Well, first off, i think emotional growrth is going to be a component of every story. You have to have conflict, overcome it, learn something at the end of the day--that's pretty much the blueprint for every story ever told. So it's not really about whether you have an emotional journey or not, it's simply how it's handled.
What gets me uneasy is when very spefically drawn characters (read: dark, complex women) are given conflict to help achieve a more normative response-- and the two best and most egregious examples i can think of are forced sexual trauma (rape, triggers, "oh, my awful past!", etc.) or "oops i got pregnant!" in order to force this woman to deal with her demons and normalize and confront emotions and get in touch with her inner earth goddess nurturer or whatever so by the end of the story OMG! Look at how fully actualized she is! All it took was some normative shit to be able to confront her inner womanness! Look how much better behaved she is now! Look how well she plays with others! She can give hugs! She can kiss her man with confidence! She can hold that baby with pride!
Okay, now i've gone off on a snarky tangent, allow me to stop being a jackass for a minute and actually unpack this. None of this-- NONE OF IT--is bad in and of itself. Not at all. A story can take me any place it damn well pleases---if it's told well. And for me, well = with nuance and subtlety. I need the conflict to feel organic and not contrived and the same thing goes with the emotional response of the protagonist. I want it to feel earned. What i dont' want is fixing for the sake of fixing or worse... some kind of normative fixing that doesn't feel appropriate to this character we're talking about.
For natasha, she no doubt has issues. She no doubt has demons she needs to fight. No doubt at all. So it's not a matter of if they come up but how they are handled. I guess what i'm trying to say is that she needs to be able to heal herself on her terms. It may not look normal or even healthy but it really doesn't matter if it works for her. And it doesn't mean that she has to be less complex or even less dark.
Okay now i'm just a rambling jackass. Is any of this making sense?
---also, this who exchange was me just shooting off my mouth in the most general way possible. It certainly wasn't meant to cause doubt for anyone, least of all you my dear. :)
Re: Fic: my skin is not my own (rated PG-13 for implications of sexin')
What gets me uneasy is when very spefically drawn characters (read: dark, complex women) are given conflict to help achieve a more normative response-- and the two best and most egregious examples i can think of are forced sexual trauma (rape, triggers, "oh, my awful past!", etc.) or "oops i got pregnant!" in order to force this woman to deal with her demons and normalize and confront emotions and get in touch with her inner earth goddess nurturer or whatever so by the end of the story OMG! Look at how fully actualized she is! All it took was some normative shit to be able to confront her inner womanness! Look how much better behaved she is now! Look how well she plays with others! She can give hugs! She can kiss her man with confidence! She can hold that baby with pride!
Okay, now i've gone off on a snarky tangent, allow me to stop being a jackass for a minute and actually unpack this. None of this-- NONE OF IT--is bad in and of itself. Not at all. A story can take me any place it damn well pleases---if it's told well. And for me, well = with nuance and subtlety. I need the conflict to feel organic and not contrived and the same thing goes with the emotional response of the protagonist. I want it to feel earned. What i dont' want is fixing for the sake of fixing or worse... some kind of normative fixing that doesn't feel appropriate to this character we're talking about.
For natasha, she no doubt has issues. She no doubt has demons she needs to fight. No doubt at all. So it's not a matter of if they come up but how they are handled. I guess what i'm trying to say is that she needs to be able to heal herself on her terms. It may not look normal or even healthy but it really doesn't matter if it works for her. And it doesn't mean that she has to be less complex or even less dark.
Okay now i'm just a rambling jackass. Is any of this making sense?
---also, this who exchange was me just shooting off my mouth in the most general way possible. It certainly wasn't meant to cause doubt for anyone, least of all you my dear. :)
(now i just need that "let me love you" gif...)