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

[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. :-)