Slash hits the big time
Apr. 10th, 2003 11:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ivyblossomI went over to visit with my sister Bee today, and she tells me, "Hey! I got my issue of Bitch, there's an article in it about slash fiction!" Suddenly our worlds are colliding. Of course the first thing she does is scout through the article looking for references to her sister, sadly not finding any. Hehehe. How I love Bee.
Fan/Tastic Voyage, by Noy Thrupkaew for Bitch Magazine.
Oddly, on Sunday I saw a short documentary on SexTV about slash fiction as well. Both this and the Bitch article were well-researched, not reactionary, not horrified or disgusted, and not trying to denigrate or mock anyone. They both used the terminology current in fandoms, and showed that the writers of the pieces were actually familiar with the concept and history of slash fandom. The Bitch article goes so far as to call slash feminist and politically important, while the documentary examined the 'queer' angle (women writing smut about men for...other women) among other things. Very interesting.
Is it just me, or is slash getting higher profile? I mean, I'd never heard of it when I found it two years ago. And when I did hear about it it was not in a positive way. Both of these sources I encountered this week were very positive. I know this is just a drop in the bucket to the kind of press attention slash has been getting recently...we have![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thamiris to thank for some of the more literate information getting out to the popular press. After the Bitch article, I'm wondering if we're going to see a flood of feminists come in search of us.
What they may find, though, is that slash is not the feminist mecca they were told that it is.
I wonder what all this attention means for slash fandom, really. Good/bad? I don't know. The more high profile the more we're likely to get attacked. But at the same time, the more they talk about us the more normalized it all becomes and the less drama it's going to cause, I would imagine. These two sources, at least, show slash as being more intelligent than porny, which, having seen some very very bad fics lately, I wonder about. I mean, neither of these sources mention the gigs of pure stinking drivel that exists in slash fanfiction, as well as fanfiction at all.
Possibly they were both newbies and still had that new car smell.
Oddly, on Sunday I saw a short documentary on SexTV about slash fiction as well. Both this and the Bitch article were well-researched, not reactionary, not horrified or disgusted, and not trying to denigrate or mock anyone. They both used the terminology current in fandoms, and showed that the writers of the pieces were actually familiar with the concept and history of slash fandom. The Bitch article goes so far as to call slash feminist and politically important, while the documentary examined the 'queer' angle (women writing smut about men for...other women) among other things. Very interesting.
Is it just me, or is slash getting higher profile? I mean, I'd never heard of it when I found it two years ago. And when I did hear about it it was not in a positive way. Both of these sources I encountered this week were very positive. I know this is just a drop in the bucket to the kind of press attention slash has been getting recently...we have
thamiris to thank for some of the more literate information getting out to the popular press. After the Bitch article, I'm wondering if we're going to see a flood of feminists come in search of us.What they may find, though, is that slash is not the feminist mecca they were told that it is.
I wonder what all this attention means for slash fandom, really. Good/bad? I don't know. The more high profile the more we're likely to get attacked. But at the same time, the more they talk about us the more normalized it all becomes and the less drama it's going to cause, I would imagine. These two sources, at least, show slash as being more intelligent than porny, which, having seen some very very bad fics lately, I wonder about. I mean, neither of these sources mention the gigs of pure stinking drivel that exists in slash fanfiction, as well as fanfiction at all.
Possibly they were both newbies and still had that new car smell.
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Date: 2003-04-11 03:11 am (UTC)On the feminist thing... I can sort of see why slashiness is regarded as a big feminist thang, and I'm a feminist myself... but by the same token, I agree with you- I wonder if they'll see the argument about slash existing because of weaker female characters and get irritated by that, or if they'll then get pissed at JKR... (I had a debate with one of those horribly "everything is oppression" feminists awhile ago, and she went on and on about teh evils of HP because he wasn't a Strong Female Character... *rolls eyes*) I guess getting nopticed gives it an air of normalness. Maybe when my son's my age, it'll be fairly standard to write and read slash... which would be awesome, eh?
~Jess