Thinky Blather

[melayneseahawk]

This is mostly just me trying to put my thoughts in order so I can bang out this story before the deadline. Feel free to ignore it, but you're also welcome to comment if you have any thoughts.

So, the premise of the story is this: Jack/Daniel and Sam/Janet established relationships; Daniel and Sam have sex in an AMTDI situation (I've already sorted that out, that was the easy part), and Jack and Janet are having more trouble with this than Sam and Daniel are. It's supposed to be about the fluidity of sexuality and all that jazz, which is fine.

The first two scenes set the situation up: in the first, it is explained why Daniel and Sam are having sex in the first place (fertility ritual, regs, yadda); in the second, they arrive at the SGC and have AWKWARD INFIRMARY VISIT wherein Janet is informed of what happened. I was thinking of having the Jack/Daniel and Sam/Janet plotlines run simultaneously, in alternating scenes, and then ending with Sam and Daniel talking over coffee or something. Ok, fine, good, whatever.

My problem is that I want the two situations to be different. It would be completely boring for Jack and Janet to have identical freak-outs, though I think it would be interesting to have both of them freak out, rather than one be fine and the other not. Both Sam and Daniel have had straight relationships in canon, so theoretically they'd both be at least bi.

Of the two of them, I think it would be easiest to play Daniel as the gay man with the one exception (Sha're), because one can argue that pretty much all of his other sexual contact with women is non-con to at least some degree. Sarah is the exception, but it would be easy enough to argue that they were two academics playing at romance (I've seen that in a lot of fic), and one gets about as much sparkage in canon between the two of them as you get between him and Steven Rayner (arguably that's Osiris' fault, but that's just complicated).

So, perhaps Daniel is a gay man with the one exception of Sha're (loved her mind, loved the body because the mind was in it, yadda), and Jack's having hetero panic. I've seen this happen: homosexual couple breaks up, one partner goes on to a heterosexual relationship, other partner freaks in the same way one half of a former hetero couple will freak if the other person comes out as gay/bi. Hell, it's what everyone else was doing when starkravingsane started dating the boy, even though a) she'd pretty much already told everyone she was bi, b) she and I had never really been dating to begin with, and c) I had no problem with it. I'm just not sure I can see Jack having the "OMG I MADE YOU STRAIGHT" freak-out, since at best he's in the same situation (Jack loved his wife, it's pretty clear) and at worst he's bisexual and that's hypocritical as hell. Not that that's ever stopped anyone.

And then I can base Sam off of a friend of mine, who is bisexual but mostly sticks to straight relationships. So Janet is outside of the norm, and is worried that having sex with Daniel will remind her of what she's missing when she's not dating guys. I think that would be easy enough to write, and there's no canon contradiction like there is for Daniel.

Thoughts?

And why is it that I find it easier to picture a woman having a self-esteem issue induced freak-out than it is for me to picture a man? I'm not going to give myself the situational out (Jack's a big bad closeted Air Force colonel), because Janet's also Air Force and therefore has to be closeted, too. Gah, societal stereotyping, why can't I defeat you?!

Comments

[indywind]

Apparently I need to be subscribed to your journal so I am reminded to read your thinky thoughts on a more regular basis. This is interesting, and I would love to share my personal take (MHO, OMMV, disclaimer etc.) because the interplay of sexuality, socialization, and individual experience & personality continually fascinates me.

I see Janet as being relatively conventional in her sexuality, but also an openminded, empathetic, pragmatic person. whereas I think Jack's worldview compartmentalizes like crazy and he's very reactionary; he only thinks through things that he's been trained to see as tactical situations; in his personal life, he evades, represses or reacts emotionally.

i could see Janet being a little stressed about the idea that Sam her lover might be reminded of what she's missing by giving up guys... but I doubt it would bother her much, or for long, unless there were other issues to raise the stakes (had Sam been talking about missing het perks before this?). On the other hand, if Sam for whatever reason did something that caused Janet to question their relationship in addition to doing alien fertility ritual with Daniel, particularly if it were something with potentially broad implications, I could see her freaking out. Not so much in the "OMG, what if Sam leaves me for teh Mens!" way, but in the "OMG, what if this whole relationship has meant something different to me than her, what if she's not even the kind of person I thought she was and I've been a fool!" way.

I see Jack as much more prone to a controlling kind of emotional reaction, because the fluidity I see in Daniel is so alien to him (Jack) that it really unsettles him. to my way of thinking, even if Daniel is predominantly attracted to men, his personality is such that he doesn't see a conflict between that and loving or being attracted to women too, whereas Jack would be one to think he has to pick one and be consistent (and that could be difficult, if his natural patterns of attraction are more flexible than the roles). So he could maybe have the "so now you can just go back to women, as easy as that, like our relationship didn't matter!" kind of freak-out, sort of putting on Daniel all the angry stuff he's thought about himself. Or failed to think about.

Plus also, Sam or Daniel (depending on your tastes) has lots of Jack's good qualities, fewer of his arguably unattractive ones... Janet does not show up as badly in comparison.

I actually think, between Janet and Jack, he has more opportunities for different ways to have self-esteem issues brought up such a situation. But he's not a freak-out kind of guy, so what to do?

[melayneseahawk.livejournal.com]

Apparently I need to be subscribed to your journal so I am reminded to read your thinky thoughts on a more regular basis.

Heh, I tend to to be thinky very often, but then I'll have a burst of it. I suspect I'm going to be thinky a lot these days, what with SOS and lgbtfest and my SUPA SEKRIT PROJEKT, but only if I don't procrastinate.

I actually think, between Janet and Jack, he has more opportunities for different ways to have self-esteem issues brought up such a situation. But he's not a freak-out kind of guy, so what to do?

I agree with you on that one, so I'm still rock-tumbling how to have Jack freak out without the freak-out. In some ways, I feel much more comfortable being in Jack's brain, because I understand his sarcasm and can mimic it, but I don't always understand how he ticks. And I'm much more of a Daniel when it comes to talking about things, so I have trouble with Jack's more action-based reactions.

[indywind]

Oh, see, I can usually understand how Jack will react, but I have a hard time hearing his voice reliably, particularly when I'm trying to instead of just sort of letting him interject from the back of my mind if he wants to, so to speak. Which was why I was so tickled when you sent me that SoS snippet that sounded so much like him, and it unstuck my own writing.


::feeling around::
I think a Jack-y way to freak out is to get unreasonably (he thinks reasonably) uptight about something not directly related to whatever's really bothering him, and be too-controlling, or short-tempered, or sarcastic, or any of the innumerable ways he's good at being an asshole. Sort of trying to pick a fight.

God, I really ought to stop procrastinating and get back to my own writing.

[melayneseahawk.livejournal.com]

Mm, you're probably right. I just have to decide what issue he needs to be an asshole about. :P

[indywind]

p.s.

Supa sekrit projekt?

[melayneseahawk.livejournal.com]

Organizational thing for the SOS. I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around how long, calendrically, the first act should take. I'm pretty much going to be literally putting events on an imaginary calendar, and will be poking the collected populace about thoughts.

(Originally, I wanted everything to happen over a matter of weeks, but I'm not sure that's viable.)