there's a lot of smarmy gen in fandom, especially in older fandoms, but the characters involved aren't ace. They have sex or want to have sex with other people
Good point, and that's something that's always bothered me a bit about smarmy gen where the author stresses that the characters AREN'T GAY nosirree, NO SLASH here. You can almost read it as asexual romance, except that rather than being a romance without the sex because the characters are supposed to be asexual and hey, you can have romantic relationships that are real and valid without having sex, it's what's effectively a romance without the sex because the writer thinks gay or lesbian sex is icky.
For the same reasons, I've never been 100% sure what to make of the "romantic friendship" genre in Xena fandom, which was basically identical to Sentinel, etc. smarmfic. On the one hand, the idea of getting all the romantic-love-for-your-same-gender-best-friend goodness without the sex scenes I often scroll past anyway was appealing and the term "romantic friendship" makes it sound like it's describing what could be an asexual romance, but on the other hand, some writers were clearly using the term to actually mean "straight women who are straight being platonic friends who act like they're romantically in love but are completely straight did we mention they're straight no lesbian cooties here."
no subject
Good point, and that's something that's always bothered me a bit about smarmy gen where the author stresses that the characters AREN'T GAY nosirree, NO SLASH here. You can almost read it as asexual romance, except that rather than being a romance without the sex because the characters are supposed to be asexual and hey, you can have romantic relationships that are real and valid without having sex, it's what's effectively a romance without the sex because the writer thinks gay or lesbian sex is icky.
For the same reasons, I've never been 100% sure what to make of the "romantic friendship" genre in Xena fandom, which was basically identical to Sentinel, etc. smarmfic. On the one hand, the idea of getting all the romantic-love-for-your-same-gender-best-friend goodness without the sex scenes I often scroll past anyway was appealing and the term "romantic friendship" makes it sound like it's describing what could be an asexual romance, but on the other hand, some writers were clearly using the term to actually mean "straight women who are straight being platonic friends who act like they're romantically in love but are completely straight did we mention they're straight no lesbian cooties here."