BEDA #17 - Banking, Panicking And Nuking

Well, today was a day much less eventful than yesterday. I woke up in bed with Charlotte (read into that however you will) and when I got home there were *more* builders in my house fixing the guttering of something. Then I went to the bank and took out £800 to pay my dad back for interrailing.

I was going to talk about panicking for results, which I am doing, but I think I'll save that for tomorrow. Needless to say when people talk about it, I can feel my stomach bubbling and dropping at the same time.

I am, for maybe the first time in BEDA, talk about Luke/Noah/Reid. I really want to clarify my position. Reid has quite literally split our happy fan community down the middle. Half the people (some new, some long-standing fans, some who faded away when the storylines were particualary slow) think Reid is a godsend to the show and the other half think he's a betrayal, and a lazy one at that, by the writers.

I am torn. The reason I love Luke and Noah is that, unlike many others, I like the soapy, ridiculous, fluffy aspect to them. It amuses me and entertains me and, coming for Europe, it's a novelty to me to watch something so unashamedadly dramatic. Luke and Noah are genuine opposites in many ways, which made for (some of the time) a realistic dynamic. It's also important when building tension: soap couples break up a lot, and Luke and Noah are treated no differently in this respect.

But I like Reid. Genuinely. He's like a PG-13 Brian Kinney (so without all the sex). He's snarky and funny and believeable. I think he's incredibly well-rounded considering the time he's been in the show, well-acted and his being gay is not his defining feature. Saying that, it's not ignored and he and Luke have had some of the hottest kisses on the show ever. You know, in my humble but scarily well informed opinion.

I, unlike people who have @ replied me on Twitter, do not think this is because Luke and Noah did not have chemistry on screen. I think it's because, predominately, Luke and Noah has been a love story first. While waiting for sex was a drag, I do respect that they were portrayed as a couple willing to wait for each other.

So, my loyalities lie with Noah but I do have a massive fan-crush on Reid Oliver. So I'm torn. a lot like Luke in many ways. And I can see the pros for Reid:

1. He challenges Luke on many levels Noah does not.
2. He's opening himself up to Luke in a very uncharasteristic way - shows deep emotion.
3. He's funny and witty and the kind of guy Oakdale needs.

But then Noah has upsides too:

1. He tolerates Luke's obsessive need to be needed with more grace than Reid does.
2. His love for Luke got him out a wheelchair and got him his own sight back. That's the kind of love you hang onto. Or bottle.
3. Luke and Noah fit together in a way which seems much more comfortable - Luke's fought enough battles.
4. They both want the same things out of life - excitement when they're young, a family when they're older.
5. Noah is not an emotionally unavailible workaholic. He's more committed to Luke than anything else.
6. After everything they've been through, and how groundbreaking they are, they deserve a happy ending.

So there you have it. It's Luke and Noah ftw. Let's just hope (and they haven't got long left) that they handle it well.

And yes, I am mainly using them as a distraction from the fact my fricking life gets decided in a few days. Humour me.

Luke, Noah and Conventionality

There is NC-17/R rated language and content in this blog. You have been warned people!

So, as you probably know I am a huge fan of the Daytime Soap couple Luke and Noah (so much in fact I posted this vlog about them). In my usual perusing of the few places in which Nuke fans can openly talk about just how obsessed they are with Nuke, I stumbled upon this question in a forum and it made me wonder a few things. The question was:

'who do you think the boy is and who is the girl in their relationship?'
(They also did not use a capital letter, so I shall not, no matter how annoying it is)

This statement offends me on several levels. The first and most obvious being that it is a symptom of a bigger problem. So many people seem to have a compulsive need to put every relationship into the conventions of heterosexuality. Luke and Noah are two men - both of them. One is not the boy, one is not the girl. They are both MEN. They have sex like two men would have sex. They kiss (sometimes). They suck cock. They wank each other off. And, I assume, so many people must watch Luke and Noah and hate to imagine that. That is why the show put them off having sex for so long, in an abhorrent move to keep those on the edge of complaining from switching over. This need speaks of a problem I have with so many Nuke fans - yes, they are a classic, romantic soap couple but they are a gay couple. You can't pretend that's not true, or assume they are an exception to some bigoted rule. If you want the romance, you have to take the reality that they have sex. When you can do that, that is genuine acceptance of the characters into the soap.

From reading slash fiction from this couple (and others), and seeing both sides of the flower and vase argument, I think it is safe to say I am qualified to make some judgements over the characters. If we're asking, not to be more crude than I already have been, who tops and who bottoms then, again, are we not trying to fit them into categories? 'Noah had a tough military upbringing, doubt his conscience would let him take it up the ass' is a vast stereotype. As is 'Luke got hot Italian blood running through his veins, he does all the work!' (These are paraphrasing of things I have seen before, not direct quotes from anywhere else). There is nothing in the show to give any indication which way round their relations may have and continue to occur, but my own interpretation is that their relationship goes through stages, and I would expect their sexual lives to move in parallel with these emotions. The fact that anyone needs all the time to put them in boxes shows a complete disregard from the subtleties and nuances of genuine relationships. Luke and Noah strive for a partnership, and I am sure that that would extend into any bedroom activities.

What makes Luke and Noah's relationship so endearing to watch is the fluidity with which those labels apply until they don't apply at all. Sometimes Luke is protecting Noah, sometimes the other way round, sometimes Luke needs to be centred, sometimes Noah does. They both make stupid decisions, both stand up for the other, both have complicated history and childhoods. That is what makes interesting and believable characters in drama, and in taking this all on, it is obvious that they defy stereotype by being a genuine partnership. That is not to say there is not some sign of co-dependance but it works both ways. This is, in fact, my answer for why woman consume and create more gay content such as slash fiction and pornography, than men. Woman are attracted to a relationship without stereotypes, where dynamics are built based on personality types and not gender, where men understand their partners emotionally and sexually. There is nothing sexier than a man realises he is more than that.

The other, equally alarming, point about this question is that is suggests that heterosexual relationships should have a dominant male and submissive female. Surely we are past the point of assuming the dynamics of relationships have or should be that way. I think to build a relationship upon roles based on gender stereotypes are intrinsically flawed, for there will always be situations in which, naturally, the roles would reverse. It is this kind of understanding of relationships that forces strong women to subdue themselves and men to hide their emotions, even when in long-term relationships. It is entirely negative for society, in the 21st Century, to still pander to inaccurate generalisations for all genders and sexuality's.

Overall, this question and the additional issues it raises plagues this subculture. Mpreg FanFiction stems from the same place - straight couples procreate, I must have this couple procreate. That is not to say there is not good mpreg fiction out there that does more than this with the sub-genre but it is where it comes from that worries me. I would like to think most people who watch Luke and Noah are more intelligent than this, and I am sure they are. If not, it's their loss. Because by trying to understand Nuke by conditions they do not fit, you miss what makes then a great couple in the first place.

I have written this in relation to Luke and Noah but the same can be said for many other gay couples on television such as McDean, Chrolli, DeRo etc.

Getting what you wish for!

So, exactly a week since I posted my 2009 wish-list, and my second wish for the year has been granted. Luke and Noah, the sexiest couple in American soap opera As The World Turns, finally had sex.

This may not seem like a big step, so if you don't know, here is a brief back-story. Noah joined the soap last summer, a love interest for the long-standing but newly-out Luke Synder. He struggled to hide his feelings but failed: and his and Luke's first kiss has been watched over a million times on YouTube. After two kisses they stopped kissing for over 200 days: and the cock-blocking began.

There has been self-hate, denial, girlfriends, paralysis, Green-Card marriage's, 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell', farmhouse rules, ex-crushes, step-grandfathers with inappropriate crushes and conversations about meat (if you know what I mean). The kiss clock has been ended, with those back on a regular basis, but then the fans started asking why they were the only couple on the show not to be having sex. Everyone's doing it: the underage, the elderly, the married (and not to their spouses in most cases). In total, it's been over 500 days since they meet until they had sex. And, as we know, that day was today.

But with all that waiting, you may ask why I kept watching? Well, that's simple. I love them. Now, anyone who knows me will know I am a McDeaner to the end. But Luke and Noah are different. Similarly to the great QaF debate, Nuke are a far more American story: focusing around a love of family, of commitment and companionship over the immediate need to feed your hormones. And, as frustrating as waiting for them has been, you have to admire the show for trying to draw their gay couple away from the stereotype that homesexuality is all about sexual desire: a very damaging assumption and one the soap should be proud of denying in it's ground-breaking storyline.

What I love about Nuke is what I love about today's episode. They argue, and they make up. They have a support network, who recognise how much they love each other. They are friends as much as they are in love. They kiss and you believe it. They have issues that don't disapear when it's convienent for the writers. Van Hansis and Jake Silbermann are two actors completely at ease with the roles and with a genuine talent. Even when the writing is stale, the acting is witty and engaging. It's a show unafraid of happy endings, or of sad ones, and keeps enough element of melodrama without (most of the time) slipping into the absurd. I honestly believe this is in part to the actors and the fans, some of the most vocal in the fandom community.

There are things that are missing in these clips as in Nuke as a whole: a decent storyline, for one, and a lack on on-screen bedtime antics is another. They need to move in together, and start doing this on a regular basis. But I honestly believe that is to come: the show has consistently proved me wrong when it comes to how far they will go, and the first time they give us what we want is always the tamest. I think things will heat up...

And here it is, in all it's glory:





Overall, what is so beautiful about Luke and Noah is the fairytale element that American shows seem to love to add to the equation. Now normally, cynical as I am, I brush this under the carpet as them being afraid to tell an honest story. But, in reality, I believe it is more daring. Rather than making this a modern story, pushing the boundaries, it is a soap storyline before anything else: with all the melodramas and repressions that go with that. And in doing that, they capture not only the magic of the characters but the magic of the genre.

So, to summarise, Happy Nuke-finally-had-sex Day everyone! I can honestly say it was worth waiting for! Who'll join my campaign to make it a national holiday??

xXx

My 2009 Wish-List

So, I'm not doing resolutions this year: mainly because I'd rather decide things I want to do as and when them come to me rather than struggle to come up with some now, and also because I never meet them!

So, instead, I'm going to write a wish-list. Not just for my year but for media, politics and 2009 in general.

- I'd like the Supreme Court judgments on the same-sex marriages which took place in California before Prop 8 passed to again rule the ban unconstitutional, and over-rule Prop 8. If not, by the end of the year, I would like it to have been revoked in some other way, in any shape or form necessary.

- I'd like Luke and Noah to have sex. This may seem trivial, and shallow, but in reality I honestly think a teen gay couple having sex on daytime American television is a step which we should all support if the country is going to catch up with Europe in terms of tolerance in society and the law.

- I'd like Barack Obama to have a successful first year. Not only because it is an important year politically for the States, but because with all the pressure on him to make radical change, it would be a shame for him to loss that momentum before he has really had the chance to begin.

- I'd like David Tennant's final Doctor Who episode's to be entertaining and memorable. I really hope that the last, not only David Tennant but Russell T Davies episodes, will stand out in my mind as some of the best. I would feel better about saying goodbye if they went out in style.

- I would like to complete ScriptFrenzy and NaNoWriMo for a second year. I found NaNoWriMo, whatever the product, a very rewarding experience and it certainly made me question what I most enjoy in terms of what to do with my life. Before I become merchanary about writing, I would like to have two more months of pure, unadulterated creativity.

- I would like to see some of the bands we have been enjoying for nearly two years to enjoy to success they are predicted. Here, I am talking about White Lies, Nick Harrison, Mumford and Sons, Florence and the Machine etc. who are pipped as this years big bands (while we've known about them for ages!) They deserve all the success coming their way.

- I would like to get the grades in my AS exams I need to have the widest possible choice of Universities and would like to make sensible choices about them. My greatest fear is going somewhere and not enjoying it, so it's a summer of research I think. And some vague career idea (not plan, just idea) would be helpful with that...

- I would like to see some serious progress in countries who have faced the hardest 2008's: for example, Palestine and Zimbabwe.

- I would like to have a fruitful time in New York - of course, I'm going to enjoy it, but I feel like wasting the spare hours in the city (like I'm going to sleep!) would be a missed opportunity and would like a project. More writing maybe? But what?

- I would like to read newspapers on a more regular basis than I do. I read them on a very random basis, and am very selective on what I read, and feel it is becoming increasingly necessary for me to understand. If everything goes according to plan, we should be voting in the next election and I would hate to be mis-informed.

- I would like to have a summer of working to earn money, and reading. I feel I have not read enough novels in 2008, and would really like to get some solid reading down in 2009.

- I would like a film which everyone agrees is the Best Picture of the year to win the Oscar. There is no need to go for an outsider Academy - sometimes the best film is the one we all love too!

- And, possibly the most out-there, I would really like to film whatever I write in ScriptFrenzy this year. I have a couple of ideas, and I think they would not be that difficult to film, and I think it would be something lovely to look back on and work on with my friends.

So, this is what I would like to see. How many will happen? I don't know. I'm not going to go out of my way to see these things happen above my own sanity, but they are things I hope we would all love to see!

xXx