Terry, thank you so much for wanting to discuss this thing with me, since it really is bothering me so much!

Actually, I agree with practically everything you are saying in your post. The main reason why you and I are disagreeing at all is that we are looking at the entire concept of Lois and Clark from different starting points. To you, the fanfiction stories that can be written about Lois and Clark should be a continuation or an explanation of nothing but the things we have seen in the Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher TV show. And seeing that these boards wouldn't have existed in the first place if it hadn't been for this TV show, how can I blame you, or anyone else for that matter, for thinking that nothing but the TV show should be used to explain and inspire the Lois and Clark fanfiction stories which are posted on these boards?

But I have been a Lois and Superman/Clark fan for almost 37 years, since early 1969. That's when I read a comic book story where Superman proposed to Lois Lane, and that is when I fell in love with this immortal couple. And to me, Lois and Clark is about all the things I have read and seen of Lois and Superman/Clark since 1969, including even earlier comic book back issues and a few episodes of the George Reeves Superman TV show.

To me, Lois and Superman/Clark are three people who are really two, who are irresistibly drawn to one another, but who are often hopelessly kept apart from one another precisely because they are two people who appear to be three. But only two of the three people, or rather one of the two, knows that there really are only two of them. And it's up to him to meld the two men of the love triangle into one man, so that three become two and two can be one. But again and again, he refused to do so, and lied to her instead, and kept them separate.

How has he lied to her? Let me count the ways. In the comic books of the early seventies, he was openly, publicly dating her in her Superman persona. Because the alternative, that of telling her the truth about himself and dating her as Clark Kent, was of course unthinkable. Some time in the late sixties, he proposed to her as Superman, telling her that now that she'd be Superman's wife he would have to lock her up in his Arctic Fortress of Solitude, to protect her from his enemies. In the movie "Superman II" he accidentally revealed his secret identity to her, almost immediately afterwards made love to her, and, being unable to deal with the consequences, later wiped her memory with an amnesia-inducing kiss. In the end of that movie, he flew off, smiling ecstatically, possibly because now he had made love to Lois Lane and she still didn't know a thing about it, or about him. In a comic book from 1990 he proposed to her as Clark Kent, without informing her that he was also Superman. In the Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher TV show he also proposed to her as Clark Kent, again without telling her that he was also Superman.

And in a comic book from the forties, we were told that Superman's secret identity was being revealed to the world in a film being shown in a movie theater. What was Clark's reaction? Not that he had to destroy the film. No, that he had to prevent Lois from seeing it. Because this wasn't about protecting himself or his loved ones from the world. This was about protecting himself from Lois Lane.

And suddenly this is really serious. This secret identity thing is suddenly not between himself and the world, but between him and Lois. It's not about keeping the world at bay, but about keeping Lois at bay. And having a relationship with her at the same time. But, because of the secret identity barrier between them, which he has erected and she knows nothing about, the relationship they can have will be entirely, entirely on his terms.

Did anyone say trust here? Did anyone say respect?

I want to like Clark. I really, really want to like him. And there have been so many times - in the comic books, in the movies, in the TV shows, in the fanfic stories - when I have loved him so, so, so much. But there are too many times, nevertheless, when he is lying to Lois, taking advantage of her, being self-righteous about his lies or blaming her for them - when I can hardly stand him.

Please understand I'm not saying he should have told her the truth about himself right away. I think it is an important part of the Lois and Clark universe that he doesn't tell her immediately.

But I want to like him when he is confessing his lies to her. Disillusioning somebody else about some fundamental truths about yourself is incredibly scary. There was an unemployed man here in Europe who for years told his family that he was a doctor, working for the U.N. or something. Every morning he left for "work" and every night he came back again, squandering the family fortune in the process. Eventually, when the authorities were on to him, he chose to kill his wife, his children and his parents rather than tell them about his lies!

Confessing your lies, confessing to your loved ones that you are another person than they think you are, is so unbelievably scary. I want Clark to be brave enough, and honorable enough, and generous and loving enough, to confess his lies to Lois in such a way that he doesn't blame her for them. I want him to do it in such a way that he doesn't even ask her to accept an equal share of the blame for the lies he has been feeding her. I want him to be good and noble and loving enough to feel guilty about his lies.

Ann