Metawriting #4 – The Question of Fetish

There is something I have left rather untouched in these discussions thus far, which is the question of fetish. One reason I have neglected it is because, in many ways, it doesn’t really matter, as far as the genre is concerned. The MC/TF genre is that it can adapt itself to so many different fetishes, that part of what needs to be done, to understand it, is to dig past these rather superficial aspects to the core of what these stories do. However, this is, perhaps, not fair. While the genre itself is so adaptable to various fetishes, this is, I think, part of its appeal to readers. In addition, writers want to include fetishes in their stories, and I’m a firm believer that there are ‘good’ ways to do so. So, here, I want to address a few things regarding the addition of fetish to stories.

One of the first points to address is what I mean by fetish. After all, ‘mind control’ and ‘transformation,’ taken broadly, are both fetishes, but not in the way I’m using the term narrowly, here. Rather, I’m referring to the obsessions and sexual interests of the characters in these stories. To name a few of a very long list, we might include entries like ‘muscle worship’, ‘smoking’, ‘fetish gear’, ‘bondage’, raunch’, etc. However, rather than try and list out all of these fetishes and discuss each individually, it would be more helpful to understand the various ways one might incorporate these fetishes with the genre we’re discussing, so here are the primary ways, I believe, fetishes can be incorporated into MC/TF stories.

1. The MacGuffin – Discussed in the last chapter, the MacGuffin is some object, often unexplained, which allows the plot of a story to advance. It is often the thing sought by the protagonists and antagonists, and the vehicle of change (like Tristan’s pendant, in City of Bears). More often than not, writers telegraph the fetish focus of their story in the nature of the MacGuffin. Is it a piece of clothing? The story is going to be oriented towards some sort of gear fetish. Is it something one might derive erotic pleasure from, like a tobacco product or a dildo? If so, we probably know what the changee will be doing for the rest of the story. That said, not all MacGuffins are obvious–see the numerous stories with the ubiquitous magic amulet/ring/watch (though if it is a watch, there will be at least one instance of stopped time somewhere in the story). These generally signal a fetish neutral story, or point to some fetish not easily represented by a MacGuffin (incest, for example). I fear I sound like I’m ridiculing this device–I’m not, really. Goodness, I use it often enough in my own stories. Rather, it can be a useful trigger to let the reader know what they’re in for, and can also be used as a ‘bait and switch’ tactic in a farcical story. Regardless, this technique is so ubiquitous that more often than not, writers rely on it too much. It can do little more than set the stage–something still has to happen beyond this to make the story interesting.

1. Fetish as a Means of Domination – Similar to the MacGuffin, this fetish again helps move the story along by being a vehicle of change and domination, however, the MacGuffin is Dom/Sub neutral–in this second case, it is wielded by a particular individual against another to render them into a submissive, changeable state. One of the more common fetishes I use for this purpose is ‘Musk’, which I admit, is a bit of a crutch. (I really should stop having guys overwhelm each other with their stink in every story I write, but eh, I like it too much to quit now.) Bondage is another common fetish used for this purpose, as is smoking.
2. Fetish as a Means of Submission – The flip side of the second, we might think that these would mirror each other. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don’t. In fact, what might set this apart from (2) is that submission, in this context, can be open ended, rather than directed towards a specific dominator. In many ‘top to bottom’ stories, for example, many victims experiment with toys at first, fucking or sucking variously sized dildos for a few pages, before hunting down their master. This fetish for toys helps condition their submission without a dominator being actively involved. Again, this can also overlap with the MacGuffin, but does not always do so.
3. Fetish as a Means of Humiliation/Dehumanization – This might appear, at first, to overlap with (3) but not every submissive is humiliated, and not every individual humiliated and dehumanized is necessarily rendered submissive. These fetishes, instead, are often meant as punishments for the characters that they are inflicted upon.  Watersports and scat are two I use for this purpose, primarily, but there are many others, especially quite a few AR fetishes.

Now, I’m sure there are a few categories I may have missed, but these are the ones which leap to mind. What’s important here is that while some fetishes fit better in some categories than others (for example, it’s hard to have a fetish MacGuffin when one’s fetish doesn’t have a tangible physical manifestation) most every fetish can be employed in any of these categories, but here’s the thing–it only works well if that fetish is being employed to further the underlying MC/TF plot, instead of that fetish just being thrown in there for fun. This is a distinction I’ve made, called “kink-for-plot” and “kink-for-kink” with the first being infinitely more useful than the second.

Here’s the main reason this is important–most people who read MC/TF stories don’t come for the fetish, they come for the underlying themes I’ve outlined in the last two entries, that two by two grid of me/them and dom/sub. The fetishes we use as writers reinforce those and make them original. On the other hand, you can throw in as much fetish as you want, but if it doesn’t play into the underlying plot structure, it’s only going to bloat your story and turn people off who don’t enjoy that fetish. Here’s my test: can someone who isn’t into this particular fetish I’m using still enjoy this story? I like to think, that for most of my stories, it’s a yes. While I’m sure there are plenty of people who can’t get past the nastier parts of my stories, I’ve gotten any number of comments from people who thought they would be turned off by them, but who instead found it intriguing when I wrote it. Does this mean I’m just really good at making guys smearing shit on themselves sound nice? Probably not–but if I deemphasize the ‘nasty’ and instead use it to motivate the themes of humiliation and dehumanization running through my story, the universality of the fetish category generally overcomes people’s reluctance to interact with it. 

This then, explains why I consider fetish to be a relatively minor concern–good fetish writing comes from correctly employing the underlying aspects of MC/TF plots–not from writing the fetish stuff ‘well’. This isn’t to say that there isn’t good and bad ‘pure’ fetish writing–there certainly is. But without the fundamentals, it doesn’t matter how well it’s written in and of itself.