Last Woman?

[lordvalerymimes.livejournal.com]

I had a shower thought while I was getting ready this morning. I wonder how different the general fan population response to Lister/Rimmer shipping would be, if Lister were a female.

Imagine the show is still exactly the same, the same plots, the same scripts (with a few modifications here and there for pronouns obviously), but Lister is played by a woman, and is a female character. How different, do you think the responses of the general fandom would be, to the idea of the two characters becoming romantic with one another? I'm sure there would still be naysayers and those who couldn't get past Lister's slobbiness and the surface dislike the characters have for one another, but I have a feeling that loads more people would be champing at the bit to see the two of them get together, and hoping that the ultimate end of the show would involve the two of them realizing that they can be happily ever after together.

Imagine how differently the state-of-the art sarnie scene would read to an average heterosexual crowd, if Lister had been a woman instead of a man. I doubt you'd have anyone saying that we were "reaching" to imply some sexual overtones in Rimmer's comparison. Not to mention Lister pining for Rimmer in series VII. Or the love that High Lister and Rimmer express for one another in Demons and Angels.

My thought is, if you would be willing to except romance between two characters if they were of opposite genders, then probably the only reason why you're NOT ok with romance happening between the two of them, is because they're of the same gender. As someone wisely said on Tumblr, it's not about making everything gay, it's about not having heterosexuality be the default.