on (sub)textual kink, genre romance conventions, and ‘the eyes to see’
i recently enjoyed a really good post discussing the plausibly deniable BDSM in heated rivalry and how the subtext is there “for those with the eyes to see.” this was around the same time that we saw the post about interpretations having a strong basis in the source material being reblogged back-to-back by people who are diametrically opposed in their interpretations. this made me laugh and it also made me think—because as much as i personally remain a loyal soldier in the war on strict domtops on the side of strict domtops, i also don’t want to act like every person who disagrees with me is an idiot acting in bad faith. that would be in bad faith lol. so i wanted to think more about why this disconnect is happening—how it is possible that there is such a wide spate of headcanons about shane and ilya’s onscreen dynamic and their offscreen/future sex life—and i think the answer has something to do with genre norms and the fantasy inherent in a romance narrative.
the indulgence of a romance novel, at its core, is that characters are able to engage in their deepest (and often kinky) desires without having to ask or negotiate for it. the term “bodice ripper” literally refers to the ravishment fantasies present in a lot of mass market romance, in which the female protagonist is subjected to what would, in real life, be considered nonconsensual sexual assault, but is permissible in-narrative because her inner monologue shows that she wants it, however deep that desire is buried within her psyche. you get what you want (forbidden romance, a life of luxury, kinky sex) without having to acknowledge your want for it. Bella Twilight gets to pretend she doesn’t want a lavish vampire wedding. Anastasia 50 Shades gets to roll her eyes at a first-class plane seat.
in heated rivalry, shane is the primary recipient of all his unasked-for desires coming true, and ilya the rakish, domineering love interest (or perhaps the horse in the horse girl movie). shane gets neatly cruised in a locker room shower after ilya intuits his gayness through a few charged glances. shane doesn’t have to initiate the second hookup and barely has to prompt the exchange of phone numbers. shane never has to request to bottom. as far as their sexual encounters go, ilya, like most fictional rakes/semes/doms, comes factory-programmed to fulfill all of shane’s deepest needs.
i don’t think it’s a particular point of disagreement that the domination and submission that occurs onscreen is unnegotiated. in the same way we are famously not watching shane douche in the bathroom, we are also not watching them pick out a safeword or compare BDSM test results. as vital as negotiation is to the practice of kink in real life, in a romance narrative it takes away the frisson of the unexpected, the suspense of the will-they-won’t-they as the sexual and the emotional careen closer and closer. good communication is boring to read about. getting a dubiously negotiated quasi-exhibitionist phone call blowjob is sexy.
so why, when we all watched the exact same scene in which shane carries ilya’s bags into the cottage, are some of us pointing to the screen and saying #hisservicesubmission, while others are admiring shane for taking charge and looking out for his man’s bruised ribs? i think the difference is in whether the reader is accepting the pseudo-kink that’s inherent to romance narratives, versus extending what is implied into something more explicit. i imagine that shane is getting out of sex with ilya something that is similar to what subs get out of negotiated dynamics and scenes with a dom (and vice versa), and thus i extend that belief into a headcanon about what shane and ilya might enjoy about a more explicit form of total power exchange or consensual nonconsent. for a reader who has less interest in those more explicit dynamics, the cigar is just a cigar and the dynamic is simply one of playfulness and intimacy. no one is reading the text wrong, we’re just differing in what lines we choose to extend.
yousharknotpass
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ellievsbear
