help_pakistan meta #1: Threesomes

[zvi]

jain won meta from me, and she asked to me write about threesomes. My apologies for missing the deadline.

Here is the thing that I like about Audrey/Duke/Nathan, on the show Haven. (This is, you understand strictly speaking about the show. I haven't yet gone looking for fanfiction.)

The writers and actors are really clear that each character has a separate relationship with each of the other two, as well as there being a triangular relationship between the three of them. Undoubtedly, their clarity on this point is helped along by the fact that the men's relationship (an intimate, long-standing inmity) is radically different from their relationships with Audrey (a heady mix of UST, Troubles-fighting comraderie, and developing friendship.) Also, it's unclear if they know they're writing a threesome.

With White Collar (both the show and the fic), on the other hand, Elizabeth/Peter/Neal often feels like an exercise in What Do We Do With A Problem Like Elizabeth? That is to say, it is a truth generally acknowledged that Elizabeth is awesome, that Neal is aware of this fact, and that Peter loves his wife. So trying to write Peter/Neal without including Elizabeth feels, well, out of character for all concerned.

On the other hand, Neal and Elizabeth don't have a close relationship, more of a flirting acquaintanceship cemented by a mutual appreciation for fine things like food, clothes, and Peter.

Because the show is not, in point of fact, about Elizabeth and her Mad Event Planning Skillz, the show solves this problem by not having terribly much Elizabeth on screen, and having her mostly interact with Peter (and sometimes Mozzy, when both Peter and Neal need their hostages to fortune highlighted.)

But in fandom, the lack of canonical relationship between Neal and Elizabeth is often handled by either ignoring this absence all together, or by Elizabeth using her Mad Human Relations Skills to bully them both into intimacy really fast. Bleagh.

There is, clearly, a certain awkwardness to having to write two different first time stories simultaneously: one in the grand slashy tradition of friends becoming lovers (Peter/Neal) and one where a man and a woman court each other under the watchful eye of a yenta. (Neal/Elizabeth and Peter's eye.) I haven't seen a story like that yet. (Although, to be fair, I've sort of given up on reading White Collar fic, so the perfect story could be out there and I just don't know about it.)

What I have read, in a way that sidesteps the issue I'm looking at, but in an interesting way, are stories where Neal is unable to grasp that people are interested in him as a human being and capable of genuine love. In these stories, both Elizabeth and Peter have to work pretty deliberately at building intimacy with Neal, and, in the course of that, a genuine relationship with Elizabeth results.

I wonder if this divide in the construction of a threesome, where we have three people who weren't previously in amicable relationships brought together by circumstance and finding themselves mutually compatible (see something like Leverage Alec/Elizabeth/Parker or SGA OT4*) as opposed to a couple bringing in a third person who has a strong connection to one member of the couple.


I think these dynamics (call it found threesomes vs. couple+) may have something to do with the prevalence of MMF threesomes as opposed to FFM or single sex threesomes. As slash fandom, specifically, has become more interested on female characters, there's been more interest in the women our BSOs are canonically paired with. This has coincided with tv producers placing a greater emphasis on having at least one strong female character. I wonder if the difference between the two dynamics is set up when the producers decide that their strong female character is going to be a love interest or an independent agent.

Another thing I think about is why there are fewer same sex threesomes. Is it because there are fewer clear couples to base the dynamic off of? I'm trying to think of fandoms I know that have MMM threesomes and I think: X Files, Doctor Who, due South, and occasionally the Stargates and Harry Potter. What these fandoms have in common is two or more strong pairings involving the same guy.

So, I guess what would be needed to drive a FFM threesome would be a male character with a shippy relationship with two female characters or a female character with a shippy relationship with both a male and female character.

The dynamic for a same sex threesome to occur probably follows along the same lines, with a pivot character one can ship with two other characters of the same sex. I guess the part that's unresolved in my mind is whether or not all three characters have to relate to each other, and whether that's sex related. For instance, the two Rays only have a brief canonical meeting, but they get put together. I'm trying to think of a relationship involving three women in a line on tv where the women on the ends aren't hostile to each other. Jane on Drop Dead Diva has Stacy, Terri, and the judge. There's the girls on Pretty Little Liars and the women on Grey's Anatomy, I'm guessing. Desperate Housewives? The Good Wife? I'm probably missing some. But my base point remains: a lot of threesomes depend on the pivot of two plausible ships between only three characters.

*Yes, not actually a threesome. However, you can subtract whichever of those four you don't think belongs with the other three, and the principle still holds.