polling the circle

[fiachairecht]

Right so. ladiesbingo. For fic about relationships between women. I have written post-s3 Shetland fic, and find myself in the odd position of ... not knowing if what I have written qualifies.

For those who know the show: post-s3, Rhona and Jimmy watch the Northern Lights together while Rhona turns over her breakup with Phyllis and worries about maybe seeing her again in Edinburgh and Jimmy Helps* (*provides extra whisky).

For those who do not: Woman sits on the beach with male friend, talks about her recently-ended relationship with another woman who does not actually appear in the fic.

Poll #21469

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 16

View Respondents

So does this count for a ladiesbingo square?

View Answers

Nope, Jimmy is One Dude Too Many(tm)
0 (0.0%)

Yeah, sure, the fic's ABOUT the f/f relationship
9 (56.2%)

Mmmmmmmmaybe?
6 (37.5%)

Something else I will talk about in comments
0 (0.0%)

TICKY BOX :D
4 (25.0%)

Comments

[kore]

Yeah sure, why not, as long as he doesn't make a pass at her or anything -- if the focus is on the relationship. I am pretty easygoing about that stuff, though.

[fiachairecht]

He definitely does not try to make a pass at her! I poked around the FAQ a bit more and my thinking rn is, like, well, if F/F/M threesomes are a borderline fill, surely M+F talking about the F's F/F relationship should count as at least a borderline fill? I tweaked it a bit to be more about 'what does Rhona want her relationship to Phyllis to be now' rather than 'what does Rhona want her life in general to be now', so.

(But also, yeah, I think certain parts of fandom have set my expectation for 'what it means to say a fic is about a woman's relationship with another woman' low).

[thatyourefuse]

I'd say very much yes in my personal opinion, and I would also say it's worth being really clear about the challenge guidelines; it's been ages since I looked over the ladiesbingo FAQ specifically, but I remember them being very firm (not without probable cause, either).

[fiachairecht]

I looked over the rules and came away with the feeling that if the focus of the conversation was the f/f ship then it should be fine? I posted the fic anyway without adding it to the collection, I suppose I'll see how I feel about it tomorrow?

[purplecat]

Hi, ladiesbingo mod here. I stumbled on this post entirely by random while footling around on DW but I thought I'd drop in a comment to say I'd count it as a borderline fill.

[fiachairecht]

Ah, thanks so much for the answer! That was more or less my feeling, but it's nice to know for sure <3

[letzan]

I don't know Ladies Bingo's policy in particular, but when deciding whether to rec something for my Femslash Week In Review, I wind up thinking about this question a lot, so I'm going to say some stuff about how I think about that --- read if it's helpful, ignore if it isn't.

I usually wouldn't rec a work like this without warnings, but if I liked the work and in particular liked what it had to say about the F/F relationship, I would go ahead and rec it with a "note: lots of M & F friendship dialogue, though" and possibly/probably name the male character, so people could decide if they wanted to click through or not.

If I know the specific male character in question is specifically dominant in the fandom to an extent that annoys F/F readers (this isn't a great rule of thumb, but it's an attempt: browse to the fandom's tag on AO3, filter by "category: F/F" and look at the top ten ships. If this male character shows up in the top ten ships in F/F works, especially if he appears more than once, I would assume he's prevalent enough to get on the nerves of F/F readers in the fandom), I often avoid reccing even if the work is otherwise great.

At the end of the day, it's always a judgment call: will other readers, who I assume like me are trying to find stories focused on non-male characters but who like me exist in the world and picked up our tastes in fiction as a side effect of existing in the world, be more likely to enjoy this story or be annoyed by it? But also everybody knows it's a judgment call every time, so I have to hope no one hates me too much for getting it wrong once in awhile for particular readers.

[fiachairecht]

I did get an official answer from the mod, but thank you so much for your thoughts! I was definitely considering some of those elements - like, it's a canon with <50 fics, the F/F ship is canon, neither canon nor fandom has ever taken the M & F friendship in a romantic direction - but it's neat to see it all laid out like that!