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shrimpchipsss) wrote2023-09-19 11:13 pm
shrimpchipsss) wrote2023-09-19 11:13 pm
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Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System and Homosocial Triangles.
This essay exists in a pocket universe off of the previous one because I started analyzing Shen Qingqiu and got carried away from my main point. I just really need to tell you about homosocial triangles.
We leave off with this: how was Shen Qingqiu supposed to know that the rules of homophobia and heteronormativity would not apply in the world of PIDW? Well, because PIDW was a male power fantasy stallion novel.
In his new transmigrated life, Shen Qingqiu spends years “shipping” Luo Binghe with the wives Luo Binghe would have had in PIDW, sublimating his care for Luo Binghe into encouraging him to pursue the women, notably Liu Mingyan (best girl). Shen Qingqiu’s heteronormativity-poisoned and blinded-by-hubris-about-genre-savviness brain can only comprehend male-male desire within a structure of institutionalized social relations that are carried out via women—in this case, via marriage and matchmaking (Sedgwick, 35).
By positioning himself as a matchmaker, Shen Qingqiu unknowingly slots himself and Luo Binghe into a homosocial triangle, a structure in which a woman is a symbolic conduit by which men seek to cement their bonds, and in which the true partner is a man (Sedgwick, 26).
Here is a chart. The dotted line is Shen Qingqiu’s care and affection for Luo Binghe, and the filled-in line is that care and affection sublimated into matchmaking.
This is all subconscious of course. Shen Qingqiu’s feelings for Luo Binghe when he is under his care are of mingled fear over Binghe’s future potential for revenge, favor towards his once-favorite-character, and the genuine care of a mentor. If anything, Binghe might be the one resenting that he cannot pursue his feelings for Shen Qingqiu due to continually being triangulated (arguably worse than being simply friend-zoned) into a structure of social relations that Shen Qingqiu sees as legitimate, and which is appropriate for their ages and master-disciple relationship at the time.
Of course, Shen Qingqiu’s mind games get even worse the moment he realizes that Binghe has feelings for him (and that people in this world can be gay at all) and his internalized homophobia kicks into higher gear. He is completely thrown off, flustered and hesitant now that the homosocial continuum turns out to continue on to homosexuality and that all of his actions up until that point can be interpreted through an erotic lens (Sedgwick, 1). He is no longer living in a stallion novel; his love and care have transformed the genre of his world into a BL.
Hilariously, while Shen Qingqiu is under the assumption that he is living in a stallion novel, he is extremely homosocial, no holds barred, an advocate for the brotherly bond between sect siblings, unknowingly charming men around him with his simple kindness and mental rules for the way physical touch is fine and even welcomed (“please go ahead”??) between men because none of it is gay.
But even before his paradigm-shifting revelation, you can tell that Shen Qingqiu has been anxious about the gender and desire stuff all along. He does all of his homosocial triangulation and unknowingly winning at gay chicken with everyone around him while referring to both Binghe and himself in turns with female roles, casting himself as the woman (wife, female lead) pre-revelation of Binghe’s feelings and Binghe as the woman (maiden, schoolgirl) after (tshirt, 66). Such a funny guy.
Enough about that though. I can’t talk about homosocial triangles in Scum Villain and not talk about BingLiuShen.
Liu Qingge, one of Shen Qingqiu’s fellow peak lords and friends doesn’t quite qualify as a tsundere, though he is often misinterpreted as one. Shen Qingqiu saves his life and they spend years engaged in one-sided banter on Shen Qingqiu’s part, doing biweekly meridian cleansing sessions, going on missions together, and playing a likely unintentional game of fetch with Shen Qingqiu’s fans which he leaves all over the place and which Liu Qingge returns to him.
When Shen Qingqiu dies to save Luo Binghe from a qi deviation and Binghe hoards his corpse to try to bring him back to life, Liu Qingge fights Luo Binghe every day for five years to bring the corpse back to Cang Qiong mountain and give Shen Qingqiu a proper burial.
Over the course of those five years, Luo Binghe beats Liu Qingge in every battle, dragging Liu Qingge’s body and reputation for never losing a fight through the dirt. They are locked in a bitter, daily, bereavement flavored fight. What an intricate ritual you have going on there. And would you look at that: it takes the shape of a triangle.
The entire time this fight is ongoing, the object of desire, Shen Qingqiu, is dead and not there. Or he’s there, as a corpse. Do you see where I’m going? Shen Qingqiu is the object of desire but he is also quite literally the object. Can you believe it? They are fighting over his body.
Once again, a homosocial triangle is not quite a typical love triangle. Liu Qingge’s feelings for Shen Qingqiu are a bit more ambiguous than Binghe’s, and it isn’t like they’re fighting for him to accept their feelings since he is dead and thus cannot accept them. There are other potential filial or psychosexual or chivalrous or other miasmic intentions at play. But the desire and the grieving and the resentment, maybe even the identification with the other, are all mingled there.
Here are some excerpts from Sedgwick’s Between Men on this permutation of the homosocial triangle:
Also:
We see this in our own example. With Shen Qingqiu in the most “object” state a person can be, Liu Qingge and Luo Binghe only have each other by which to determine their actions and choices.
Every now and again I’ll see a comment where people muse that Liu Qingge probably kept Luo Binghe alive during the five years that Shen Qingqiu was dead. Consider the way the rivalry may have fueled Luo Binghe and Liu Qingge in the absence of love and their beloved. It’s a compelling thought.
This triangle is diluted somewhat when Shen Qingqiu returns to the land of the living and joins Luo Binghe, but it continues on in a new form. Liu Qingge gets upset that Shen Qingqiu asks for Luo Binghe when he wakes up after the debacle at Maigu Ridge and declares that Luo Binghe is dead (he isn’t). And Binghe continues to balk at calling Liu Qingge by the appropriate title of martial uncle and dreams openly of fucking Shen Qingqiu on the Bai Zhan training grounds (Liu Qingge’s home if he ever deigned to spend time there). Aren’t they so much?
In conclusion, homosocial triangles fucking rock as a concept. I showed two examples of how they can be applied but they’re quite a flexible and load-bearing framework that can accommodate oh so many scenarios. If you can’t get enough of this please read Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s Between Men. I hope I spread the agenda and that you found my charts as funny as I did.
Notes
As seen in Yaoi Zine 2!
(this is the one I ripped off to write the Chihayafuru and homosocial triangles post)
Works Cited
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire. New York, Columbia University Press, 1985.
Tshirt. “Good Kid, a Scum Villain Essay Zine.” 2022. https://longposter.neocities.org/freudzine.pdf.
We leave off with this: how was Shen Qingqiu supposed to know that the rules of homophobia and heteronormativity would not apply in the world of PIDW? Well, because PIDW was a male power fantasy stallion novel.
In his new transmigrated life, Shen Qingqiu spends years “shipping” Luo Binghe with the wives Luo Binghe would have had in PIDW, sublimating his care for Luo Binghe into encouraging him to pursue the women, notably Liu Mingyan (best girl). Shen Qingqiu’s heteronormativity-poisoned and blinded-by-hubris-about-genre-savviness brain can only comprehend male-male desire within a structure of institutionalized social relations that are carried out via women—in this case, via marriage and matchmaking (Sedgwick, 35).
By positioning himself as a matchmaker, Shen Qingqiu unknowingly slots himself and Luo Binghe into a homosocial triangle, a structure in which a woman is a symbolic conduit by which men seek to cement their bonds, and in which the true partner is a man (Sedgwick, 26).
Here is a chart. The dotted line is Shen Qingqiu’s care and affection for Luo Binghe, and the filled-in line is that care and affection sublimated into matchmaking.
This is all subconscious of course. Shen Qingqiu’s feelings for Luo Binghe when he is under his care are of mingled fear over Binghe’s future potential for revenge, favor towards his once-favorite-character, and the genuine care of a mentor. If anything, Binghe might be the one resenting that he cannot pursue his feelings for Shen Qingqiu due to continually being triangulated (arguably worse than being simply friend-zoned) into a structure of social relations that Shen Qingqiu sees as legitimate, and which is appropriate for their ages and master-disciple relationship at the time.
Of course, Shen Qingqiu’s mind games get even worse the moment he realizes that Binghe has feelings for him (and that people in this world can be gay at all) and his internalized homophobia kicks into higher gear. He is completely thrown off, flustered and hesitant now that the homosocial continuum turns out to continue on to homosexuality and that all of his actions up until that point can be interpreted through an erotic lens (Sedgwick, 1). He is no longer living in a stallion novel; his love and care have transformed the genre of his world into a BL.
Hilariously, while Shen Qingqiu is under the assumption that he is living in a stallion novel, he is extremely homosocial, no holds barred, an advocate for the brotherly bond between sect siblings, unknowingly charming men around him with his simple kindness and mental rules for the way physical touch is fine and even welcomed (“please go ahead”??) between men because none of it is gay.
But even before his paradigm-shifting revelation, you can tell that Shen Qingqiu has been anxious about the gender and desire stuff all along. He does all of his homosocial triangulation and unknowingly winning at gay chicken with everyone around him while referring to both Binghe and himself in turns with female roles, casting himself as the woman (wife, female lead) pre-revelation of Binghe’s feelings and Binghe as the woman (maiden, schoolgirl) after (tshirt, 66). Such a funny guy.
Enough about that though. I can’t talk about homosocial triangles in Scum Villain and not talk about BingLiuShen.
Liu Qingge, one of Shen Qingqiu’s fellow peak lords and friends doesn’t quite qualify as a tsundere, though he is often misinterpreted as one. Shen Qingqiu saves his life and they spend years engaged in one-sided banter on Shen Qingqiu’s part, doing biweekly meridian cleansing sessions, going on missions together, and playing a likely unintentional game of fetch with Shen Qingqiu’s fans which he leaves all over the place and which Liu Qingge returns to him.
When Shen Qingqiu dies to save Luo Binghe from a qi deviation and Binghe hoards his corpse to try to bring him back to life, Liu Qingge fights Luo Binghe every day for five years to bring the corpse back to Cang Qiong mountain and give Shen Qingqiu a proper burial.
Over the course of those five years, Luo Binghe beats Liu Qingge in every battle, dragging Liu Qingge’s body and reputation for never losing a fight through the dirt. They are locked in a bitter, daily, bereavement flavored fight. What an intricate ritual you have going on there. And would you look at that: it takes the shape of a triangle.
The entire time this fight is ongoing, the object of desire, Shen Qingqiu, is dead and not there. Or he’s there, as a corpse. Do you see where I’m going? Shen Qingqiu is the object of desire but he is also quite literally the object. Can you believe it? They are fighting over his body.
Once again, a homosocial triangle is not quite a typical love triangle. Liu Qingge’s feelings for Shen Qingqiu are a bit more ambiguous than Binghe’s, and it isn’t like they’re fighting for him to accept their feelings since he is dead and thus cannot accept them. There are other potential filial or psychosexual or chivalrous or other miasmic intentions at play. But the desire and the grieving and the resentment, maybe even the identification with the other, are all mingled there.
Here are some excerpts from Sedgwick’s Between Men on this permutation of the homosocial triangle:
In any erotic rivalry, the bond that links the two rivals is as intense and potent as the bond that links either of the rivals to the beloved: … the bonds of “rivalry” and “love,” differently as they are experienced, are equally powerful and in many senses equivalent (Sedgwick, 21).
Also:
The bond between rivals in an erotic triangle [is] even stronger, more heavily determinant of actions and choices, than anything in the bond between either of the lovers and the beloved (Sedgwick, 21).
We see this in our own example. With Shen Qingqiu in the most “object” state a person can be, Liu Qingge and Luo Binghe only have each other by which to determine their actions and choices.
Every now and again I’ll see a comment where people muse that Liu Qingge probably kept Luo Binghe alive during the five years that Shen Qingqiu was dead. Consider the way the rivalry may have fueled Luo Binghe and Liu Qingge in the absence of love and their beloved. It’s a compelling thought.
This triangle is diluted somewhat when Shen Qingqiu returns to the land of the living and joins Luo Binghe, but it continues on in a new form. Liu Qingge gets upset that Shen Qingqiu asks for Luo Binghe when he wakes up after the debacle at Maigu Ridge and declares that Luo Binghe is dead (he isn’t). And Binghe continues to balk at calling Liu Qingge by the appropriate title of martial uncle and dreams openly of fucking Shen Qingqiu on the Bai Zhan training grounds (Liu Qingge’s home if he ever deigned to spend time there). Aren’t they so much?
In conclusion, homosocial triangles fucking rock as a concept. I showed two examples of how they can be applied but they’re quite a flexible and load-bearing framework that can accommodate oh so many scenarios. If you can’t get enough of this please read Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s Between Men. I hope I spread the agenda and that you found my charts as funny as I did.
Notes
As seen in Yaoi Zine 2!
(this is the one I ripped off to write the Chihayafuru and homosocial triangles post)
Works Cited
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire. New York, Columbia University Press, 1985.
Tshirt. “Good Kid, a Scum Villain Essay Zine.” 2022. https://longposter.neocities.org/freudzine.pdf.