vaznetti | (no subject)

wisteria_ is collecting everyone's most loathed fanfic words. It's very funny, and you should go take a look.

I was a little surprised to see "partner" and "lover" there, though, because both are words I use in everyday contexts--I grew up with the use of "lover" for homosexual partners ("Your cousin and her lover will be coming for dinner on Tuesday" or "So-and-so's lover just got a job in Texas, so they're moving to Houston." Everyday stuff.) And I know long-term unmarried hetero couples who use "partner." This is a little less common but is usual in introductions: "Have you met So-and-so's partner?"

Is this simply a matter of social context? In places where it's bad and shameful to be gay (or to be an unmarried couple, I guess) I can see why people avoid these words--otherwise, I'm not sure.

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With all the awful wrongness in those paragraphs, the partner/lover element shouldn't be needed as a red light at all.

Heehee, true. But those are the stories where I find partner/lover most grates on my nerves. Because the entire fic is rife with bad writing and cheap shortcuts, and partner/lover as a constant epithet is one of those shortcuts. On the other hand, I have a list of words I just can't stand, but I find I am much more willing to overlook them (and in some cases, not even notice them being used) in well-written stories.

So it really does come down to good writing. But doesn't everything? :)