schemingreader

I have vowed that even though I am mainly writing slash stories, I will not write female characters who suck. I almost did, though; in my latest story, one of my betas caught me writing a sucky female character. Argh! It is just so easy to rely on uncanonical, or even canonical, suckiness of female partners to justify why your favorite male character is available for homoerotic hijinks. As we know, it does not work that way in real life.

Anyway, sscrewdriver and I were discussing how slash fans have dealt with Tonks, especially post-HBP Tonks. (I am beta-reading a long Tonks story she's writing--it's quite amazing, you'll see! Remember this is the woman who drew Tonks in Cake Fight!) There are some excellent fics about Tonks, fics in which she does not suck--fics in which she fulfills the promise of Order of the Phoenix and not the weird, not-clumsy, not-silly character of HBP.

The standout for slashers is pixychelle's How Severus Snape (Didn't) Kill Nymphadora Tonks. Gosh, what a cute Tonks this is. She's clumsy. She's girly. Okay, it's crack but--read it anyway because it will make you happy.

I requested a story from penknife about Tonks in this year's reversathon. I wanted Harry/Tonks, with gender bendy stuff. She really came through with this story, we could steal time (just for one day). This Tonks is a lot more hard-edged than some others. She and Harry become lovers, but in a sort of friends-with-benefits way that seems like it could fit her character. She's warm but not sentimental--the promised Tonks of OotP more than the promised Tonks of HBP.

(I also wrote a reversathon story about Tonks. I can't rec it because it's my story, but in case a bunch of people come here for my Tonks recs --ha!-- I'll pimp it. Maybe your thing, maybe not. It's Giving Me Ideas. It's Tonks/Bill as high school girlfriend and boyfriend. I tried to be as matter-of-fact about the sex here as I am in slash fics. I don't think this story measures up to the ones I am recing here, but since it's mine I should mention it.)

stoicstella changed the way I thought about Tonks with her wonderful series Just Tonks. In this series, Tonks is sorted into Slytherin. The pairing is Tonks/Charlie. This is a fantastic use of Tonks' magic. She has to concentrate not to morph all over the place. It was a very sharp and touching characterization. I also really liked the artwork she made to accompany the stories.

I'm sure I've forgotten quite a few. (I've read several Remus/Sirius stories from the various month long fic fests, like scarvesandhats in which Tonks appears as a cute little girl in the 1970s.) And of course Tonks appears in the must-read whatever-the-heck-it-is-feminist-meta-or-fic, Meanwhile Back at the Menstrual Hut by maelipstick. (from whence I stole this post's title!)

Lipstick: *Settles down into menstrual hut, flicks through dog eared copies of Andrea Dworkin, helps herself to chocolate.*

Tonks: Wotcher Comrade in the Struggle against Patriarchal Oppression.

Anyway these are all things from my flist, and there aren't nearly enough of them. Comments with more recs are love.