-condoms. I've read scenes that started off really hot and fell flat when a condom had to be found. Fictional characters are in no danger of catching STDs unless the author wishes them to, neither is it socially irresponsible to write bareback fic. Maybe it's a cultural thing. I don't know. I just find it goddamn bothersome to find condoms in every modern BDSM fic in existence. Condoms between male characters in fiction are not about preventing pregnancy; they're about fear. If you can't be fearless in fantasy, where can you be?
I used to feel like this. I didn't use condoms in my fics, because I felt like fiction shouldn't be a vehicle for preachiness and it's not my job to teach anyone about safe sex. But then someone mentioned something about realism and that completely changed my mind. I write, for the most part, characters in a realistic, modern day setting. For them not to use condoms, for them not to be worried about disease, feels off to me. Of course they would be. Or if they weren't, then I would have to show that as part of their personality, that brash "it can never happen to me" sort of attitude. Of course if I'm writing something pre-AIDS era or set in a fantasy world, then I'm not going to include condoms, but to have them missing from a modern day fic throws me out of the story, because I don't want to read about a perfect fantasy world, I want to read about our world.
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Date: 2005-03-13 04:31 pm (UTC)I used to feel like this. I didn't use condoms in my fics, because I felt like fiction shouldn't be a vehicle for preachiness and it's not my job to teach anyone about safe sex. But then someone mentioned something about realism and that completely changed my mind. I write, for the most part, characters in a realistic, modern day setting. For them not to use condoms, for them not to be worried about disease, feels off to me. Of course they would be. Or if they weren't, then I would have to show that as part of their personality, that brash "it can never happen to me" sort of attitude. Of course if I'm writing something pre-AIDS era or set in a fantasy world, then I'm not going to include condoms, but to have them missing from a modern day fic throws me out of the story, because I don't want to read about a perfect fantasy world, I want to read about our world.