What I learned from reading Olake, Mellitz, Fake, and Mellivia Fan Fiction
NB: I’m not providing names or quotes from fics I read because I’ve already been scolded and disparaged over this…even though I specifically stated from jump that I wasn’t naming names. Any who, these are just my reflections on the experience. I’m posting them because…well,
A handful of you know that I recently had a masochistic urge to torture myself the bright idea to delve into the minds of non-Olitzers by reading some of their fan fiction. Though I believe Olake to be as nutrient-deprived as the Gettysburger they frequently consume, I like to consider myself a reasonable person. Sometimes I think, ‘what if I’m wrong and Olitz is a gigantic joke? Am I blind?’ Instead of a wholesale write-off of Mellitzers and Olakers as ‘crazy’, I thought, these people must have some kind of logic, or at least some convincing emotion they have witnessed between their ill-fated faves. Just something, right? So off I went in search of the tree of logic. Here’s what I found:
Everybody wants their faves to be like Olitz
No, seriously. They wish their faves packed the heat that Olitz does. I know of educated #Scandal fans who cannot stand the Olivia and Fitz relationship…except when they are fucking. Then they go right back to hating them. One of the pervasive accusations against Olitz is that their relationship is just about sex. From the innocent to the borderline vulgar (highly subjective to be sure), I specifically read non-Olitz fan fiction that were not necessarily about sex, but had sex in them. Since these other relationships for Fitz and Olivia are billed as ‘better’ or ‘healthier’ alternatives, then that should be reflected, right? I’m not so sure. Should you be with person B primarily because they are not person A?
The Fitz hate is stronger than Olake love
Olake, Mellitz and Fake fiction writers tend to believe Fitz is a terrible person who is just and only sexually obsessed with Olivia, and treats her terribly. Therefore, she’s a victim of his in many respects. Hmmm, where have I read very similar opinions in non-fiction??? I read an Olake fan fiction in which the author made it plainly evident that Olivia was still in love with Fitz, and couldn’t imagine a time not being vulnerable to him. Yet the need to just move on with an available someone, which Jake represents, was more compelling to her. Jake encourages her in the direction of his #2 pencil. Make no mistake though, the author wrote Fitz as a selfish jerk who is aware of the sexual and emotional power he holds over Olivia and wields it as a weapon against her. Fitz even accuses a pregnant Olivia of having a baby by Jake just to spite him. Did I mention that Jake was unemployed and looking for a job? Have a baby by me, baby, be a normalaire.
Marriage should be preserved over sexual dalliances
The two pieces of Mellitz fan fiction I read portrayed a Mellie that was made vulnerable by ‘troubles’ in the marriage caused by her husband. Melody is portrayed as a tiny bit insecure about her level of attractiveness to her husband, as it had been years and years since she benefited from his healthy sexual appetite and affections. In order for Mellie to be sexy to Fitz, Olivia must be eliminated as a temptation. Her name is never mentioned, only that there has been a repair to the Grant marriage. They were doing their best to move on and re-ignite their passion for one another.
General thoughts on alternative, non-Olitz pairings
First, since people have a delusional tendency to think I support fandom fascism, let me state plainly that I do not begrudge alternative Olitz pairings. I just haven’t seen one that actually works well, which I believe is kind of the point. My observations are gleaned, subjectively, from a handful of fan fiction tales.
Mellie is Fitz’s victim. She’s a victim of their marriage. A victim of his infidelity. A victim of a woman trapped in the White House. Victim, victim, victim. Writers of some of these fics have successfully imbibed on the Mellie Grant kool-aid. I like Mellie’s character, but I struggle to understand where the real woman begins and the performance ends.
Listen, I’m into all kinds of pairings. IDGAF about the gender matchup and which naughty bits we’re dealing with, so long as the chemistry is believable and the story-telling is good. This applies to the written and the visual form. A kiss between Gillian Anderson and Archie Punjabi on The Fall is hotter than anything Mellie and Andrew have ever done. With that in mind, Fitz &Jake and Mellie&Olivia sex is just not hot. Like, at all. The reasons are few, but goddamnit, they are enough.
The very idea that Fake and Mellivia could have sex makes me feel dirty
Sex between these two parties usually portrays one as the ‘Fitz’ and the other as the ‘Olivia’. I’m sure it’s meant to come off as D/s roles, but it doesn’t really. For me at least.
2) The one piece of extremely short Fake fiction I read seemed kind of hateful and rapey.
Apparently, Jake hates Fitz and also hates that he is attracted to such a ‘whiny’, brute of a man who is ‘obsessed’ with Olivia. Yet, somehow I’m to believe that Fitz takes advantage of Jake, to what? Punish him? Because he’s a sex addict and anyone will do? That’s just too demeaning to everyone involved, even Jake! And I can’t even stand him. Badly written, demeaning sex is what?
Secondly, to be frank, Fitz and Andrew have better sexual chemistry than Fitz and Jake.
Jake is the ‘Not Fitz’. The end.
The bolded right there is literally the only reason people ship Olake. Jake isn’t Fitz, so to them, he’s the best alternative. They don’t have any strong feelings about him, if they did, we’d see a lot more creativity within that particular fandom.
Fitz haters believe that Fitz treats both Olivia and Mellie like crap, while they blithely ignore all the ways that Mellie, and to some degree Olivia have treated him. They ignore Defiance, and the roles that both women played in helping make him a fraudulent president. They ignore the numerous ways that Mellie has wronged Fitz. They ignore the fact that Mellie has been the architect of her own deep unhappiness from the moment she chose to keep Big Jerry a secret from Fitz. They ignore the multiple times that Fitz has tried to do the right thing by Olivia, the times he has tried to live his truth with her.
What I still have a problem understanding though is that these same haters are people who have no problem with characters who are actual douchebags. They embrace the likes of Walter White and the fucked up ways he treated his wife and family.
I think a lot of the hate for Fitz is because he’s perceived to be too emotional, which to some equals weakness. It’s weird, and problematic.
Your point about all these fanficcers wanting their specific pairings to be like Olitz is right on. The problem is, none of the other pairings have the chemistry that Tony and Kerry do. Scott Foley and Kerry Washington certainly don’t have that chemistry, in fact, in my opinion, they don’t have any chemistry at all. They are the epitome of vanilla. If Jake looked like Edison, nobody would be shipping them. At least Bells and Tony have some (non-romantic) chemistry, which is more than I can say about Scott Foley and anybody else on the show. Foley doesn’t even have chemistry with the paper his script is written on.
The Mellivia fans that I’ve come across don’t even truly love the pairing, they just want their fave to be relevant, and what better way to make Mellie relevant than have her be with the lead character?
Completely on-point, cindersinrags. The bolded in particular interests me, and has for a while because it is extremely problematic, and it doesn’t get talked about. I actually think is very relevant to the whole ethos of feminism. Fitz can be an asshole for sure, but, as you’ve mentioned, that’s not really the issue people have, as Jake, Edison, and obviously Rowan have behaved in chauvinist ways with Olivia. But Fitz bears the brunt of people’s hatred for exactly the reasons you pointed out about ‘weakness’ and emotionality. Tackling the issues about masculinity on this show, especially in regards to Fitz and Rowan has been an interest since S2.
I really hate that so many people cheer Rowan’s misogynistic ways on. I hate that they cheer whenever he derides his daughter, I hate that they totally excuse him for murdering a child, while upholding his unhealthy obsession with his daughter. I hate that people think it’s ok for him to police Olivia’s vagina. I hate that everything he does is swept under the carpet because “he’s doing it all for Olivia”. That kind of rationalization makes my teeth hurt, and makes me despair of the internalized misogyny that have so many women thinking that his actions towards his daughter are perfectly acceptable because he’s her father. Family isn’t always about biology, and I wish more people understood that.
If I had to pick two people to kill on the show, Jake would be the first, but Rowan would follow very, very very closely.
And with regard to the bold, Obviously we’ve seen Olivia try to create her surrogate family with OPA. But the family issue runs deepest between Olivia and Fitz, especially w/r/t the future family they want to create. Vermont is always mentioned in the context of family (babies). We get these two people who are product of only-child households with very misogynistic, patriarch-upholding fathers who have broken the self-defining spirits of their children. Maya is not completely right (315). Olivia may not be family to the Grants, but she’s family to Fitz. She’s home and vice versa.
I’m finally writing about Rowan and Olivia from the 409 showdown for later this week. I had so much rage over people condeming Olivia many feelings, I couldn’t deal with them before Christmas. But I’m on it now.
So many black men people went crazy that Olivia pulled the trigger on her murderous father. I didn’t understand where their rage was coming from. Then I remembered that these same black men people were probably the ones who have always hated Olivia for one reason or another. They were probably the same men people who hated her relationship with the white president. The same men people who insisted on labeling her a bed-wench. Why wouldn’t they side with evil Rowan against her?
The comments that I saw floating around were ridiculous. People claiming that no matter what, Rowan was her dad, and she betrayed him.
This man who has done everything he can to hurt the people she holds dearest? The guy who hurt her ex fiance just to prove a point? The guy who sent in a spy to sleep with her? The guy who murdered the son of her lover the president? The guy who lied to her all her life?
The more I thought about it, the more enraged I became, and I found it way too hard to even attempt to engage these people on any level.
I was sorry that the gun was empty, and even though killing him would have wounded her soul, and shredded her psyche for a while, I still wish that we could have seen the last of Rowan. I love Joe Morton, but as somebody who cares about Olivia the character, I need her dad to die so badly. Her father’s presence in her life diminishes her and makes her small, and I can’t have anybody in her life who reduces her like he does.
I agree with you by the way about Olivia’s makeshift family. She never had that growing up, so OPA and then Fitz (perhaps to a lesser degree) became her substitute family. I think her often inexplicable loyalty to Cyrus reinforces this idea for me.
snowghoul
theartofmadeline
