Master/servant slash

[princesshannah4.livejournal.com]

So I think it's safe to say that this fandom has warped any and all master/servant relationships in fiction for me (not that I have a problem with that ;D). That established, I was just a little nervous about reading/seeing Comedy of Errors this past week because it has TWO master/servant pairs and a housemate that I have a crush on was playing one of the two servants. This could have ventured into RPS. However, the actual performance seemed to justify my suspicions of Syracusian bromance. Antipholus and Dromio did a CONSIDERABLE amount of touching and clinging to each other and giving meaningful looks.

But what I'm really getting as is, do you guys see master/servant relationships as automatic potential for slash, or do the undertones from Jooster just bleed over into other fandoms? Just curious.

Discuss.

Comments

[bibliophile-bee.livejournal.com]

Well... I think master/servant relationships very often do have great slashy potential.

I think it's interesting that the two examples there were Jooster and Comedy of Errors, because in both cases the master/servant duo is totally For Life, so there is maybe more subtext to see.

So no, I don't slash all master/servant pairs, but I do think that there's a certain intimacy that can exist in the master/servant relationship that can be slashed quite easily.

Did that make any sense? Cause I'm rereading what I just wrote, and it's not the most coherent stuff on earth...

[leaper182.livejournal.com]

Personally, it really depends on the personalities of the master and servant involved. For me, Jeeves and Wooster lend themselves readily to slash because while Bertie enjoys his status as a member of the idle rich, he also realizes that without Jeeves, he's nothing. Sure, they have disagreements, but no relationship between two people is not without a disagreement here and there -- it's just the nature of people. Jeeves (at least Stephen Fry's version) lends himself to slash because he's completely devoted to Bertie. One could argue that Jeeves would be devoted to any such employer, but judging from comments that Jeeves himself has made (either in the books or the show, I can't remember where at the moment), his relationships with former employers were not as close as his with Bertie. Bertie gives him free rein to do as he wishes (though the subject of clothing that Jeeves finds objectionable comes up from time to time), and Jeeves in turn solves the situations that Bertie, being the good soul that he is, inevitably finds himself embroiled in.

I'm not really familiar with fandoms outside of Jooster that have master/servant relationships, so I can't really say one way or the other if the undertones bleed over, but for me, 99% of the slash pairings that I get involve the personalities of the people involved, as opposed to the, "Ooh! Two hot guys! Let's write stories where they break the bed having awesome sex!" that some fandoms have to deal with. Heck, I can see some serious slash potential for Bertie and Bingo (though book!Bingo tends to be more of a shit than Michael Siberry's Bingo of the earlier TV seasons), though I tend to think that Jeeves would be a better fit for Bertie because of how they work with each other.

So, I vote option C, personalities play a big role in whether two dudes have the potential to get it on. *^^*

[toodlepipsigner.livejournal.com]

It's more when I see similar characteristics of Jeeves and/or Wooster in other master/servant relationships that there's potential for slash... It's a rarity, but it happens.

One has to be careful, however, because moreso before the Georgian/Victorian era there was a sufficient amount of (for lack of a better word)"non-con" in regards to master/ servants, male and female.

Though I'll admit the word "Sir" will never be the same to me... :)

So I guess I'm "option C" as well.

[seagullsong.livejournal.com]

Hmm. The only other master/servant pair besides Jeeves and Wooster that I ship is from Hellsing, which is possibly the most radically different fandom imaginable. (I ship Alucard/Integra, in case there's any fandom overlap here.) Seriously, vampire manga. The dynamic really isn't the same at all, especially since the main character also has a butler, who is way more like a traditional servant than the character I ended up shipping with his master. I can see that there's an underlying sense of loyalty/dependence in some of these relationships that can easily translate into romance, but sometimes it really doesn't. I'm not sure why. I'm also not sure if any of that made any sense at all.

We should list other fandoms with master/servant pairs and see what we come up with. This is so interesting. : )

Hey, wait...I don't watch Merlin, but would Merlin/Arthur count? I see people talking about that all over LJ now.

[mellifluous-ink.livejournal.com]

Everything is D/s slash, to me. EVERYTHING. Servants just make it better.

[juliacarmen.livejournal.com]

J/W slash coloured my perception of the relationship between the Patrician, Vetinari, and his secretary, Drumknott, in the Discworld series. I instantly found myself imagining Vetinari taking advantage of Drumknott in several devious ways.

[suziq-phoenix.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Vetinari was always extremely homosexual in my mind. In a... secret, everybody knew but didn't say kind of way. ;)

[iambic5.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I was going to bring them up! They do seem to have a similar dynamic, except that they're both freakishly competent. (Which is quite tasty. Mm.)

[theficklepickle.livejournal.com]

There's another aspect of this question to take into account, which is that in the days before gay relationships were as widely accepted as they are now one way for a man to disguise a live-in lover was to refer to him as a servant. It's a tribute to the strength of many such relationships that they survived and thrived over a period of years. The author Beverly Nichols http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverley_Nichols, who is all but forgotten these days, lived with his partner under the guise of master and servant for a very long time. I don't suppose he was the only one.

Oddly I've never seen any J/W stories using the premise that the boys were lovers first and that Jeeves being Bertie's valet was really just a way of hiding their true relationship.

Another good comparable of course is Wimsey/Bunter; Bunter was Peter's sergeant during the War and saved his life on at least one occasion, and probably helped put him back together afterwards. I never really saw them as a couple myself (Wimsey/Charles Parker worked better for me) but there's a lot of emphasis on Bunter's selfless devotion and at least until Harriet comes along Bunter is Peter's closest companion.

Going back to earlier generations, servants more or less expected to be importuned by their masters. It is only in comparatively recent times that people in the lower classes of society have considered that they had any rights over their own bodies; a mediaeval servant, for example, lived or died by the will of his lord. Although in some cases servants probably found the sexual attentions of their masters unwelcome, there must also have been plenty of instances in which they were both perfectly happy with the arrangement and stayed together without the world knowing a thing about it. By their very nature these things just don't come to public attention.

Just trying to say, I think, that the master/servant dynamic is infinitely complicated - as complicated, in fact, as any other dynamic - and whether or not there is a slash potential in any given one would have a lot to do with the personalities involved and the circumstances of their lives.

[mutant-biscuits.livejournal.com]

You know, I had no idea about the whole disguising-one's-lover-as-a-servant thing. Very interesting (and smart of them)!

Oddly I've never seen any J/W stories using the premise that the boys were lovers first and that Jeeves being Bertie's valet was really just a way of hiding their true relationship.
Sounds like a very good fic idea, and one that I'd like to see explored as well!

[thirstyrobot.livejournal.com]

Frankie Howerd did the same sort of thing with his partner-- I think the title was actually manager but I remember reading an interview saying he also sort of acted as valet.

Oddly I've never seen any J/W stories using the premise that the boys were lovers first and that Jeeves being Bertie's valet was really just a way of hiding their true relationship.

I second (third?) the goodness of this notion! I guess maybe it never occurred to anyone because we have a canon description of their first meeting? Though there are certainly fics where they knew each other before. Gahhhhh, now I want to write it.

I really wanted Wimsey/Bunter to be slashable, and in fact quite enjoyed what little slash there is with them, but the more I thought about it, the more I had a hard time making it really work as well as say, Bertie and Jeeves. I can see Wimsey/Bunter more readily during the war.

Just long-windedly voicing agreement, I suppose.

[ceruleanshipper.livejournal.com]

I also can't see Wimsey/Bunter as slashy, even though they're totally Heterosexual Life Partners. Except maybe for one tender moment during the Battle of Ypres. But Wimsey's always struck me as pretty firmly het, with the possible exception of some experimentation at Eton and whatever soldiers during the Great War had to do to banish the darkness for a few minutes.

[waqaychay.livejournal.com]

i definitely see it in the torchwood fandom. people compare ianto to jeeves all the time. and while jack is nothing like bertie really, ianto being the teaboy has sparked some really hot fic. plus, he wears a lot of sexy suits and waistcoats. it's all about the waistcoats. ;D

[storyfan.livejournal.com]

The waistcoats without the coat on top. Yes. Ianto, darling, bring me the darjeeling.

[pipariperho.livejournal.com]

And shirt-sleeves rolled up. Oh yes.

[pipariperho.livejournal.com]

It depends of the characters and the relationship they have if I see it slashable or not. J&W def. is s.(my very first same-sex OTP, in fact) and so is that Love Boat thing, in which Jeremy Brett played valet to some younger man, a member of the crew (can be found in the youtube with words Jeremy Brett Love Boat). Sooooooo cute and funny. I have watched Upstairs, Downstairs some time now, but though I love Hudson, I don't pair him with the master of the house or with a man at all.

[iambic5.livejournal.com]

For me I think it's less specifically master/servant dynamics and more the dynamic of people who spend a lot of time together and are extremely attuned to one another that I find so shippable. The two just happen to coincide quite frequently, as a good master/servant relationship seems to require that level of attunement. (But I guess it doesn't help that I also see D/s dynamics everywhere, does it?)