And here's me looking forward to a slash-free Sunday :)... any horses should leave now, lest they be frightened...
----- Original Message ----- From: Julia Jones julia.jones@jajones.demon.co.uk
Had I been asked, before I ever
heard of slash, what Blake's sexuality was, I would have said, "probably gay", based on the very same scenes that you keep citing as evidence of his interest in Jenna. When I look at those scenes, I see a man who likes a women, but has no sexual interest in her.
Doesn't always mean "gay," though. I have plenty of straight male friends who like me, but have no sexual interest in me whatsoever--but they do for other women (somebody, Betty I think, also pointed out that given that Blake is so devoted to the revolution he seems to ignore just about everything else, female or male).
Again, though, that gets back to the ambiguity of the series that Betty and I were talking about-- given that there could be no relationship between principals within the confines of the series, there could be potential for a sexual relationship between Blake and Jenna, but that's all it could ever remain--potential.
But as for the hard evidence: it's true, Blake does show none of the signs used within the series to show interest in women. However, there is also a visual grammar within the series for showing interest in men (both openly, like Krantor and Egrorian, and more subtly, like Carnell and Dorian)-- and Blake also does not employ this. So therefore, in the Blake case, we can't say gay either. I think that when Betty and I had hashed it out, we found we couldn't come up with any examples of looks, unambiguously sexual touching etc. for Blake for *anyone* ;).
However, thinking that last bit through, there's one other bit of, admittedly negative, evidence which hasn't really been considered. Jenna continues to show interest in Blake from the beginning of the series right through until she leaves. Now, Jenna's definitely not stupid, esp. when it comes to men who are interested in her :), and so it might be a bit significant that she never stops showing interest in Blake-- cos if he *had* done something to discourage her, she'd quite likely have called it off, which suggests that he hasn't done anything to warn her that they can't be anything more than friends.
Your evidence is *not* hard, because it can be interpreted very differently, and by someone who is not trying to support a slash view.
But as I said, interpretation is a different matter. Of course Blake can be interpreted as gay-- he has been, in several independent places, and will be again. But <pedant> that's a different thing from hard or soft evidence. Hard evidence is the onscreen stuff-- soft evidence is things like "feelings," or that gaydar stuff Shane's on about all the time.
I'm a recent convert to slash (ironically, the first time I ever encountered the concept was in Horizon's call for stories that said "no slash"),
:)!
and I have a very clear memory of my reaction on encountering the notion that Blake and Avon might be having it off. "Blake, yes, I think he's probably gay anyway given his complete disinterest in the women he meets, but Avon likes the ladies too much."
Tee hee :)!
Fiona
The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane Available for public perusal at http://nyder.r67.net
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