Oh, I've got this in my setting although the reason it fits into Hide Your Lesbians is because no one really brings up their relationship. It also fits under Discount Lesbians as there are no humans on Galaday to begin with. My lesbian lovers also mix in a bit of (Mad Scientist to the Power of Rock) + Bifauxnen!
edited 23rd Feb '11 8:47:39 PM by SandJosieph
I do wonder if people will think my primary lesbian couple is an example of Discount Lesbians since it's an undead woman and humanoid-golem-woman pairing. However, the other couple are both normal human late-teenage girls, so that probably makes up for it.
Certainly in-universe there appears to be nigh complete gender and sexuality equality.
A brighter future for a darker age.Mmm, not really, but I can see how you'd draw the conclusion that that's what I was asking for.v
I'm aware that it's acceptable due to the social rules I've researched (and some things can be played with since some areas are left blank.)
I'm asking what your individual thoughts on this are (with the extra information provided by my Yahoo Answers! question). I'm also curious if people (like Morven's extremely interesting example) have done something similar, and how they approached the situation.
I still don't understand your question. We need more detail.
1) "Hero/heroine gets the girl as a reward when the adventure is over" is the standard trope.
2) You seem to going for the trope "Heroine gets the girl at the begining of the adventure and the Power of Love makes the Heroine mighty enough to defeat The Villain."
3) Or are you going for the Love Affair is background detail and character development with no narrativium power?
Check out "Romantic" Two-Girl Friendship to define how your society reacts to Lesbian Love. Modern Japan and Britain 1400-1900 consider Lesbian schoolgirls as very hot and good practice for adulthood as long as they don't go too far
edited 24th Feb '11 4:22:04 PM by Dagobitus
Well i read the yahoo answers thing and I don't think those tropes really count toward your story because you're attempting to create a realistic story in medieval time regarding the lesbian relationship. I think it sounds like a good drama story.
Personally, I never understood the hoopla over sexuality or gender issues, so in my stories I usually don't touch the issue. The way I've approached it was for "Tarus Space", the main setting I'm working on right now, everybody is female. Therefore it's all about views on how relationships should work, made somewhat strange when sex isn't tied to reproduction.
edited 24th Feb '11 7:46:42 PM by breadloaf
"I still don't understand your question. We need more detail."
Okay, that's fair. The story is set in Medieval Japan - it's an Inuyasha fanfiction with a number of characters of my own creation who lead largely separate lives from the canon characters, while still being influenced by their actions, both directly and indirectly. I've invoked the Hide Your Lesbians trope because, in all of my research on the time period, and on sexuality and relationships during that same time period, I've found essentially nothing on lesbianism (of course, most, if not all, of the attention at the time went to the older male teacher/younger boy apprentice relationship dynamic that was expected of the warrior class - and of the nobility in general, to an extent.) While sexuality during this time was apprently very open, where are the lesbians? I know that they existed, it's not like they were completely absent - but the lack of information does signify that they weren't viewed as important, and that (literary) attention was rarely, if ever, directed towards two females romancing. So, they were, in a sense, "hidden," just not really so much by social stigma as lack of focus. (Although I have read some things that claimed sex with a woman was sacred, and that a woman having sex with another woman was a grevious violation of that precept, and by extension, the natural way of things - but I'm not sure how widespread that view is in Japan during that time - I've had a hard time verifying it.)
The Discount Lesbians trope exists because one character, the half-demon and sex worker for a time, falls in love with a human noblewoman, who used to be her client. The humans don't see much of a problem with this, but the yokai culture with which the half-demon wants and attempts to identify herself with, takes their relationship as a very serious issue. Relationships with humans might have been common (as it's shown as a semi-regular occurence throughout the course of the series), but they treat the fact that this half-breed (who's already not on good terms with this separate civilization as a whole - not even going into social rank and species differentiation within) is with another female, and that female is human as though it were a crime - because they can use it to prove their points, justify various wars, and get rid of the offspring of the former demon equivilant of the shogun. They, with some exceptions, see it is as a sign of weakness, general foolishness, and as indicative of her inferiority compared to them.
"1) "Hero/heroine gets the girl as a reward when the adventure is over" is the standard trope."
You're right it is the standard trope - and I'm not too much for happy endings.
"2) You seem to going for the trope "Heroine gets the girl at the begining of the adventure and the Power Of Love makes the Heroine mighty enough to defeat The Villain."
Close, but I suppose I really didn't give enough detail here. It's Power of Love makes you irrational, insane, and somewhat happier (if you get what you want - if you don't, you're screwed.) Heroine gets girl whilst working in human form as a prostitute. Heroine breaks out of the profession, is bored with her once-again ordinary life, and continues to sleep around. She gets pregnant, is forced to marry the demon by both his subculture's laws and her younger brother's authority based on the fact that she lives in what is technically his home, and he's letting her share it. She has this demon's daughter, neither husband or wife are happy: he's lusting after her younger brother's girlfriend, and she feels bound and pinned by the huge amount of obligations she then has to take on (because her new husband leads his "Pack", and she, as his wife, has to help him, while still remaining an attentive and demure wife.) Heroine and the resident Complete Monster former leader of the "Pack" start a vendetta based on insults, rebuffed advances, and the man's way-out-of-proportion Freudian Excuse. Her daughter eventually gets dragged into this and is used as a pawn. Things get worse, her husband is abusive and caustic, she's uncooperative and obstinate. Old client/lover visits out of the blue one day after a year and a half of searching, and the two women engage in a tryst. Husband walks in. All hell breaks loose. This makes their situation even worse, and makes both of them more cruel to each other as well as distrustful. The tension between her and the resident nut escalates, eventually culminating in rape (and swift, painful, rape-preventing revenge on her part( with the daughter used as a bargaining chip. Wife/heroine feels trapped, and is depressed. To try and get a way for a little while, she and daughter go on a trip. They're caught in a trap meant for someone else, and the daughter dies a horrible, bloody death. Heroine loses an eye and her dominant arm, and feels responsible for not protecting her child (while occupied with her own injuries.) The marriage falls apart completely, and the two divorce, deciding that after their daughter was dead, there was no reason to stay tied to one another. Heroine feels Driven to Suicide, but can't kill herself successfully due to nerve damage and a normally positive Healing Factor. She and noblewoman meet by chance, noblewoman tries to get the half-demon to elope with her, but cannot convince her to want to stay alive at that point. Heroine attempts suicide through exhaustion and bloodloss, throwing herself into skirmishes without heed - a stray arrow in one these costs her her other eye, and leaves her blind, but with the same Super Hearing she's always had to try and compensate. I purposely leave her death ambiguious,and the villain gets himself killed in an entirely unrelated event years later.
That's... really long. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to take that to miniature essay length! Basically, I'm writing a tragedy: no particular party "wins", aside from the canon characters winning their largely canon victory with some changes.
"3) Or are you going for the Love Affair is background detail and character development with no narrativium power?"
(See ridiculously long summary of most of my plot above.
) It's both background detail and not - it's important to the characters, and to a portion of the plot, but it is a background detail in terms of setting and overall relative importance to most of the main events. It's definitely character development, but it has some narrativium power.
"Check out Romantic Two Girl Friendship to define how your society reacts to Lesbian Love. Modern Japan and Britain 1400-1900 consider Lesbian schoolgirls as very hot and good practice for adulthood as long as they don't go too far"
It's a trope I like, but I'm not sure if it can apply to my setting. As I said, there is a real lack of reliable information on lesbians in Japan during this particular time period. However, it's something that does get played with a bit in the story. Basically, my society reacts either by ignoring the lady-couple, or getting violent and self-righteous. Depends on each character how the two are recieved.
Lastly, I am very sorry for such a long post! I never meant it to be so long, and kind of got carried away... I hope this answers your questions!
See, and this is why my Discount Lesbians are only acquired at the best retail stores possible! Well, they're story is at least fun and exciting with many twists and turns but very little angst. About the only angst my lesbians go through is trying to woo the resident town hottie into their bed but everything they try from simple tricks to elaborate experiments involving mind control (which doesn't work on Galaday to begin with), Blackmail (fails on account of the heroine being aware of their games), and even kidnapping (fails due to a falling piano...long story). They eventually succeed in getting the heroine into their bed for a little while by simply asking her but she doesn't stay for the whole night.

Exactly What It Says on the Tin: I have a combination of Hide Your Lesbians and Discount Lesbians (between a half-human half-demon hybrid and a human) as a plot point for both characters. The humans are far less Squicked by this than the demons, who...find it disturbing (more the interspecies relationship than the sex itself).
Whaddaya think? If you need more details, here they are: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AiwyBrxdYy_u4mfmF9cyLyXsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20110209154550AAVJC37
Thank you!