![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraIronsides is mostly an exploration of the AU in which Tony Stark is a woman, and her relationship with Steve. But the bit I really loved was at the end, where Tony decides she does want a kid with Steve, but doesn't want a pregnancy, and immediately jumps to surrogacy, and it's not a big deal, and I just loved how it's perfectly in character and totally makes sense (given that she fights evil in a metal suit, and has effectively infinite money) and sets up the best line of the story and there's no, like, angst about it or anything. 20K words, another story by copperbadge. In the remaining two stories, Without the Usual Cost of Labor by vain_glorious, 6400 words, and Breakfast of Discordians by Dira Sudis, 1200 words, the kid isn't intentional, but is acquired by the Avengers more or less en masse. And I think part of what I love about all of these (besides them being funny and clever and well-written and stuff) is the ways they break out of the standard heteronormative baby-making narrative. I mean, I'm not *opposed* to the standard heteronormative baby-making narrative - I am personally living it, pretty much, so that would be kind of awkward. But, I don't know, before I had kids, I think part of the appeal of kidfic was just vicarious enjoyment of kids, and now that I have kids, I have this different appreciation for the fantasy-fulfillment aspect of, for instance, raising a kid with a team of six or seven people all helping. (Dira Sudis also recently wrote a novel-length Generation Kill kidfic that is an amazing exploration of PTSD, but is also a fantasy about competent help showing up when a new parent most needs it.) I mean, even with a very supportive partner and family, there are always moments when *my god* it would be nice to have another three or four superheroes around to lend a hand.
Meanwhile, in other news, I saw Magic Mike aka "the male stripper movie". Only person in the theater! Well, not counting Q, who I mostly tried to keep facing away from the screen (er, not because of the shocking content, but because I'm dubious about small babies watching movies at all. And I kept covering his ears because it was surprisingly loud for a movie where nothing blew up.) I enjoyed it although I kept thinking it was going in a gayer direction than it actually went (there was maaaaybe that one hand on that one shoulder near the end??). Walked an interesting line between showing the absurdity of the routines and the eroticism, never seemed to quite play it for straight titillation but not at all outright laughs. Even the (very unnecessary) fat joke shows the discomfort of the woman who would otherwise be the butt of it. I've never been to a strip club (they used to have one in my hometown when I was a teenager that my mom went to with work friends and always said she would take me when I was old enough, but it closed before that happened) and so it was very interesting from a "is this what it's really like" perspective. Like, the degree to which the strip club experience was shown as performative for the female audience, there was this huge component of homosocial demonstration of heterosexuality to their female friends. The dancing seemed, hm, realistically variable in quality - Channing Tatum is pretty awesome, some of the others not so much - I was really curious whether they had deliberately rehearsed being "bad", like, somewhat out of synch and stuff, or if they just didn't rehearse enough to be good. Also secretly this is a movie about economic oppression that they prettied up with some pecs and butts to get people to watch it, which would have been an even slicker move if there'd been some kind of positive alternative put forth.
Meanwhile, in other news, I saw Magic Mike aka "the male stripper movie". Only person in the theater! Well, not counting Q, who I mostly tried to keep facing away from the screen (er, not because of the shocking content, but because I'm dubious about small babies watching movies at all. And I kept covering his ears because it was surprisingly loud for a movie where nothing blew up.) I enjoyed it although I kept thinking it was going in a gayer direction than it actually went (there was maaaaybe that one hand on that one shoulder near the end??). Walked an interesting line between showing the absurdity of the routines and the eroticism, never seemed to quite play it for straight titillation but not at all outright laughs. Even the (very unnecessary) fat joke shows the discomfort of the woman who would otherwise be the butt of it. I've never been to a strip club (they used to have one in my hometown when I was a teenager that my mom went to with work friends and always said she would take me when I was old enough, but it closed before that happened) and so it was very interesting from a "is this what it's really like" perspective. Like, the degree to which the strip club experience was shown as performative for the female audience, there was this huge component of homosocial demonstration of heterosexuality to their female friends. The dancing seemed, hm, realistically variable in quality - Channing Tatum is pretty awesome, some of the others not so much - I was really curious whether they had deliberately rehearsed being "bad", like, somewhat out of synch and stuff, or if they just didn't rehearse enough to be good. Also secretly this is a movie about economic oppression that they prettied up with some pecs and butts to get people to watch it, which would have been an even slicker move if there'd been some kind of positive alternative put forth.
