The Great Uke-Off of '07

[gaudior]

So, as a person in a same-sex relationship, I've always been amused/appalled by the insistence of slash and yaoi writers that one person in such a relationship must be the top in bed, at all times. It doesn't make sense. I know a very few people in relationships where this is usually the case, but even then it always seems so much more flexible than the writers make it out to be.

So, in order to deconstruct the idea a bit (as well as because I thought it would be fun last night at about 3am*) I am proposing the Great Uke-Off. (This is inspired by the Anime Emo Awards, which were just awesome.) Basically: I'm going to list frequently-slashed couples in all manner of fandoms (anime, live-action, books, etc), and ask you, o gentle readers, to vote on which member of the couple tops. Then in the next round, I'm going to pair all the resulting tops with each other, and ask you to vote on which member of each new pair tops (and pair all the resulting bottoms, ditto). And so on and so forth, until we have the Ultimate Uke and the, um, Supreme Seme. Or something along those lines.

You're welcome to only do the ones you know, or the ones you could even vaguely conceivably see as this being conceivable. You are also welcome to explain your logic in the comments, or make suggestions as to other pairs, or such.



[Poll #1111934]


Rejected fandoms: Hunter x Hunter (they're too young, even though Killua totally tops, and Gon totally love it), ANY HOBBITS OF ANY KIND, Rousseau x Diderot (too obvious), Kira x Lacus (she totally tops. But she's all a girl and stuff.), Battlestar Galactica (So much het! Though I would totally argue that Starbuck tops Apollo.)



I shall post the next round tomorrow (Friday) at noonish. Voting is now closed. Go vote on today's!

* Okay, yes, I did have a fever. And still do. But I'm sure that has nothing whatsoever to do with it. Really.

Comments

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I agree with you about the bizarreness of the uke-seme thing, so I am torn between voting for the one who seems the more dominant personality, or on my intuitive sense of who would enjoy doing what in bed.

For instance, some het women like being on top because they like the sense of power or control... but for others, being on top has everything to do with spatial relationships involved in hitting the clitoral sweet spot and nothing to do with personality. Hmmm!

[gaudior.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, I've realized that years of reading yaoi have given me a very distinct sense of what makes someone a "bottom" or a "top," and that it has almost nothing to do with actual physical pleasure (except in Yami no Matsuei, because duh, of course you put the empath on top). Instead, a "top" is, personality-wise, direct, assertive and, for some reason in my head, less experienced. Whereas a "bottom" is more smart, manipulative, and possibly up to no good. These images kind of confuse me, as they really don't fit at all with the image of dominant aggressor/innocent submitter, but c'est la vie.