Slash

[avevale_intelligencer]

I'm not a slash fan, at all--the concept doesn't revolt me, but it doesn't grab me either. But I do find myself intrigued by the question of how old it is. I'm informed that people actually did write and circulate Holmes/Watson slash before WWII, and I have no reason to doubt it, but how much further back could it be traced?

It seems to me that there must be a moment at which it became possible to create slash--after fiction as such became a saleable commodity, almost certainly after the invention of moveable type I'd say, after the first fan communities began to spring up. I'm using a definition of slash here as "media-centric homoerotic fan fiction, published and circulated within a body of enthusiasts." One could, on that basis, certainly go back in theory as far as Dickens, Austen, maybe even further...but did it actually happen? I'd love to know, not so that some fan group could have the honour of being First, but simply for interest's sake.

Another question: is the transgressive element in slash important--the sense that what the two male characters are doing is either contrary to their own natures as overtly presented (could one write Oscar/Bosie RPS, or would that be redundant?) or contrary to the prevailing moral climate? Could one write slash, as such, in a society where homoerotic relationships were not anathematised? If we ever reach the point where all kinds of consensual couplings between adults are equally licit and carry no stigma, will slash die out, and is that necessarily a bad or a good thing? Is the possibility of some form of transgression, a way to break the bounds, important to us, more important perhaps than bringing everyone within those bounds?

It is of course entirely possible that all these questions have been addressed, answered and neatly packaged up in pink ribbon by actual slash scholars. It's also possible that this post contains all kinds of unacknowledged assumptions that will get me leapt upon by outraged slash fans, and if so, I apologise. This has been a glimpse into the unrelieved horror that is my brain in what passes for action, prompted by a flocked post elsejournal. Sorry. I'll be over here.

Comments

[keristor.livejournal.com]

I would agree with the placement after the wide dissemination of fiction in printed form (orally transmitted fiction is subject to change at the whim of the teller). An unanswered question though is when did fan 'communities' first arise? Apart from local groups (and there certainly were local groups of readers quite early, who would buy one copy of a new book and pass it around their local group, before lending libraries were around) it would seem to me that it would likely rely on a reliable postal service. I believe the first APAs were Victorian.

I note your definition of slash as homoerotic fiction. While a common definition, I've seen many people use 'slash' for any forbidden relationships, in particular ones forbidden by 'canon' rather than society (so for instance Sulu/Uhura would count as slash because there is no evidence for it in canon, as would a hetero relationship when the character in canon is gay, or any relationship if the character were for instance a celibate priest). This, I think, answers your question about the transgressive element, as far as I have seen slash is basically transgressive of something but not necessarily cultural mores, it can be transgress the internal 'rules' of the original story. (My favourite piece of 'slash' was Zen/Orac!)

So my conclusion would be that slash would indeed continue if the society became tolerant of any erotic coupling, because there would always be something against which to rebel even if it is only the original author's description. Hmm, it wouldn't be possible to write slash about a pair of completely bi+poly+xenophile characters, there's nothing left to do! So perhaps if in that society everyone had sex with anyone and anything else then it might not be possible to write slash, but that's an extreme case.

(Personally, I agree with you about homoerotic fiction, it just doesn't interest me. In fact most 'erotic' fiction doesn't interest me, certainly not because of the eroticism, the more graphic it gets the less interest I tend to have. I have enjoyed some slash where the relationship has been M-M but the details were kept in private, the same as for hetero fiction where the details are private.)

[the-changeling.livejournal.com]

I don't have the slash gene, but I've lived with people who do, and I know many more. I do read slash, in the way I read quite a few genres - every little, now and then, but I enjoy the immersion at the time.

The forbidden and hidden nature is key, more crucial than the homeoerotic sub-flavour.

When Barrowman and Marsters had their kissing scene for Torchwood, I posted about it being a slash wet dream. And it as rightly pointed out it was actually not slash, as it was not a forbidden relationship that had to be hidden at all costs.

Also, I've read some damn good slash with no sexual encounters at all.

The rebooted Spock/Uhura is slash, as such.

We will always have forbidden loves and relationships.

I'd also argue that the male/male coupling of classic media slash, is not to do with a gay culture sensibility/fighting to be see. It's are more to do with male dominance of media roles. The powerful intriguing characters are all male... so is positioning yourself into 'what happens when the cameras are not there' situations, you are going to end up with an expression on forbidden passion between those characters that moves along gay lines.

Until the power inequality between male and female is adjusted so that it is believable that a female/male coupling could be equally passionate, hidden, and forbidden with an equal power status between the characters at all points... we will see slash. So for a long time, then.

Add a woman and male to slash, and the power inequality and assumption of sexual connection... it kinda makes slash impossible. Look at Mulder and Scully. Oh look, a powerful male and female in action together, when will they get it on...? Which is probably why many would reject the Uhura/Spock as slash. After all, they are male/female. But they are equal in power in the relationship, one could argue, given Spock's Vulcan nature: it mimics a power inequality (she's his trainee etc) but the actual relationship isn't. But it takes him to be Vulcan, and injured in his psyche, to make it work. Try it with Kirk/any other female traineee alive, it's exploitation...

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Yes, this. A lot of slash is about gender inequality and the ways in which women are trained to perceive their power relative to men. Joanna Russ suggested that the root lies in female inability to imagine a truly equal relationship between a man and a woman due to social conditioning. The m/m material thus becomes space in which women feel safe to explore notions of equality and of power. I suspect that for some writers there may also be an element of expressing a wish to have power over men, too.

[the-changeling.livejournal.com]

I like how Whedon mixes it all up with Buffy/Spike. :-)

[armb.livejournal.com]

The term seems to be used lots of slightly different ways.

I think the short answer is that slash will continue to exist "all kinds of consensual couplings between adults are equally licit" still leaves the possibility of transgressive fiction that is slash by any definition about non-consensual and underage couplings.

There will be other fan fiction that will be slash by some people's definitions and not by others.

I think it is, at least partly, about transgression of audience society rules, not just canon rules. A canon Kirk/Spock sexual relationship is forbidden not because Starfleet forbids same sex relationships (or relationships between officers), but because mainstream 1960s American TV forbade it. (And the nature of their canon relationship remains largely defined by that, short of massive reboots, even if we later establish that Starfleet is totally happy for officers to express whatever sexuality they want so long as they don't abuse their power (not that I think we've got that far).)

There will doubtless always be fan fiction written by fans who wish to explore relationships that the canon authors didn't, but not everyone will agree that it is slash just because its about non-canon relationships.

Also there will (I assume) be canon fiction where explicit sexual descriptions are considered inappropriate, and fan fiction based on it but with explicit sex, and some definitions of slash will include that. For example, fan fiction describing Harry and Ginny Potter's sex on their wedding night might be considered slash, however non-transgressive of society norms and canon it is, simply because it couldn't have appeared in canon fiction aimed at a child market. (Others will insist on slash involving a same sex couple, in which case we can discuss whether Dumbledore/Grindwald counts as canon.)

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

As someone who used to write a lot of slash but now very rarely reads it, I think the meaning has changed very drastically over the years.

Look, originally it was just porn for heterosexual women, involving two very pretty men. The reasons for our liking this were much discussed at the time (circa 1980 - I don't claim to know much anything earlier.) Those put forward included: (a) there not being any really good female characters around at the time (true for some series but not for others) (b) two men equals twice the fun (c) we aren't threatened by male/male relationships and (d) subverting the text is a challenge.

Nowadays slash is written by gay men, gay women, straight women and (very occasionally) straight men. Authors object strongly to their novels being labelled 'slashy', which does not stop them selling on that basis. TV shows tip knowing winks to the genre. Actors read the stuff.

It is fashionable.

It is still porn.

[faxpaladin.livejournal.com]

As keristor says, the notion is tied to when fan communities arose. Holmes fandom is the first I know of, but I'm hardly an expert and there could certainly be earlier examples.

I once heard Bob Kanefsky complaining that it was impossible to write Torchwood slash -- for him, transgression was the vital element, but all possible Torchwood relationships were canonical...

[howeird]

If you want to get really technical, during my college Classics 101 class we were given at least one example of ancient Greek slash. It was a poem describing a pair of Plato-era noblemen but all I can remember of it is "he has a bottom like a peach".

I suppose one could build a case for Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra as slash.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

As armb said, "The term seems to be used lots of slightly different ways." Parallel cases:

* There are a lot of non-filkers who use "filk" to mean simply 'parody', without any reference to the meanings (multiple but in the main mutually consistent) it has in the filk community.

* Most speakers of English think "schizophrenia/-ic" refers to "split personality", what psychologists call "multiple personality disorder", which has nothing to do with what they call "schizophrenia". (I'm trying very hard to stay descriptive here, fighting to keep myself from saying something like "which is totally wrong" / "which is a completely different phenomenon".)

* Lots of people say "I don't speak a dialect!! I speak perfectly normal English!!!" To a linguist, "dialect" isn't pejorative, and everyone speaks some dialect(s).

* All the debates about "What is a language?" -- do non-human animals have languages, when did our species develop language, are sign languages languages, are Serbian and Croatian different languages, and so on -- are questions of definition, not objective reality.

I see this as another such case.

[gingicat]

Currently in fan fiction, there is slash, which is two or more same-sex characters, usually male. Femslash is obviously women. Het is, well, heterosexual relationships.

Gen is stories which could be rated PG by the MPA; they might mention romance, and that romance could include any pairing(s).

From what I understand, the job of the fanfic writer is to make people believe in the relationship. Some is already there - Jack/Ianto, for example. :)

When fanfic writers want to make a *completely* unlikely pairing work, they pull out the sex pollen; AFAIK this term originated with DC Comics fanfic about people affected by Poison Ivy. It's also getting used a lot in Star Trek reboot fic.

Interestingly, there are many women writing male/male fanfic who go out of their way to slam the women - Rosie in Lord of the Rings, Amita in Numb3rs, Nyota Uhura in Star Trek reboot - in order to make their male/male stories more plausible; I really really HATE that.

There are also a lot of people who disapprove of threesomes and polyamory in their fanfic; I wouldn't mind so much if they said "YKIOK" and left it alone, rather than saying that people who write it are evil.

Incest slash and underage slash bother me. I know that at least three of the people who write it are not inherently evil, but they really bother me.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

I have been slammed by one slash writer who told me strongly that "real slash" is m/m and anything else is just porn.

They went on to say that one of the main points of m/m slash is that in our society, men are emotionally shut off while women talk and share, and by writing m/m scenes you allow two men to open up to each other and share emotions and so you get a different insight into them ... and there's sweaty writhing and knobs as well, as women like erotica. It would explain why so many of the female slash fans are lesbian but enjoying m/m coupling (but then a lot of hetero men like f/f coupling, so who knows?)