

And, very much related to this, I could also answer the question by saying that I want all the kinks. Every single one of them. I want everybody to feel free to write or draw what they love and not feel weird about it, from the rarest of touchy taboos to the tropes so common that fans hardly see them as kinks at all. I want everybody's likes to be represented, even if they are not my personal likes. Someone else will like them, and I'll be happy for them. Or sometimes, wonderfully, I will read a fic or see a piece of art that flips a switch in my head and turns a dislike or a don't-care into a WOW I WANT MORE.

What I love the most is when someone else shows me what they love. That's the heart of fandom, and in some ways it's the heart of kink, too.

Crossposted from Dreamwidth. Feel free to comment wherever you're comfortable.

Comments

[akatnamedeaster.livejournal.com]

I love seeing exploration of how the characters' kinks develop, how they navigate them, how they struggle with them, how they deepen their relationships, and how they affect the way they feel about themselves. I love love love stories that show the moment when a character tells someone else about a secret kink for the first time. And if the other person responds by telling them they don't think it's weird and things are gonna be okay between them? That's swoon-level romantic for me.

Ditto, ditto, ditto on every part of this!

Oh and I just got finished reading your kink_bingo post and it's given me a lot to think about/put some ideas in my head. Thank you so much for sharing it.

[pauraque]

Oh, I'm glad! It was so much fun to write. I really hope Kink Bingo runs again this year (the mods took a break in 2014).

[writcraft]

Thank you for responding to my query in such a wonderful way.

I love love love stories that show the moment when a character tells someone else about a secret kink for the first time: Yes, this is one of my favourite dynamics too and I love it when there's an element of uncertainty/shame which the characters overcome together. For all the reasons you outline, reading about characters explore kink together and the way it makes them feel about themselves/their relationship/each other is fantastic. I like even my PWPs with an underlying current of emotional complexity in the relationship - not always love (or even like) but something about how the character views themselves, the person they're with or what they're doing matters to me.

I couldn't agree more with the final paragraph. Freedom of fanworks is a topic near and dear to my heart, both as a moderator of a dark!fic community and as a reader, writer and fan participant generally.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question!

[pauraque]

Thank you for suggesting such a great topic! Freedom of fanworks is important to me too, and it's something HP fandom has struggled with a lot, especially in the years since Strikethrough. I hope that having a stable, pan-fanwork-friendly platform in AO3 is helping to tilt things back in a direction where people don't feel as hesitant about posting what they really want to post.