Harry/Ginny = Vanilla? (original) (raw)

I won't pretend I'm not spamming your flists tonight. Ahaha.

But, okay. I am musing.

Must Harry/Ginny always be considered vanilla? Why?

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Generally speaking, I don't like this 'fandom stereotype' (presuming I have to give it a name). In and around fandom, I get the feeling that because I choose to write H/G, and because it's my OTP, I'm not someone to be taken seriously.

And generally speaking, I can understand why HP fandom has such a perception of Harry/Ginny shippers and fic and the like. Some of our most fandom-famous -- by which I mean they have hordes of followers/watchers/etc. -- tend to write, well, vanilla.

Take this to mean what you will. 90% of the time, our writers are looking for ways to get Harry and Ginny married, into bed, and pregnant (not necessarily in that order, although I'm sure you'll agree that the pregnant must come after the in-bed). And while I fully support the sexing up (and yeah, the marriage) of my OTP, I do wish that our writers could be -- I don't know -- more original, more interesting, more real in their portrayals.

Obviously, I'm not saying married-with-kids!H/G fic is bad, necessarily (though, frankly, a lot of it is), or anything like that. If married-with-kids!fic is bad, then it's not bad because it has marriage and kids in it, but rather, because the delivery of such elements, um, sucks. Just for the record.

(That said, I refuse to comment on double weddings involving Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione. Sue me. :x)

What I am saying is that there's a reason people loathe Ginny and Harry/Ginny, and I think this is it -- too much fluff and not enough substance. To be blunt. Hell, sometimes I don't like H/G for this reason.

*dodges anvils*

The Harry/Ginny stereotype is that it is fluffy smut, smutty fluff. Which, okay. I love fluff (and smut). So much. TOO MUCH, perhaps. :D And yeah, I write it. But at the very least, I do my best to approach it from a unique front. To me (and I think this is where people will hate me), it's demeaning to the characters -- it doesn't do their complexities justice -- to reduce them to badly written, overused, and -- yes -- mindlessly fluffy situations, constantly.

To be clear: fluff is not bad. Brilliant writers write fluff, and do it well (stmargarets, anyone?), and I hate that if your fic is "fluffy," that's automatically demeaning. Fluff is fantastic, yeah, as long as it's real and unique. And I think that's where our writers tend to fail.

There are writers who make H/G interesting; writers who tend to stretch the limits of the characters and put them in interesting, unique situations. And yeah, they use fluff.

biggrstaffbunch's fic, for example, just pushes limits, no matter if the piece is smut or not. flyingcarpet's romantic comedy "Lions in Winter" gave Harry and Ginny real issues and resolved them in a cliffhanger of crowd-pleasing fluffiness. fireworkfiasco explores the tender interactions between Harry and Ginny in ways JKR never did, and cicatrixstories' fic is always hauntingly beautiful and amazingly sexy. akissinacrisis writes quiet, contemplative H/G that's utterly canon and sweet, but satisfyingly deep. maple_mahogany's Within You, Without You is fluffy (it ends with a wedding!), but I love the way it conveys the understanding between Harry and Ginny, and the intricacies of the Weasley family. ♥

All of the fics employ fluff, and that's cool. But they're unique.

And honestly? I wish there were more writers like these in our corner of fandom. You can find them elsewhere -- dig in the archives of (the rightfully) popular slash and other-het writers, and you'll see. There are complexities, there. Uniqueness that's hard to find in H/G. I think that if more H/G fandomers strove for this -- for substance that isn't just Harry-and-Ginny-have-a-perfect-marriage-with-lots-of-sex-and-kids, the readers (the ones who flock to mindless wedding!fics and such similarities) would follow.

I love my fandom, and my OTP. I honestly, honestly do. But sometimes I just get -- tired, I suppose. And I think this is why.

Of course, all of this coming from the writer of this little bit of cotton candy might sound hypocritical, but. Well. An opinion is an opinion.

Now. DISCUSS PLS, if you all don't hate me now.

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EDIT: I HIGHLY RECOMMEND the comments because my darling fireworkfiasco has written OMG HATE!SEX. ♥ ♥

(Also, because everyone else seems to make more sense than I do, so.)

EDIT 2: It's both encouraging and pleasantly alarming to see that there are several non-H/G shippers, new H/G shippers, and outright H/G-haters here, willing to give the ship's fic another chance. :) So, recs --

I maintain that all of the writers mentioned above write fics with substance. Several other authors have been mentioned in the comments: foreword, emmagrant01, magnolia_mama, and mickawber_fics are all really excellent at Harry/Ginny as well.

As far as specific stories go, flyingcarpet is the most reliable reccer from this corner of the fandom that I know. Her recs are at derivational, under this tag, and at this post.

EDIT 3: I'm a little overwhelmed. BUT. flyingcarpet has compiled a list of non-fluffy H/G recs (OH YES they're out there), and another author that's been brought up in the comments? antonia_east, whose writing can be found at lily_tarn. :)