w00bie?

[swatkat]

housefic_meta is having an interesting discussion on the dark!Wilson trend in fanfic here. I don't feel the desire to read such fiction (it's hideously OOC as far as I'm concerned), but it was interesting to hear what other people had to say. Most of it comes down, it seems, to a certain glorification of House's w00bieness, a certain notion of 'Wilson doesn't deserve him (but I do)', as topaz_eyes pointed out in the post. So the stories really become less about House/Wilson, or even Wilson, and more about House the Martyr and his infinite suffering. The poster asking the question also wondered why such trends had not gained popularity in other pairings: one obvious reason is that no other character has power over House the way Wilson has, and fans who idolize martyr! w00bie!House have found reason to idolize him even more after the S4 finale. There have been fans who have found Wilson's treatment of House 'increasingly unforgivable' (!!). But what was really interesting to me (because, let's face it, it always comes back to Cuddy with me) is that a lot of fans now seem to view House's relationship with Cuddy in a similar light as well (none of them identify as House/Cuddy fans). I quote a poster in HHOW:


I come back to the abuse thing: House is an abuse victim, and despite all of his personal quirks, characteristics and failings, he will be an abuse victim until the day he dies. Worse yet, he was a childhood abuse victim, and one that has not yet dealt with and moved past those issues (and I suspect never will). Since an abused child has no "out" of the abuse, they learn to live with it and feel trapped. That is why House will not actually end his association with Cuddy: she has him pretty much convinced that he "belongs there."

...


All I'm saying is that when dealing specifically with Cuddy, I think a lot of his actions are reactions to her manipulations and unpredictable actions and due to his past background, he does not realize that he can leave.

This is really interesting. This particular view of an abusive relationship between House and Cuddy seems to have become popular after 'The Greater Good', wherein Cuddy forgot about social niceties and brought out her claws (and I say this recognising the assholeishness of House's behaviour in the previous episodes; I said everything I had to say about this here, and I stand by it). But what's really interesting is that such fannish views now tie up this episode to the Tritter arc and 'Detox', where Cuddy's (and Wilson's) actions, fall on the morally ambiguous terrain, precisely because on one hand they are manipulative and uncalled for, and on the other hand they serve to highlight House's possible misuse of a drug he is genuinely dependent on. And then they tie it up to House's relationship with his father, and whatever brand of harsh disciplining he underwent in his hands. Canon does not tell us the *degree* of 'abuse' House suffered, but for these fans, it is enough abuse to have permanently scarred poor w00bie House for life. And this so-called scarring (which I disagree with, for the record), it seems, is enough to discount everything House has ever done to his friends (Cuddy and Wilson), and the things they have done (and continue to do) for him. Because House might be an asshole, but at heart he's a w00bie, and w00bies can get away with anything they want. This is in direct contradiction to the way I see him, as a man who has (largely) had to suffer the consequences of his own actions, and who is, as of now, desperately struggling find his way out of a hole he has dug for himself. But it's interesting nonetheless, and explains a lot of things about fandom itself.

That said, if the Cult of House becomes anything like the Cult of Spike, I'm keeping my sporks handy.

Comments

[thedeadparrot.livejournal.com]

That said, if the Cult of House becomes anything like the Cult of Spike, I'm keeping my sporks handy.

GAH. *hides under bed*

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

Should we build a bunker?

[cryptictac.livejournal.com]

This whole House was abused thing also makes for AWFUL portrayals of John House. So many people have written him as this monster. Like a caricature villain. Er, no. Wilson is copping the same grossly exaggerated portrayal for the purpose of... I don't even know what.

Basically, what it comes down to is that many people don't understand abuse, and they are effectively abusing abuse in their stories as a means of justifying the situations they put the characters in. Same with rape. So many people do not understand rape and what it is and how it manifests. And thus write fics to the effect of rape being circumstantial and therefore inconsequential to either the perpetrator or the victim. Most if not almost all rape fics are plot-driven to bring two characters together romantically. Which is, you know, really disturbing. I hate the way fandom completely dismisses and waters down the actual seriousness and trauma of abuse and rape.

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's so true. In fact, abuse always becomes an excuse for House's assholery, as though he's allowed to be an asshole because he was abused by his Daddy, see? Argh.

[lieueitak.livejournal.com]

I can't speak for any of the authors of these fics, but I think, to a certain degree, dark!Wilson is all about fantasy and wish fulfillment. In a lot of cases, I don't think it's about throwing abuse in there (and trivializing it) for the sake of creating a plot device to get a pairing to date; what's the driving force, to my mind anyway, is the abuse itself and the desire to see it inflicted on the characters.

It's not particularly in character, but then, I don't believe that the goal with a lot of these fics is to write the most in-character piece you've ever come across. But I could be completely wrong about that. *shrugs*

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

It's not particularly in character, but then, I don't believe that the goal with a lot of these fics is to write the most in-character piece you've ever come across.

Which is really interesting, because it's such a completely different standard from what I expect of fanfiction!

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

House might be an asshole, but at heart he's a w00bie, and w00bies can get away with anything they want. This is in direct contradiction to the way I see him, as a man who has (largely) had to suffer the consequences of his own actions, and who is, as of now, desperately struggling find his way out of a hole he has dug for himself.

Well, that's the difference. Being a victim of something does not excuse one from responsibility for one's own actions. This martyr!House attitude severely downplays the responsibility part.

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

Which is ironic, given how House's character arc has been taking him towards stepping up and taking responsibility, and one of the finest things about this season has been House trying to do so.

[jaybee65.livejournal.com]

I find the idea of dark!Wilson more hilarious than anything else. (Although it still can't compete for lulz with my very favorite: dark!Glinda!) But then the desire to woobify the main object of fannish desire both fascinates and perplexes me. I can understand it as parody, or as some kind of backwards-parallel-universe AU thought-experiment, but these people are always so deadly serious about it!

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

Wait, there's a dark!Glinda? A dark!Glinda???? With w00bie!Elphie???? *dies*

Some writers talked about dark!Wilson as an experiment: taking the character and seeing how far his characterization could be pushed. They saw it as an experiment in power, which is indeed interesting, even if it's not quite to my taste. However, I doubt that's what motivates most of the fans of dark!Wilson, where it's really more about w00bie!House and his martyrdom. I don't get the urge to w00bify, but this reminded me of the kind of w00bification that happens in ships like Spike/Buffy, Kara/Lee or even Michael/Nikita. Except that I've always had this hypothesis that most slashers have a more equal view of their ship, simply because they ship it out of choice and not compulsion (Michael loves Nikita, so I have no option but to pair them together...), but now I stand corrected? Or is it that the House/Wilson dynamic similarly *compels* some fen to pair them together (which makes sense, because they *are* brOTP forever), even though they disapprove of, or even dislike Wilson and his 'treatment' of House?

[jaybee65.livejournal.com]

I think there *is* an element of compulsion in House/Wilson -- slash or not, it's impossible to avoid dealing with their relationship if you want to write about House. So, to a degree, one might have the same desire to demonize the non-woobie half of that relationship.