Can't Read My Poker Face

[rayruz.livejournal.com]

Ma ma ma ma...

 

No, this is not about Lady Gaga... or about playing cards. But about... well... what Poker Face is actually about--being bisexual and passing for heterosexual. Assumption of heterosexual until proven queer is really the default state of the world, it seems.

With the way gender seems to work within the world of BSG (that within the world there are no gender roles, women can do or be whatever and men can do or be whatever and neither is supposed to be any sort of way), I think it is a logical extrapolation to say that there would be no relationship roles either, no expected "man" and "woman" in the relationship. (Seriously, I've heard so many people ask of gay couples "so who is the man/woman in the relationship?") From that, a romantic/sexual relationship/encounter could occur between any two (or more) people. (And retroactively Caprica kind confirmed that. I love Serge Graystone's twitter and a tweet popped up once that marriage was never viewed as between a man and a woman on the colonies.)

Enough meta-ing about the BSG world, because I wanna bring this around to Kara... Kara loves sex. We hear from canon that she gets around, we do however only know of 4 partners she has canonically. (5 if you count the Major from who the hell knows that got mentioned in an argument. X if you believe Sam's line during the algae planet arc.) Personally, I think it would be rather dumb to assume that Kara only fraks men. To me, and my view of the BSG world, I think Kara's an equal opportunity kind of gal. In fact I did a little meta a while back about how it would affect the plot if Samuel Anders was Samantha Anders. (Plz, no ship wars, kthnx.)

Of course, this is just my opinion. But I want to pose the question to you: Is Kara straight? Bi? Pan? Heteroflexible? Given the opportunity, which female characters do you think Kara would get it on with? Would she have to be really drunk to do it? 

(Thanks to taragel  for letting me post this here. Hope I didn't frak with your mind too much! Can we count this as the daily kara post?) 

Comments

[scifishipper.livejournal.com]

A quick hit and run post...

I always just figured she'd have sex with whomever turned her on, regardless of gender. I think she'd be attracted to people with a lot of energy and confidence, especially those whom she'd feel challenged by and could not dominate easily. IMO, there was some sexual tension with Cain, Kendra and Showboat. I could easily be convinced of others. ;)

[rayruz.livejournal.com]

So, Kara wants to get it on with the Pegasus ladies? ;)

[scifishipper.livejournal.com]

Hell to the yeah! I think those Pegasus women have some kickass mojo going on. Hot! Oh, wait, this is about Kara..... ;)

[rayruz.livejournal.com]

I think in general people see Kara more with the Peggy girls (seriously, the first ones that jumped to mind for me were Cain and Showboat).... more than Galactica... I wonder why. I mean, I have read some Kara/Kat and Kara/Racetrack before, but I don't think it's as common.

Also I have been wanting to hunt down some Kara/Six since the uStreams because I am a terrible person.

[thegreenkitty.livejournal.com]

Agreed, Kara and Pegasus ladies is lovely food for thought. I've always seen her fitting best with Kendra...something about their kitchen scene started that plot bunny in my head.

My theory on Pegasus vs. Galactica women for Kara is that the Peggy women are portrayed as stronger, more intelligent, and more challenging than those on Galactica. I just don't think Kara has much patience or tolerance for Kat and Racetrack. They're too often portrayed as whiny, less skilled(with the exception of Kat's Scar kill...which Kara GAVE her), and generally not worth Kara's time unless it's just a quick afterthought bash-head-into-table moment. The scenes Kara has with Cain/Showboat/Shaw show them on more equal footing with Kara. She shows them a respect she shows to only those she deems worthy (generally just Lee, Helo, +/- Athena, +/- Adama, +/-Roslin on Galactica).

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

Yes, please tag with daily kara post, discussion if you would.

(Or I can.)

Here's an idea that I haven't seen discussed before: What if the Major from somewhere was a woman?

(Oh wait, does Lee refer to him as a he? Maybe so...)

[rayruz.livejournal.com]

He does not refer to him as male. But I sorta want to smack myself for my assumption that it was a male... oh sigh... as much as my intellectual self wants to be aware of this kinda shit, there's so much programming from living in our world that my brain does shit like this.

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

Well considering the only same-sex or non-traditional relationships we see on BSG are pretty much afterthoughts, as was Caprica,...it's no surprise you'd assume it was a man. Context is pretty key, I think.

Also though... I think Kara just likes MEN. She doesn't have (that we can see) a lot of relationships with women in general, and definitely not many that are non-adversarial with women. And maybe I'm just too straight or whatever, but I never really saw any of the tension with Kat or any of the other women on the show as sexual tension. At least not mutual sexual tension. (I could fully believe that the women of Galactica have crushes on Starbuck, I just have never really seen any appreciation from her towards them.) *shrugs* It's just not the way I read it. But I'm not much for a hate-sex dynamic anyway. I kinda love Kara/Lee IN SPITE of that dynamic, not because of it.

[rayruz.livejournal.com]

You are so straight sweetie. It's kinda adorable. :)

I do agree with you that she does have more relationships with men and not just sexual ones. (Helo, Adama, Lee, Zak, Sam, Tigh... These are the people she interacts with the most.) I could get into freud's repetition compulsion but I do think she has a hard time connecting to women. But it doesn't change my opinion that she would frak a hot one from time to time. And you did write a little of that once. :)

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

Lol. That's not too patronizing or anything?

Oh I'm not opposed to it. And, like, I enjoy Kara/Faith as a pairing, as you know. But....I don't see it with any of the women in the BSGverse maybe?

Also I think Katee is very traditional/hetero for her own self and I don't think she brings a lot of intentional sexual chemistry to her scenes with women. I just don't see the chemistry.

[rayruz.livejournal.com]

Patronizing with love <3

K/F. I need to write some more of that.

[zenzero42.livejournal.com]

I think Kara has some issue with women (her mother's fault), she gets along better with men in general, sure for friendship but maybe also for sex, but I don't think that Kara is strictly heterosexual, (actually I think that nobody is strictly heterosexuals... )
"Heteroflexible" seems a good description, usually she prefers men but certain nights...

I can (would like) see her with:
Laura, Cain, Gunny,...

[rayruz.livejournal.com]

I was actually thinking last night that part of the reason we don't see her with many female friendships is because of her mother. Which is sad because I think Kara should have more female friends...

Kara/Cain... so much Kara/Cain.

[kag523.livejournal.com]

It's funny but I actually get quite irritated by our society's need to classify anyone as anything. *sighs* But I'm going to put away my ranting for the sake of happy comm posting and just go with the "heteroflexible" descriptor (which BTW, Ray, I asbolutely LOVE, and think you need to post to urban dictionary).

To answer, I suspect that Kara is more comfortable being the dominant force in the relationship, and that this is part of the reason she finds Sam and Zak "easy" to be with and why Lee is more difficult. I also think of Kara and this quote I recall from Angelina Jolie. I am going to massacre it, but basically it was something like "I like boyish girls and girlish boys".... and that might, for me, be the best way to describe Kara's preferences.

*grins* Look at me! I'm posting here!!!!! AND I did it without a rant. Woot!

[rayruz.livejournal.com]

Yay! Hi kag! :)

I think you are very right about Kara wanting to be the dominating force in a relationship. Both because I think she spent so much of her childhood being subject to her mother and because it gives her the power to leave at any time. Avoidance. Woo hoo.

Heee. I like the girlish boys/boyish girls quote.

[kag523.livejournal.com]

Went and found the quote for you. (Because I'm procrastinating about RL... *sigh*)

"Honestly, I like everything. Boyish girls, girlish boys, the thick, the thin. Which is a problem when I'm walking down the street." - Angelina Jolie

Goodness do I ever love that quote! :>)

[damao2010.livejournal.com]

I don't understand why as a rule we're always trying to classify people and because of that it doesn't really matter if we think of her as straight or bi. And I really liked the heteroflexible category. I had never heard this one before. Now, having said that, I myself think of her as straight. There is nothing in canon (as far as I can see) to indicate otherwise. In fact, she doesn't seem to have many close relationships of any kind with women.

[rayruz.livejournal.com]

I don't like labels either. I threw it up there for talking points.

[thegreenkitty.livejournal.com]

Completely agree with the above posts regarding Kara's general preference for relationships with men. It makes sense that she would seek those relationships as replacements for an absent father, etc, while tending to shy away from women given the history with Socrata. She seems to find relationships with men significantly easier than relationships with women.

I do think Kara likes the dominant role b/c it's easier for her psychologically and does give her more of an "out" if avoidance becomes necessary (Sam, Zak). I think she benefits from a more equal exchange of power (Lee, Kendra, etc) because it challenges her. She obviously likes the intellectual challenge of debate/planning with equals, but I think it's also a good challenge for her to psychologically accept others in a relationship as her equal.

I'm not much for labels but for discussion's sake, I'd label Kara as bisexual. She seems to care way more about character traits rather than gender when choosing friends and lovers.

[ivanolix.livejournal.com]

I think that Kara is bi-leaning-het. She doesn't seem to look out relationships with women of any kind, but the ones she does have seem to have the openness that if they don't already have sexual tension, after about one shot of whiskey they would. While in general she seems more interested in men, I think she's probably slept with a few women, maybe even had a dating relationship with one (probably military), and certainly wouldn't call herself totally straight. But she doesn't necessarily scan all the women as soon as she enters a bar, IMO.

I see definite sexual tension between Kara/Kat and Kara/Kendra, near-sexual-tension with Cain and Boomer/Athena, and can see her shipped with any Six, Dee, Jean Barolay, Seelix, and Laura. Each pairing, though, comes with a very different dynamic and a very different way that things would have to play out just right...at least in my idea. (Also, Kara/Samantha yespls)

[imelda72.livejournal.com]

KENDRA SHAW.

They just...got each other. I can think of few other females that she had both UST + mutual respect. Even Kat she always kind of scorned.

Cain, of course, could be another one, but I really like her as a more motherly figure for Kara.