#traphawk

[ncwyeth]

beejhawk - honeybody by kishi bashi

[8thparadox]

Frank: how dare you compare your perversions to my marriage Hawkeye: who's comparing, Frank?

[marley-manson]

if my father sees this, you'll have to marry me

[serpercival]

mash + incorrect quotes (8)

[trapperjohn]

[hearteyespierce]

why was this sitting in my drafts for 4 months oops

[alohawhore]

fic where trapper and hawkeye finally reunite post-war…getting detained protesting the vietnam war

[bisexualdawnsummers]

M*A*S*H -> S1.E11: Germ Warfare

[majorbaby]

piercintyre + tumblr textposts (MASH) 2/?

post credit below:

rebloggable links from OP where possible: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

other posts in this series: 1

[hawkeyeslaughter]

computer everything they did was a duet . computer theyre soulmates . computer play wonderwall . puter . puter do you HEAR ME puter

[beeinabox]

foreground and background in 2x20 'As You Were'

[remyfire]

Sometimes I wonder. Do you think that Hawkeye was aware of Trap's coping mechanisms before this conversation? The fact that Trapper is so inclined to curl up in his cot when they have downtime, facing away from Hawk, sometimes not even sleeping, just totally checked out for hours and hours on end? Those dissociating depression naps?

And do you think that more often than not, when he sees Trap in that listless state, Hawk will go out of his way to tell him the most terrible, ridiculous jokes in the world because every time, no matter how much Trapper tries to fight it, in the end he's smiling and present? And Hawk will admit that maybe it's downright selfish of him to do it—that he doesn't want to be left alone in his thoughts either—but the fact remains that he loves Trapper too much to let him stew like that. Come hell or high water, he's gonna brighten his day.

[mashandmartinis]

I've been thinking about BJ and Trapper and their respective relationships with queerness and masculinity, framed in their respective relationships with Hawkeye in particular. And it turns out I actually have a ton of headcanons about this, so uh, prepare for some headcanons-slash-analysis.

I'm of the opinion that Hawkeye and Trapper have definitely have slept together, probably regularly, but aside from an added physical aspect, their relationship never mutually developed into romance. Hawkeye and BJ, on the other hand, have never touched each other more than we've seen on the show — but they were deeply in love. And I'm fascinated by how Trapper and BJ might react differently to their own relationship with heteronormativity and how that intersects with their relationships with Hawkeye in particular. So, uh, let's explore that under the cut because this turned out a biiit longer than anticipated.

First Hawkeye has Trapper, right? Trapper, with his big brown eyes and a goofy smile, married but definitely not too serious about that whole monogamy business — not while he's in Korea and, let's face it, probably not at home either. Trapper, who's passably straight and probably is, for the most part, except for this Thing he has for his best friend Hawkeye (because he loves the man and they're in a war, for god's sake, and really what difference does it make if you and your best friend help each other get off regularly? You share a tent anyway. You're both guys, there's nothing to be seen or touched down there that you can't find on your own body. It's cool). Trapper is queer — but to me his queerness feels isolated to their circumstances, a sort of war-enhanced stretch of his pre-existing not-all-that-picky high libido. It's easy for him to expand his definition of fuckable from "any pretty woman who's willing to slip into the supply closet with me" to fit Hawkeye, who rejects traditional standards of masculinity, and therefore isn't A Man so much as A Guy.

The war is separated enough from everyday life and heteronormativity, and Hawkeye is separated enough from stereotypical masculinity, for Trapper to feel comfortable moving from best friends to best friends who fumble around when no one's watching. It's just an extra element of play, something they both enjoy doing to themselves and with other people, so why not do it with each other too.

However, I feel like once Trapper returns to the States, to his wife and his life and heterosexual standards all around, it's easy enough to forget about Hawkeye as a sexual partner and once again run after the first attractive woman he comes across. Trapper loves Hawkeye as a friend, sure. But I think part of what allows him to sleep with Hawkeye with no reservations whatsoever is the fact that he's never been in love with him, and, owing to the fact that his identity is still solidly founded in heterosexuality, sees no dangers of falling in love either. Hawkeye has been a partner in crime, a partner in the OR, a partner in bed — but he's never been a romantic partner. So when Trapper moves away from Korea, Hawkeye's just a pleasant memory. A friend of circumstance. A great friend, sure, but mostly he's something to remind Trapper of how war is a different world with different rules and standards that don't apply to the real world. Proof of the fact that exceptions can be made in certain places at certain times, but they don't carry over to the rest of your life. I think Trapper switches easily both times: he adapts very quickly to the fact that sex with Hawkeye is great and doesn't think too much about what the fact that they're both men implies. But the switch back to his heterosexual (if still non-monogamous) life is just as simple.

BJ, on the other hand, is deeply repressed and most likely gay. His queerness most definitely isn't related to the circumstances. Considering the environment he grew up in, he very possibly already did gay things with other frat guys without realising they were gay, because everyone else was just as repressed and attached to their ideals of heterosexual masculinity as BJ is. However, he has never encountered someone like Hawkeye before — and Hawkeye's rejection of traditional masculinity clearly rubs off on him over the course of the show, even if BJ does remain A Man more than A Guy.

Where Trapper is fleetingly aware of the fact that what he's doing with Hawkeye is probably more than a little gay (and doesn't give a shit because he's certain that he's not more than a little gay, outside the context of the war. Trapper is comfortable in his own identity) BJ has no idea what's happening to him. He falls in love with Hawkeye and spends the entire time marvelling over the fact that (platonic!) same-sex friendships can be this close. Closer even than the relationship between a husband and wife. Wonders how holding a skein of yarn for Hawkeye as he knits somehow feels more intimate than anything BJ has ever done in the bedroom with Peg. Chalks all of it up to the wonders of male friendship and bonds forged during the war. BJ is attracted to and actively falls in love with Hawkeye, because he is queer but doesn't have the emotional capacity (possibly doesn't even have the vocabulary) to recognise this in himself, because knowing the environment he's from, he's most likely been raised on lies and denial and repression.

Hawkeye sees through some of BJ's lies. Hawkeye is the first to hold him as he cries. How strange is it, then, for him to have these feelings that he's never felt for someone else before? When he's never been more emotionally intimate with anyone in his life? BJ sees the evidence but cannot, or refuses to, connect it to its source (namely: his queerness) and rather chalks it up to circumstance. They're war buddies. They went through hell together. How strange is it, then, to feel this overpowering and indescribable love for the man he clung to from the very moment he got off his plane? It's not queer; it's simply what happens when you put men together and have them live through the horrors of war hand-in-hand.

Hawkeye's relationship with Trapper was playful and physical. His relationship with BJ, though not physically intimate for aforementioned reasons (repression), is far more intimate than he has ever been with Trapper — because this time they're both in love, even if Hawkeye is the only one who knows it.

In a sense I don't think Hawkeye's relationship with BJ could've developed the way it did if it hadn't been for Trapper. There are many more reasons at play here and I'd probably have to write another post to properly delve into those, but I think part of the reason Hawkeye was able to let BJ in so easily is because he was already left emotionally vulnerable because he felt abandoned by Trapper. BJ, in turn, had just been drafted and was logically also very upset. A mutual vulnerability that allowed them to connect on a level that especially BJ might have recoiled from, had the circumstances been different. War essentially pushed BJ into Hawkeye's already open arms without BJ having to face why Hawkeye's arms were open in the first place, and what his falling into them says about both of them and their relationship.

Trapper returns home essentially unchanged in his perception of his own queerness, save for the fact that he now knows what it's like to sleep with a guy. BJ returns entirely changed but oblivious to it, still convinced he's straight and wilfully, slightly oblivious about Hawkeye's queerness, but somehow feels like he just went through the divorce of the marriage of his lifetime. He should be happy to be home in his wife's loving arms, in their very own bed, and yet— and yet—

Trapper and BJ are two sides of the same coin, both fulfilling one half of a partnership for Hawkeye one after the other. One physical, one emotional, with neither of them able to take on the other half — Trapper because he simply doesn't feel it that way; BJ because he's still not ready to face the truth by the time they have to part.

[oatflatwhite]

I think we've all missed out on acknowledging the real duo out here matching each other's freak

[serpercival]

mash + incorrect quotes (9) (oops, all traphawk edition)

[megatronusprimedecal]

"Lafayette, I am here!"

Sticky Wicket || Episode Twenty-One || Season One