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Slash wank
So, there's slash wank again. I love how everything is cyclical in fandom. The latest fervor over warnings has just died down, so now people are arguing about slash. I mean seriously, have there been any new arguments in fandom since the end of the 70's? I've been in fandom going on ten years now and it seems we all keep coming around to the same basic disagreements. But that's not what this post is supposed to be about.
It's about slash wank, and why I feel I can't participate. See, I have a fairly unique perspective when it comes to slash. I'm a gay man. I'm not the only gay man in slash fandom and I don't claim to speak for them all. But in my travels in the internet I've encountered maybe five who I would consider to be active in a community of women that likely numbers in the thousands (though I'd say it's likely there are quite a few gay men lurking in all corners of slash fandom). So when the slash argument rears it's head semi-annually, and everyone trots out their reasons for and against, it all just leaves me a bit cold. Because the most common pro-slash comment given is that it's a femminist exercise (which leaves me out completely). For me, slash is a response to the invisibility of gay people in popular media. Sure, things have gotten better over the last ten years or so, but I'm still pretty much guaranteed to not find any representations of gayness on any TV show, book, or movie I happen to come across that's not explicitly appealing to me as a gay person. So, the appeal of slash for me is that it takes a source text that completely ignores the fact of my existence and makes it all about me. That's incredibly empowering. Unfortunately it's also completely irrelavant to the standard pro-slash/anti-slash discussion. So I sit here in frustration wanting to comment all over the place, but not doing it. And also marveling about how so many people just don't "get it" before remembering that even most slashers don't approach it from the same angle I do.
Though I do have one relavant comment for all the anti-slashers out there who keep crying OOC!:
*clears throat*
99% of all fanfic is OOC. Get over it, and stop pissing in my cereal.
It's about slash wank, and why I feel I can't participate. See, I have a fairly unique perspective when it comes to slash. I'm a gay man. I'm not the only gay man in slash fandom and I don't claim to speak for them all. But in my travels in the internet I've encountered maybe five who I would consider to be active in a community of women that likely numbers in the thousands (though I'd say it's likely there are quite a few gay men lurking in all corners of slash fandom). So when the slash argument rears it's head semi-annually, and everyone trots out their reasons for and against, it all just leaves me a bit cold. Because the most common pro-slash comment given is that it's a femminist exercise (which leaves me out completely). For me, slash is a response to the invisibility of gay people in popular media. Sure, things have gotten better over the last ten years or so, but I'm still pretty much guaranteed to not find any representations of gayness on any TV show, book, or movie I happen to come across that's not explicitly appealing to me as a gay person. So, the appeal of slash for me is that it takes a source text that completely ignores the fact of my existence and makes it all about me. That's incredibly empowering. Unfortunately it's also completely irrelavant to the standard pro-slash/anti-slash discussion. So I sit here in frustration wanting to comment all over the place, but not doing it. And also marveling about how so many people just don't "get it" before remembering that even most slashers don't approach it from the same angle I do.
Though I do have one relavant comment for all the anti-slashers out there who keep crying OOC!:
*clears throat*
99% of all fanfic is OOC. Get over it, and stop pissing in my cereal.
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I write both slash and femmeslash (if one is going to differentiate, which one always does in these arguments, since for most straight slashers femmeslash=gross, but that's another wank entirely) because there are very few satisfying depictions of gay or bi characters in mainstream media and subverting the text to include them *is* empowering. The reason I write more slash than femmeslash is because there are so few strong, likeable female characters to work with, and often only one per text, so there's often a lot of backbending crossover-writing involved to get two of them together.
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Maybe it's only a feminist exercise for women? In the, oh, I don't know, embracing any kind of sexuality or sexual activity that goes beyond 'het sex in the missionary position and just lie back and think of England, hey it's all about what the guy wants' way?
Most slash writers I know write it because it's fun. Period. :D