[identity profile] princesshannah4.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] indeedsir_backup
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.

Date: 2009-10-26 04:49 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] 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.

Date: 2009-10-26 07:39 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] 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!

Date: 2009-10-26 02:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] 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.

Date: 2009-10-27 07:53 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] 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.

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