Homophobia in Haixing

[extrapenguin]

If I were to write a Guardian fic the point of which was something completely unrelated to homophobia, but which ended with Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan getting a happily ever after, what level of societal homophobia would not throw you out of the story? Would you find it jarring if they dared hold hands in public? If they dared kiss? If they introduced each other as romantic partners in casual-ish conversation without too much euphemism? Their nearest and dearest would know, and marriage wouldn't be on the table anyway, but ... what is the range of attitudes that wouldn't have the readership's suspension of disbelief come crashing down?

On the one hand, I want this to be happily-ever-after dancing on roses without a cloud in sight; on the other, a lot of the relationship developments of canon make more sense if Haixing is at least somewhat homophobic. So: advice?

Comments

[extrapenguin]

The ending is heading towards a trajectory where it would not be out of place for Zhao Yunlan to drop off his beloved, publicly known to be Dixingian, boyfriend off at his place of work and give him a goodbye kiss. (Part of the fic is Dixingians becoming public knowledge. Also, Shen Wei will get a happiness overload.) It'd end up tangled in public-ness, so I'd want to sort it out fully as well, to be able to map the boundaries properly and not do anything I'd find stupid in hindsight.

I also wouldn't find it weird to nudge "not a homophobia-free paradise" up to "there is homophobia but you can get away with a lot at mild cost", i.e. if you assume Zhao Yunlan holding hands with Shen Wei might mean he's unlikely to ever make minister but he also DGAF and he works in a weird department anyway, so they let him be weird, etc.
That is definitely a place it could end up in that I'll have to keep in mind!

[jo_lasalle]

The ending is heading towards a trajectory where it would not be out of place for Zhao Yunlan to drop off his beloved, publicly known to be Dixingian, boyfriend off at his place of work and give him a goodbye kiss. (Part of the fic is Dixingians becoming public knowledge. Also, Shen Wei will get a happiness overload.) It'd end up tangled in public-ness, so I'd want to sort it out fully as well, to be able to map the boundaries properly and not do anything I'd find stupid in hindsight.

Not having read the fic, going purely by that description: I think you could totally do that and not assume "homophobia-free paradise". Just further along the curve of "mixed bag" than "professional repercussions unless you really keep it on the downlow", especially if you don't assume that fake!Chinese academia is more homophobic than other types of academia. I mean, if there's some random student somewhere in the crowd who secretly thinks they're being inappropriate and vents later to his asshole friends or some ancient professor who judges while unseen, would that matter? If you know what I'm getting at. Unless you need everyone to applaud and provide the rose petals...

[extrapenguin]

Not having read the fic, going purely by that description: I think you could totally do that and not assume "homophobia-free paradise". Just further along the curve of "mixed bag" than "professional repercussions unless you really keep it on the downlow", especially if you don't assume that fake!Chinese academia is more homophobic than other types of academia. I mean, if there's some random student somewhere in the crowd who secretly thinks they're being inappropriate and vents later to his asshole friends or some ancient professor who judges while unseen, would that matter?
Nodnod. I think I do need to sort it out more fully in my mind, but this does reassure me that the happily ever after that'd best fit the fic won't necessarily be tremendously immersion-breaking; thanks! (Also, the fic has not yet been finished, so I have lots of time to think. It has maybe 6k written of what will be at least 20k...)