teen characters in fic
Feb. 7th, 2019 11:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chickiedearesince there's a new TRC book coming out, and also some anti-anti stuff on my dash, two things about fic that's technically about teenagers:
1. you know how on tv, nearly all teenagers are played by actors comfortably in their 20's? it's like that. not only are they not real teenagers in that they're literally fictional, the narrativity required to write or tell a story elides a lot of things. TV teenagers are so not like actual teenagers, just like jim and pam from the office probably aren't so much like your real coworkers. something about the process of fictionalizing through writing, which is so dependent on multiple imaginations, probably functions as an age-up machine for most people.
1.5: it's wild how developmentally different 13 is from 15 is from 17. I don't spend a lot of time with teenagers IRL right now, but when I did it was also so very obvious where they were in their lives. and yet, when I was 16, about half of my friends had had sex already! some of them by like, 14. which is crazy to me from this side of 20.
2. even with the above in place, the experience of reading first time fic or whatever is just so much more about myself as a teenager and reflecting on what that was like from a set of first person memories. has anyone said yet that it's child abuse to like, remember or talk about your own experiences as a young person? I really value fics where characters are at different places with being ready for an experience, or are unsure about it, and I feel like those get mapped onto younger characters. (on adults I think people tend to write it as ace-spectrum or trauma or as part of a trope/plot choice, but those are different things)
2.5: it's important to talk about abuse but it's also important for teens to be able to have sexualities. it was important to me. extremely conflicted and not a terribly positive set of experiences but that's life eh. it's a weird abstinencey thing to pretend otherwise. yes adults need to have boundaries because teens are not necessarily capable of doing so. but also I think it's kind of important for teenagers to be able to... choose to access stuff they're not technically supposed to? there's a BIG difference between actively grooming/exposing a young person, and leaving explicit materials where they could possibly access it if that's what they want to do. who amongst us never clicked that they were 18 before it was the case.
I do have a pet peeve that borders on a squick tho - when a writer is trying to communicate like, unexpectedly/disproportionately quick arousal or refractory period, and they say it's like being a teenager (again) etc. or even the opposite; like a character in their 40's saying "hey slow down I'm not a teenager anymore". nope. I don't know why, if it's the frequency of that specific comparison across fandoms or what, but while tongues ~battling for dominance~ is cliche it's not squick.
consciously, it feels weirdly hypersexualizing and overgeneralizing. but regardless it jars me out of the scene every time. even "making out like teenagers" is borderline for me, unless there's a specific angle there.
sending vibes out into the internet ether: pls to find a different, more descriptive/evocative way of saying that thing you're trying to say. love, chickie.
1. you know how on tv, nearly all teenagers are played by actors comfortably in their 20's? it's like that. not only are they not real teenagers in that they're literally fictional, the narrativity required to write or tell a story elides a lot of things. TV teenagers are so not like actual teenagers, just like jim and pam from the office probably aren't so much like your real coworkers. something about the process of fictionalizing through writing, which is so dependent on multiple imaginations, probably functions as an age-up machine for most people.
1.5: it's wild how developmentally different 13 is from 15 is from 17. I don't spend a lot of time with teenagers IRL right now, but when I did it was also so very obvious where they were in their lives. and yet, when I was 16, about half of my friends had had sex already! some of them by like, 14. which is crazy to me from this side of 20.
2. even with the above in place, the experience of reading first time fic or whatever is just so much more about myself as a teenager and reflecting on what that was like from a set of first person memories. has anyone said yet that it's child abuse to like, remember or talk about your own experiences as a young person? I really value fics where characters are at different places with being ready for an experience, or are unsure about it, and I feel like those get mapped onto younger characters. (on adults I think people tend to write it as ace-spectrum or trauma or as part of a trope/plot choice, but those are different things)
2.5: it's important to talk about abuse but it's also important for teens to be able to have sexualities. it was important to me. extremely conflicted and not a terribly positive set of experiences but that's life eh. it's a weird abstinencey thing to pretend otherwise. yes adults need to have boundaries because teens are not necessarily capable of doing so. but also I think it's kind of important for teenagers to be able to... choose to access stuff they're not technically supposed to? there's a BIG difference between actively grooming/exposing a young person, and leaving explicit materials where they could possibly access it if that's what they want to do. who amongst us never clicked that they were 18 before it was the case.
I do have a pet peeve that borders on a squick tho - when a writer is trying to communicate like, unexpectedly/disproportionately quick arousal or refractory period, and they say it's like being a teenager (again) etc. or even the opposite; like a character in their 40's saying "hey slow down I'm not a teenager anymore". nope. I don't know why, if it's the frequency of that specific comparison across fandoms or what, but while tongues ~battling for dominance~ is cliche it's not squick.
consciously, it feels weirdly hypersexualizing and overgeneralizing. but regardless it jars me out of the scene every time. even "making out like teenagers" is borderline for me, unless there's a specific angle there.
sending vibes out into the internet ether: pls to find a different, more descriptive/evocative way of saying that thing you're trying to say. love, chickie.
