Slash: it's the new black.

[ivyblossom]

Three years ago when I started reading/writing slash, it was definitely my dirty little secret. How could I possibly explain to my friends what I was doing? There was really nothing else like it, nothing to point to in the media, no pop culture fad, no Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Fanfiction is one thing, but slash fanfiction? Reading through my old justifications and moaning on the subject just underscores the strangeness of it all; I was a 20something lesbian writing about iconic male characters as if they were gay in a culture that had no place and no time for gay men. Why was I doing this? Did my own queerness come into it? Was this premeditated gay social action, or dime store erotica with a creative twist? Is it about subverting the genre, taking pop culture into my own hands, making world-famous icons bend over and take it from my all-encompassing will, or was it a form of thoughtful creation, a comment on the culture and the icons it elevates? Did it say more about me, the slash world, or the literature I was stealing from? I had no real answers. I attempted to create some in highly academic prose to account for my obsession, and they satisfied me on some level. But deep down I knew there was more to all this slash writing than I was letting on.

Well, today the world of popular culture seems to have difted our way. I can't even believe it, but it's true. Today, in the University paper, the undergraduate staff made a list of what's sexy in 2004. Second on the list is this:

Faux-gay men: On an episode of The Simple Life, Nicole Ritchie proclaimed her love fo guys making out, prompting the two straight dudes in the room to give each other awkward glances. Lucky fo rthem, straight men won't be so afraid of each other any longer as they learn that in the same way that men love seeing two women engage in sensuous play with each other (see: T.A.T.U. and Madge and Britney), straight women can get turned on by two men gettin' it on. We all know there was more to The Lord of the Rings success than the beauty of Orlando and Viggo -- the not so secretive love affair between Sam and Frodo surely boosted ticket sales. The 2003 term 'metrosexual' is going ot have to stretch a bit to include not only expertise in the realm of fashion and culture, but also this new trend of boy meets boy. Or how about we just coin a new world altogether: let's hear it for teh "faux-mos!"

Are we ahead of the game, or what? Shall we just call ourselves trend-setters? We're cooler than cool, yo.

This doesn't really help me answer the 'why' part of it, but at least it's less unheard of now than it was. No wonder the het fandoms get so pissy about the slash fandoms with whom they are forced to co-exist on this tiny little information highway. We have that cool factor they lack, apparently. Now my friends can just imagine that I'm fashionable and cutting edge instead of creepy. My hobby is amusing rather than challenging.

I wonder if this is a good thing. I still don't know what I'm doing here.

Comments

[treehavn.livejournal.com]

Best line ever:

Is it about subverting the genre, taking pop culture into my own hands, making world-famous icons bend over and take it from my all-encompassing will

And your will is hung like a donkey, obviously.

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

Why, of course. :)

Did you get the message about class being cancelled this evening? w00t!

[treehavn.livejournal.com]

I know. And sadly I will have to keep your preeety necklace for just that bit longer!

[ari-o.livejournal.com]

Well, praetorianguard were talking about this yesterday. Each individual's reasoning for liking/writing/getting off on slash is going to be different, obviousy. I think for many it is the subversive nature of it. Of course if the main stream culture accepts slash - then it isn't subversive anymore. I've got the impression that many women in the fandom who write slash are not comfortable with female sexuality and female parts. Although - I hope that is just youth, or something. I also hope I'm wrong about that - but I have seen polls and on livejournal and the results have basically said "Vagina - ewww."

I totally understand the idea of objectifying men as the article in your paper points out, but I think that just points out another way to dehumanize sex - instead of levelling the playing field. Fantasy is well and good - I'm obviously all for it. But I think there are many people who only have fantasy - there is no real life counterpart. And that seems a little one sided and unhealthy to me. We all go through celibate periods... Well, I guess to each his own. I don't know - I'm not trying to be judgemental about people's sexuality.

I have to say - I've seen a lot of formulaic bad slash in the last year. There is always anal sex, the prostate being rubbed, and TeH joy of two erect penises jostling each other for the very first time. Occasionally I find a piece that has something new - or where the writing is just so good - I don't care.

First slash was subversive, then femmeslash was subversive - but not as widely written - now it seems RPS and incestfic are subversive, there certainly have been fics detailing sex between people and food, tea-sets, dead people, animals... What is left?

All I know is I wrote something for a smut challenge recently and the craziest thing I could think of to do was write NC-17 Harry/Ginny.

We live in a weird little bubble here. I don't know what I'm doing either.

[strigoia.livejournal.com]

Sweet. I've never been a trend-setter before.

[biztheinsane.livejournal.com]

It's hip to be square.

[kayen.livejournal.com]

>>making world-famous icons bend over and take it from my all-encompassing will<<
Hehehe.
That is so ... Shakespeare-bawdy! :D
You. Rock. Just saying.

[saucy-wench.livejournal.com]

YouAreSoTrendy.

[scizo-frenic.livejournal.com]

When did sexuality become a trend? That cheapens things so much. I didn't get involved in slash because it was cool or hip, I got involved in slash because the relationships were new and different to me. The dynamics of male/male emotions were so odd to me because I was used to females, you know?

Now it's become a trend? What the fuck?

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

Well...sexuality has always been a staple of popular culture. I'm not sure there's anything really new there. Just because being interested in gay relationships is currently trendy doesn't necessarily change your participation, does it? And you find the male/male dynamic 'odd'; so how is that different from what's going on here? I mean, maybe it's the same for all these new people. Possibly it's just a matter of exposure?

[scizo-frenic.livejournal.com]

I guess it just kind of struck me because people like Nicole Ritchie like things for five seconds, then throw things away. I feel like my interests are being threatened. It's childish and stupid, but I feel intensly protective for some reason.

And you find the male/male dynamic 'odd'; so how is that different from what's going on here?

I did find the male/male dynamic 'odd' when I first started reading slash. It was new and foreign to me. I grew up in a house were homosexuality was taboo, so it was odd. I didn't even know how two guys actually had intercourse until I was in 8th grade. I hope I wasn't offensive to anyone, but I have grown.

[briarsequinox.livejournal.com]

Despite all I've read about gay being in and metrosexual being in, it doesn't change the fact that the average is very homophobic and it doesn't look like it will change very soon.

the girls might gush about how "cute" frodo and sam are, but what's their reaction to 2 Grade 12s awkwardly coming out of the closet?

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

Well, going from living in a dorm 10 years ago to living in a dorm right now, I'd say things have changed a lot. The kinds of issues I had to deal with as a gay person among peers are definitely different here and now. I think, in spite of everything, large groups of people do change their minds after something's been hammered at them long enough.

I mean, the whole women voting thing isn't really debated much anymore, after all.

[briarsequinox.livejournal.com]

Good point.

[auntbeast.livejournal.com]

there's a good article in i think the new yorker, possibly some other magazine i read (the nation or atlantic monthly or something)this week about gay literature in the 50s--this is obviously tangential to your entry, but it was about how these novelists were viewed as serious popular writers at the time, and how much that changed in the 60s. i could be more vague, but that would be unhelpful.

[splintercat.livejournal.com]

Sometimes it seems like slash fandom's favorite thing to do is talk about slash fandom. I'm starting to think we'll never really figure out why we're here.

Hi, I'm a random crazy lurker who just got a livejournal. I'm a really big fan of your fanfics and I just wanted to tell you that I friended you, if that's ok?

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

Well, we may never figure it out, but I don't see any problem with a little self-analysis. I'd rather be navel-gazing than thoughtless about why I'm here and what I'm doing.

And I'm glad you got a livejournal! Wheee! Thanks for friending me. :) I'm looking forward to your participation in the craziness that is the HP livejournal community.

*rubs noses*

[vampiresetsuna.livejournal.com]

that's cool!!! i remember the days when having a fandom was a shameful secret for geeks and miscreants all together, and now we can wear our 'proud to be a slasher' badge in public! it's quite grand. =P

[sinisteral.livejournal.com]

That's awesome. Now I have an explaination to tell my friends my interest in slash.

The Lord of the Rings success than the beauty of Orlando and Viggo -- the not so secretive love affair between Sam and Frodo surely boosted ticket sales.

so true ^_^;

[cat-mom.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I think we tend to overanalyze the "why"? Pop culture will always have its' flavor of the moment, but I don't think it trickles down to the masses for the most part. There's always been porn, but it used to be harder to get and the average persons' idea of porn was Playboy (or if you were sophisticated, it was Hustler) With the internet becoming so wide spread, now everyone (except the Gold list people apparently) has access to porn, slash, etc. Slash would not have evolved without the internet, and the fact that so many of us enjoy reading slash has less to do with US and more to do with how EASY it is. I prefer not to probe the depths of society (or myself) to discover the "why?" I love to read slash (H/D if you care) because it is hot and exciting and well, that just it.

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

porn, slash, etc.

WAH! When did slash turn into porn? You scare me. I've never been in it for the porn, myself. I'm sort of more of a character dynamic sort of person. WAH.

[paperdialup.livejournal.com]

Bravo! I hate smut. I think its boring.
Secondly, I know exactly how you feel.

[cat-mom.livejournal.com]

I think you misunderstood me. I never said slash turned into porn. I was saying that all these types of stories, etc were easy to find because of the internet. Besides, when I say porn, I'm not using it in a negative or judgmental way. Smutfic, slashfic, porn, I don't really care what it's called - one either likes a particular story or not.

[al-riddle.livejournal.com]

*agrees muchly* I love your insight.

[zorb]

Congratulations! You've just won the coveted Golden Lemon. Thank the Academy and fandom_scruples.

[lagreyeyes.livejournal.com]

Regarding the current "trendiness" of gay sexuality: I was around (albeit a pre-teen) during the whole glitter thing in the early/mid '70s and it received the same sort of media attention. Really, everyone became or pretended to be bisexual, at least for a time. It was quite faddish and all rather fun. A "brave new world" sort of feeling. Of course, many were dilettantes.

Obviously, it was also healthy as it opened attitudes a bit. But the doors shut soon thereafter - everything goes in cycles, it seems. I hope that won't happen this time.

[stendahl.livejournal.com]

Hmm, not so much progress around here. Managed to get almost universal agreement from friends last weekend that women like reading good porn. However, caused quite long hiatus in conversation the previous week when suggesting that I not only enjoyed watching Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom in PotC, but also enjoyed the thought of what they might get up to together. Maybe I'm just so far from the centre of the coolness. It may reach here by, oh, 2006.

[kragey.livejournal.com]

I'm a rather big fan of the Veela and slash fanfiction, so I thought you might like to see that some assholes have you black listed (http://www.livejournal.com/users/fandom_scruples/).

REALLY. If we write an NC-17 fic, then post it in our journal COVERED with warnings and stick warnings INTO the story, not to mention CLEARLY LABEL the rating, people should NOT make a fuss. I paste labels all over my stories, and if people don't read them, it's their fuckin' problem, not ours, right?

Congrats, anyway--I think being black listed will increase the popularity of the Veela ten fold. ^_~

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, thanks for the heads up. I saw that.

The ironic thing is that I'm fairly sure I'm one of the only people in this fandom who's always had her website locked up, requiring users to read a warning and manually type in the phrase "over18" in order to see anything, including G rated fics. My fanfiction archives are not googled. My sites are all listed with the ICRA (http://www.icra.org/), and filtering software, installed by responsible parents, will block out my sites. My livejournal is set to no spiders, and I always post fanfiction with plenty of warnings under lj cuts. I moderate a mailing list that restricts membership to those over 18, does not make its archives public, is not listed in the yahoo groups search, and whose moderators routinely check the rolls and unsubscribe any users that appear to have lied to the system.

I do believe in responsible use of the internet. I also believe in intellectual freedom, something that blacklisters apparently do not.

[kragey.livejournal.com]

I do believe in responsible use of the internet. I also believe in intellectual freedom, something that blacklisters apparently do not.

Woot to that, sista.

[theropicus.livejournal.com]

I fail to see the real difference between password protected fanfiction and fanfiction that just has the warnings. If underage kids want to read NC17 fanfic, password protection isn't going to slow them down anymore than the warnings did. It's just one of those facts of life.

And, really, being over 18 doesn't mean anything. I read my first NC17 fic when I was 14 because the website that it was on said "13 and up", not "NC17" (of course, that was anime fanfic, and they call it lemon, and since I was new to the fandom I didn't know what it meant).

Personally I find the "18 and up" requirement to be a bit silly, since there are people who are under 18 but mature enough to handle NC17 fanfic. I'm always reminded of one author (I think it was Utopian Trunks) who submitted a fic to a contest, and then was unable to read it on the contest site because she was under the required age. Of course, I've had it pointed out to me that the only way one can keep out those who aren't mature enough for smutfic is to have the blanket "18 and up" disclaimer.

As for the who "slash being trendy" - this is a recent thing? For me, slash has been a part of fanfiction since I started reading and writing it. When I started reading it in 1998, I had a hard time finding het fics - and I still do today! I keep on hearing about people who have big anti-slash/yaoi sites, and I have yet to find them. I wasn't even aware that there was a het community online! Though maybe it's just as well, considering the fact that I seem to only hear bad things about it ^.^;;

Re:

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

I fail to see the real difference between password protected fanfiction and fanfiction that just has the warnings.

In order to find and read password protected fanfiction, people need to read through instructions and find this password, and then enter it into a little box by the force of their own typing. In this way everyone makes an active choice to view fanfiction of any rating. if a file merely has warning at the top, it can be stumbled upon and people can claim not to know what they were doing. Fanfiction behind a password lock cannot be spidered. Adding no spider tags to a file might prevent some spider bots, but not all.

Personally I find the "18 and up" requirement to be a bit silly, since there are people who are under 18 but mature enough to handle NC17 fanfic.

18 and up requirements have nothing to do maturity and everything to do with legality. If people under the age of 18 are so mature, why is it they seem to often fail to understand the tricky legal position their presence forces on the rest of us? We're not concerned about the moral welfare of kids under a certain age when we password lock our websites, we're trying to make sure we don't get a C&D letter or an angry call from their mother's lawyers. Your example of someone underage submitting material to an adult website and then apparently flaunting her age doesn't speak well for her maturity, does it. Doing that puts the people who accepted her work in danger of serious harassment, or perhaps you haven't seen fandom_scruples? The "look how mature I am" angle doesn't really wash. Truly mature teens under 18 fly under the radar to keep the rest of us out of trouble.

And yes, it is a new thing that slash has become increasingly trendy. I know it was far from trendy in 2001 when i started out. Now gay issues are at the forefront in pop culture, and many positive articles have been and are being written about the phenomenon that is slash fanfiction. Slash has been around since the 1970s, but it's only recently that it's become interesting to the mainstream. I'd say it's still not trendy, but all signs are pointing to it becoming so.

I don't know about other fandoms, but the het fandom for HP remains much larger than the slash fandom.

[elvish-witch.livejournal.com]

Um, hello I friended you as well ...
It certainly hasn't made it to mainstream over here. I mean, every time I am asked which is my favourite couple in Harry Potter I say "Harry and Draco" (yes, I am a tad boring that way). And the response is every time "No, no I meant as couple." I: "Yes, I know." "No, no I mean a relationship" Me: "Yes, that is exactly what I mean." Silence. Quick Move to another subject.
I even tried to bring slash into a discussion about Harry Potter in a course at university last year (that wasn't in Switzerland, that was in Sheffield, England). What had been a lively discussion stopped, to be picked up again at the point before I made the mention of Harry and Draco or Sirius and Remus.
Having said that, I didn't get into slash because it was subversive. I admit I enjoyed it being subversive, but I first got into Ranma 1/2 yaoi *cough* because the stories were so well written. That was over 4 years ago and I think I only read about 2 or 3 het fanfics since.

[ladyagnew.livejournal.com]

I just had to pop in to say that I had a much bigger problem with fanfic itself than slash. I started out reading het, and I wanted to keep it as secret as possible that I was reading X-Files erotic fanfiction. For the dork factor, I'm sorry to say. It's the slash I've never really had a problem with.

Anyone who knows me fairly well knows I find slash-y things hot. I comment on homoeroticism in the wider cult all the frickin' time. But I keep my slash reading under wraps because fanfiction as a genre and activity is much less cool than an interesting kink.

My sixteen year old boy cousin totally knows that I'm into m/m. He teases me about it all the time, and I drag him to every LotR movie just to poke him during the tender Sam/Frodo moments. He's even told me about a female classmate of his who loves homoeroticism as well--a high school girl openly known for reading gay-themed novels and swooning over them, and probably urging all her male friends to make out. But I'd never tell him about reading fanfic because it's much less cool.

[shwoo.livejournal.com]

How did you come out to people?

Re:

[theropicus.livejournal.com]

Fanfiction behind a password lock cannot be spidered.

I'm sorry, I really don't know what "spidered" means! Do you mean that it won't show up in web-searches? Hmmm... I guess it is a good thing then to have NC17 stuff password protected ? if nothing else it keeps out people who are just trolling for reading material. However, I would think that it would be difficult to go about acquiring a password protected website ? I for one wouldn't know where to start! (I guess it's a good thing I don't write NC17 fanfic.)

Your example of someone underage submitting material to an adult website and then apparently flaunting her age doesn't speak well for her maturity, does it.

You do have a point there. I'm not sure about all the details of that one situation, but you've managed to produce an outstanding counter-argument , good for you! :) The legal aspect is a good point... but can't people under 18 legally buy romance novels? From what I've heard about romance novels, they're very similar to NC17 fics, only very heavy on the metaphors. As a friend of mine once said, "my sister read bodice-rippers when she was my age, I guess I read lemons."

Hmm... I don't know that much about HP fandom, despite having lurked in it for over a year now, so I guess you know what you're talking about when you say that slash hasn't been "trendy" in the fandom. I've mostly read/written anime fanfiction up until this point, and I've found them to be very open to slash (yaoi). If you consider the fact that the Harry Potter books (and movies) are aimed at children, that's not very surprising. Most children don't give much serious thought to sexuality until they enter junior high/high school. I know I didn't :)

Thanks for the mature and well thought out reply!

(And on a totally different note, I like your icon! Did you draw it? ^.^)