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thoughts I have
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snickfic made an offhanded comment once upon a time that has been popping up again in my head lately because I seem to be getting sucked into Harry Potter fandom yet again (at least on tumblr) and questions have started to ~stew~. So I thought I’d get some insight from y’all.Slash fandom baffles me. I mean, sometimes it makes sense. Spike/Angel, sure. I get where you’re coming from. Merlin fandom, from what I know of it, seems to get a whole lot of canon winks/support. Even Kirk/Spock makes sense to me. And Torchwood had slash for your big canon ship.
But there seems to be very little pattern to what makes a big slash ship and what doesn’t.
For instance. Harry Potter. Why is there not a huge Harry/Ron fandom? Heterosexual life partners, here. At least as much textual evidence to support them as to support Harry/Hermione. They even have their moments of hating each others’ guts (GoF, anyone?). And yet nothing, as far as I know (well, sometimes there’s OT3 action, which again, makes loads of sense. But not a lot). And there’s Harry/Draco and Harry/Snape out the whazoo (no wisecracks, please). And okay. People love enmity turning into sex. Got it. But still. Why one and not the other? Can someone please explain this to me?
Is Jeremy/Tyler big in TVD fandom? I am not deeply involved in that fandom, so I don’t know. And then there’s Spike/Xander which makes less than zero sense to me (well, Xander finding Spike attractive seems to be canon. But I can’t see it ever, ever going the other way), because there’s not a lot of outright hatred there, just weird contempt. Is Troy/Abed big and I just don’t know about it? If fandom always ships people who hate each other, where’s the Logan/Weevil? What about Wes/Gunn or Tim Riggins/Jason Street or Chuck/Nate or Tony/Sid? Some of those BFF pairings have really fantastic (platonic, in my eyes, but I could easily see it being otherwise for people) chemistry along the lines of Kirk/Spock or something. So what determines what’s going to take off as a pairing? How does fandom determine that in one fandom they’re going to turn the enemies into lovers and in another they won’t? Or that in this fandom they BFFs are TOTALLY DOING IT while in another they’re just friends?
Of course, one could ask the same thing about het pairings—why some are huge and others are not, but I tend to have much more of an instinct about which one’s going to be the big one (Jeff/Annie having a more active fandom than Jeff/Britta surprises me not at all, and I could have told you that people were going to ship Damon/Elena from literally their first meeting, for example, and the lack of Buffy/Riley—yes, I know there are a few of you out there, but I mean as an active fandom—is the least shocking thing ever). This instinct seems to be non-existent for me when it comes to slash, though (what’s the opposite of slash goggles? Whatever it is, I’ve got that).
This doesn’t really affect me in any way because slash = not my thing. I am just trying to find some sort of discernible pattern here, because I seem to be epically bad at predicting what will and will not be big. Thoughts?
no subject
I have a lot of thoughts on slash. I have never really written them down, but I may at some point, because people often seem interested in my take on it. My general feelings on it are threefold:
1. I am glad that gay male relationships are of interest to people and that there is a wealth of queer romantic and erotic material out there on the 'net that can be read by queer people. I know as a teenager I found reading slash fiction really helpful in figuring out my own sexuality.
2. I think it is great that women are banding together to write for each other and for wider audiences, and I think that fanfiction as a general thing is empowering to women. However:
3. I am thoroughly revolted by the way that probably 80% of slash fiction relies on heterosexist frameworks, and I am very troubled by the fact that slash fandom consists primarily of heterosexual or bisexual females -- the objectification of gay men is an exertion of heterosexual privilege, and being a woman doesn't free you from that. I've actually encountered writers who have told me that slash has 'nothing to do with gay men', and is all about reclaiming female sexuality, which is the biggest heap of bullshit in the world.
The female slash writers I enjoy and support are the ones who write their male characters respectfully and with interiority, and not as body parts or wilting effete caricatures. This is, unfortunately, rare.
no subject
Yeah. This is kind of what I was wondering about. Admittedly, I don't know that much about slash. And be warned, I'm not someone who's in the slightest disturbed by porn (the porn industry? yes. But not porn in general). But I do think there's something sort of beautiful in heterosexual women finding sex between men titillating. And what I mean, is that I find that to be--in theory, at least--a lovely expression of the commonality of the human condition and of the universality of sexual desire.
BUT. Then there's the rub. And that's that people can essentially commodify and fetishize and objectify these male characters and their honest sexual experiences into something to be consumed for the amusement of others.
But, I'm glad that you see so many positives in it--even if it's problematic.
no subject
I think on some level that's how I try to live my life. ;) These shows are a case in point.