Slash fiction

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Harry Potter fandom slash artwork by the artist Yukipon.


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Slash fiction is a genre of fan fiction[1][2] that focuses on the depiction of romantic or sexual relationships between characters of the same-sex. While the term was originally restricted to stories in which one or more male media characters were involved in an explicit adult relationship as a primary plot element, it is now more generally used to refer to any fan story containing a pairing between male characters. The characters are usually not engaged in such relationships in the canon universe. While slash fiction more commonly involves male characters, the term can be applied to same-sex relationships depicted between either genders, though many fans distinguish the female-focused variety as a separate genre commonly referred to as femslash.

Slash fiction originated in Star Trek fandom in the early 1970s.[3] Slash cannot be commercially distributed due to copyright, and up until the 1990s was either undistributed or published in zines.[4] With the advent of the internet, the slash fiction community of fans and writers began to cluster at sites such as fanfiction.net.[5] Websites and fanzines dedicated to fandoms such as X-files and Buffy the vampire slayer have become common, with tens of thousands of slash stories available.[5] From its earliest days, slash fiction has been particularly inspired by popular speculative fiction franchises,[6][5] in which well-developed female characters may be lacking, or the speculative elements allow greater freedom to reinterpret canon characters. The use of characters from major SF franchises in "gay readings" has caused legal action: LucasFilm has sent cease and desist orders to prevent gay reinterpretations of Star Wars characters.[7] Anne Rice is notorious for attempts to stop production of slash fiction based on her Vampire Chronicles characters.[8]

According to polls, most of slash fandom is made up of heterosexual women with a college degree,[9] though it also includes males and lesbian women. Therefore, the majority of slash authors are women, although male authors also exist . These demographics are older than the yaoi fans and, as such, they tend to be more easily disturbed about slash depicting underage sexuality.[10] This is becoming less true due to the popularity of Harry Potter slash.[11] Slash fiction has been described as important to the LGBT community and the formation of queer identities, as it represents a resistance to the expectation of compulsory heterosexuality,[12] but has also been noted as being unrepresentative of the gay community, being more a medium to express feminist dissatisfactions with SF.[13]

Contents

[edit] History

The symbolic slash, used to separate the two names in a romantic pairing, from which slash fiction takes its name.

It is commonly believed that current day slash fanfiction originated within the Star Trek: The Original Series fan fiction fandom, with "Kirk/Spock" stories – generally authored by female fans of the series – first appearing in the late 1970s.[1] The name arises from the use of the slash symbol (/) in mentions in the late '70s of K/S (meaning stories where Kirk and Spock had a romantic (and often sexual) relationship) as compared to the ampersand (&) conventionally used for K&S or Kirk and Spock friendship fiction. For a time both slash and K/S (for "Kirk/Spock") were used interchangeably. Slash later spread to other fandoms, first Starsky and Hutch, Blake's 7, and The Professionals,[9] then many others, eventually creating a fandom based around the concept of slash.[14] Many early slash stories were based on a pairing of two close friends, a "hero dyad" or "One True Pairing" such as Kirk/Spock, Starsky/Hutch, which meant that other potential pairings such as those between enemies or foils did not get published and so have not received as much academic attention. A classic pairing between foils was that of Blake/Avon from Blake's 7.[15]

At first, slash was not accepted by many fans.[16] Later, authors such as Joanna Russ studied and reviewed the phenomenon in essays and gave the genre more academic clout.[17][18] From there, increasing tolerance and acceptance of homosexuality and frustration with the portrayal of gay relationships in mainstream media fed a growing desire in authors to explore the subjects on their own terms using established media characters. Star Trek remained an important slash fiction fandom, while new slash fandoms grew around other television shows, movies, and books with sci-fi or action adventure roots and two or more charismatic male characters.

Until the internet became accessible to the general public in the early 1990s, slash was tucked away as a subculture in certain fandoms, published only in fan-edited non-profit fanzines (often called only "zines") priced just high enough to recoup printing costs,[9] usually sold via adzines or at conventions. Slash moved to become predominantly an internet phenomenon. The field became open to more writers and allowed the publication of a greater quantity of material. It increased the number of readers, who were now able to access the stories from their own home at a much lower cost (the price of zines vs. the price of internet connections). The number of fandoms represented increased, especially those devoted to science fiction, fantasy, and police dramas.[9] The internet also increased the level of interaction – not every fan could write fiction, but the internet made it easier for fans to comment on stories, give episode reviews, and discuss and comment on trends in slash fandom itself.

Slash fiction continues to follow popular media, and new stories are constantly being produced. Slash fiction readers and writers tend to adhere closely to the canonical source of their fiction, and create a fandom for that particular source. However, some participants follow the slash content created by a certain fandom without being fans of the original source material itself.[19] Of the diverse and often segregated slash fandoms, each fandom has its own rules of style and etiquette, and each comes with its own history, favorite stories, and authors. There is some correlation between the popularity and activity within each fandom and that of the source of the material.

Many people in recent times view slash as a hobby, both writing and reading it. It has become so popular that it has involved the coming together of certain communities, particularly on the internet, to share interests. Slash usually is based on a particular fictitious programme or film and many people have become famous through writing slash novels but usually remain anonymous. The slash communities regularly post updates on each others work, showing feedback of their work.

In recent years, slash fiction has moved beyond text-based literature. With the help of the internet to promote and distribute multi-media content and the growing prevalence of the slash phenomenon, new forms of slash (beyond narrative fiction) and slash analysis have begun to appear. It has been noted that Slash fiction has received more acedemic attention than other genres of fan fiction.[3] Slash fiction was the subject of several notable academic studies in the early 1990s, as part of the cultural studies movement within the humanities: Most of these, as is characteristic of cultural studies, approach slash fiction from an ethnographic perspective and talk primarily about the writers of slash fiction and the communities that form around slash fiction. However, some studies (such as Cicioni's) focus on textual analysis of slash fiction itself.

[edit] Definition & ambiguity

The term slash fiction has several noted ambiguities within it. Due to the lack of canonical homosexual relationships in source media, some came to see slash fiction as being exclusively outside of canon. These people held that the term 'slash fiction' only applies when the relationship being written about is not part of the source's canon, and that fan fiction about canonical same-sex relationships is hence not slash.[15] The recent appearance of openly gay and bisexual characters on screen, such as Willow and Tara in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the characters of Queer as Folk,[15] Jack Harkness in Doctor Who and Torchwood,[citation needed] has added much to this discussion. However, abiding by this definition leaves such stories without a convenient label, so this distinction has not been widely adopted.[15]

More recently, some slash authors have begun to write slash fiction which contains transgender themes and transgender/transsexual or intersex characters.[citation needed]As a result, the exact definition of the term within this respect has often been hotly debated within various slash fandoms. The strictest definition holds that only stories about relationships between two male partners ('M/M') are 'slash fiction', which has led to the evolution of the term femslash, or femmeslash. Slash is also present in various Japanese anime or manga fandoms, but is referred to as shounen-ai or yaoi for relationships between male characters, and shoujo-ai or yuri between female characters respectively.

Due to increasing popularity and prevalence of slash on the internet in recent years, some use slash as a generic term for any erotic fan fiction, whether it describes heterosexual or homosexual relationships. It has also caused concern for slash writers who believe that while it can be erotic, slash is not by definition so, and that defining erotic fic alone as slash takes the word away from all-ages-suitable homo-romantic fan fiction. This may cause confusion when the quite unambiguous words 'erotica', 'adult', and 'porn' already exist along with fan-fiction terms such as 'lemon'. In addition, a number of journalists writing about the fan fiction phenomenon in general seem to believe that all fan fiction is slash, or at least erotic in character.[20][21][22] Such definitions fail to distinguish between slash, het (works focusing primarily on heterosexual relationships) and gen (works which do not include a romantic focus).

The slash mark itself / when put between character's names has come to mean a shorthand label for a romantic relationship, regardless of whether the pairing is heterosexual or homosexual.[15]

For many people, slash is a controversial subject. In addition to the legal issues associated with traditional fan fiction, some people believe that it tarnishes established media characters to portray them in a way which was never illustrated canonically.[23] Slash fiction writers, however, often believe that sexual orientation and romance aren't necessarily fixed entities and that it is impossible to state conclusively that any character is straight, gay or bisexual.[citation needed]In cases where the extrapolated characters in slash fiction gain more popularity within a certain community than the original character themselves, the "fandom version" – alternative sexuality intact – may be perpetuated by slash fiction writers who may not have even watched the show and are unaware of how the show informs its characters' sexuality at all.[citation needed]

There is vociferous debate on the canonicity of any relationship, be it homosexual or heterosexual, on various fan fiction websites. However, a certain percentage of slash writers choose their fandom because they believe it is actually likely within their chosen universe and that the original creator was unable to write about it for fear of losing popularity. For example, Angel/Spike fan fiction within the Buffyverse: in the Angel DVD commentary for "A Hole in the World", Joss Whedon, the creator of Angel said, "Spike and Angel...they were hanging out for years and years and years. They were all kinds of deviant. Are people thinking they never...? Come on, people! They're open-minded guys!" as well as Spike saying "Angel and me have never been intimate. Except that one..." to Illyria in the episode "Power Play." Some people say they see similar evidence of such relationships in other shows such as Smallville,[24] and Supernatural,[25].

LucasFilm has sent cease and desist orders to prevent gay reinterpretations of Star Wars characters.[7]

In the episode The Monster At The End Of This Book of the TV show Supernatural, the main characters encounter fictional representations of themeselves in series of books. The find the on-line fandom, and comment about their activities including the writing of slash fanfiction.

[edit] Fandom

[edit] Demographics

According to polls, most of slash fandom is made up of heterosexual women with a college degree,[9] though it also includes males and lesbian women. Therefore, the majority of slash authors are women, although male authors also exist . These demographics are older than the yaoi fans and, as such, they tend to be more easily disturbed about slash depicting underage sexuality.[10] This is becoming less true due to the popularity of Harry Potter slash.[11]

[edit] Terminology

Main article: Glossary of fan fiction terms

Slash fiction has created and appropriated words to describe peculiarities found within the fandom. "Gayfic" is sometimes used to refer to stories focussing on gay male relationships,[citation needed] and "femslash" or "f/f" used to indicate that a work features female characters in slash relationships.

Slash fiction, like other fan fiction, sometimes borrows the MPAA film rating system to indicate the amount of sexual content in the story.[citation needed]Not all slash fiction has explicit sexual content – the interaction between two characters can be as innocent as holding hands or a chaste kiss, or even contain nothing but unfulfilled yearning; stories may be labeled "UST" for "unresolved sexual tension". Some sites require all stories to be rated and have warnings attached, often by using a beta reader.

The term no lemon is sometimes used to indicate fanfiction stories without sexual content. Anything with explicit content may be labeled "lemon". The term lemon arose from the anime/yaoi fandoms. Lemon refers to a hentai anime series, Cream Lemon. Another term, squick, most often used as a warning to refer to a reader's possible negative reaction to scenes in the text (often sexual) that some might find offensive or distressing. This may include incest, BDSM, rape, "MPreg" (male pregnancy), gender swapping, and torture. The term originated in the Usenet newsgroup alt.sex.bondage in 1991.[26] Squicks are often listed as a warning in the header of a fanfiction story.

The term "slasher" is used for someone who creates slash fiction, and the term "slashy" is used to mean "homoerotic". "Slashy moments" are those events in the canon storyline which slashers interpret as homoerotic, which inform the slashers' depiction of the characters in slash fiction. [27]

[edit] Subgenres

[edit] Femslash

Femslash is a subgenre of slash fiction which focuses on romantic and/or sexual relationships between female fictional characters.[28] Typically, characters featured in femslash are heterosexual in the canon universe; however, similar fan fiction about lesbian characters are commonly labeled as femslash for convenience.[29] The term is generally applied only to fanworks based on Western fandoms; the nearest anime/manga equivalents are more often called yuri and shōjo-ai fanfiction.[30] Femslash is also known as "f/f slash", "femmeslash", and "saffic",[31] the last term being a portmanteau of Sapphic and fiction.[32]

There is less femslash than there is slash based on male couples - it has been suggested that heterosexual female slash authors generally do not write femslash,[33] and that it is rare to find a fandom with two sufficiently engaging female characters.[34] Janeway/Seven is the main Star Trek femslash pairing, as only they have "an on-screen relationship fraught with deep emotional connection and conflict".[35] Although it is debated whether fanfiction about canon lesbians such as Willow and Tara of Buffy the Vampire Slayer counts as "slash", their relationship storylines are more coy than heterosexual ones, which entices Willow/Tara femslash authors to fill in the gaps in the known relationship storyline.[36] It is "relatively recently" that male writers have begun writing femslash.[37]

[edit] Chanslash

Chanslash is the controversial portrayal of underage characters in sexual situations in slash fiction. The prefix chan most likely comes from the Japanese name suffix used as a term of endearment toward children or women. It may be a nod towards yaoi fandoms,[citation needed] in which underage pairings are more commonplace.[10] Owners of the intellectual property rights to characters in this type of slash are often unhappy with chanslash because of the potential legal ramifications and concern over negatively affecting the popularity of the character.[citation needed] Some studios owning the rights to slashed characters have issued cease and desist orders in the past as a result of this type of slash.[citation needed] Chanslash is also called shotacon (abbreviated as "shouta" or "shota") when dealing with anime fanfiction.

[edit] Real person slash

Real person slash (RPS), also a subgenre of real person fiction, involves taking a celebrity's public image and creating slash stories with them. Real person slash gained popularity with the rise of the pop music industry.[38] RPS is "a potential squick", and RPS which deals with boy bands is sometimes called "Popslash".[39] In particular, the popularity of boy bands in the late 1990s and early 2000s promoted the growth of RPS.[citation needed] These journals often include disclaimers that explain their true (fictional) nature, and that authors are participants in role-playing games where they take on the persona of a celebrity. Henry Jenkins says that RPS may be "troubling" to the old guard of slash.[40] Fans of real person slash state that the personas presented by the common figures of RPS such as boy bands, celebrities and pro wrestlers are "largely manufactured" for the pleasure of female fans, "so why not just run with them?"[41]

[edit] Slash artwork

In addition to fiction, fans also create artwork depicting media characters in same-sex relationship contexts. In recent years, the widespread availability of imaging software, like Adobe Photoshop, has allowed slash artists to manipulate photographs of their subjects to produce romantic or erotic images (often referred to as manips) which imply a homosexual relationship, either as static pictures or animated GIFs. When the manipulated photos depict real people instead of media characters, the creation of these images can be as contentious as RPS, and for many of the same reasons.

[edit] Critical attention

This section requires expansion.

Slashers were configured in the 1990s as fans who resisted culture.[27] Slash fiction has been largely ignored by queer theorists.[42]

[edit] See also

LGBT portal

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Bacon-Smith, Camille. "Spock Among the Women." New York Times Sunday Book Review, November 16, 1986.
  2. ^ Norman Bryson, Michael Ann Holly, and Keith P. F. Moxey (1994). "Feminism, Psychoanalysis, and Popular Culture". Visual Culture: Images and Interpretations. Wesleyan University Press. pp. 304–305. ISBN 081956267X. 
  3. ^ a b Laura, Marcus; Peter Nicholls (2004). The Cambridge history of twentieth-century English literature. Cambridge University Press. p. 799. ISBN 9780521820776. 
  4. ^ Decarnin, Camilla (2006) "Slash Fiction" in Gaëtan Brulotte and John Phillips (eds.) Encyclopedia of Erotic Literature New York: Routledge, pp. 1233-1235.
  5. ^ a b c Laura, Marcus; Peter Nicholls (2004). The Cambridge history of twentieth-century English literature. Cambridge University Press. p. 798. ISBN 9780521820776. 
  6. ^ David Seed Ed., A Companion to Science Fiction, "Science Fiction/Criticism" p. 57, ISBN 1405112182
  7. ^ a b Sean, Redmond (2004). Liquid Metal: The Science Fiction Film Reader. US: Wallflower Press. p. 298. ISBN 1903364876. 
  8. ^ Laura, Marcus; Peter Nicholls (2004). The Cambridge history of twentieth-century English literature. Cambridge University Press. p. 800. ISBN 9780521820776. 
  9. ^ a b c d e Kustritz, Anne (September 2003). "Slashing the Romance Narrative". The Journal of American Culture 26 (3): 371–384. doi:10.1111/1542-734X.00098. 
  10. ^ a b c McLelland, Mark (10 2001). "Local meanings in global space: a case study of women's 'Boy love' web sites in Japanese and English". http://motspluriels.arts.uwa.edu.au/MP1901mcl.html. 
  11. ^ a b McLelland, Mark. The World of Yaoi: The Internet, Censorship and the Global “Boys’ Love” Fandom Australian Feminist Law Journal, 2005.
  12. ^ Weaver, John A.; Karen Anijar, Toby Daspit (2003). Science Fiction Curriculum, Cyborg Teachers, & Youth Culture(s). US: P. Lang. p. 84. ISBN 0820450448. 
  13. ^ Sean, Redmond (2004). Liquid Metal: The Science Fiction Film Reader. US: Wallflower Press. p. 279. ISBN 1903364876. 
  14. ^ Boyd, Kelly (2001) "One index finger on the mouse scroll bar and the other on my clit" : slash writers' views on pornography, censorship, feminism and risk
  15. ^ a b c d e Tosenberger, Catherine (2008) "Homosexuality at the Online Hogwarts: Harry Potter Slash Fanfiction" Children's Literature 36 pp.185-207 doi:10.1353/chl.0.0017
  16. ^ Jenna Sinclair, Short History of Kirk/Spock Slash. Retrieved 2008-06-30.
  17. ^ Russ, Joanna, "Pornography by Women for Women, With Love" in her book, Magic Mommas, Trembling Sisters, Puritans & Perverts. New York: The Crossing Press: 1985.
  18. ^ Penley, Constance, "Feminism, Psychoanalysis,and the Study of Popular Culture." In Grossberg, Lawrence, ed., Cultural Studies, Rutledge 1992, p. 479. A detailed examination of K/S in terms of (among many other things) feminism and feminist studies.
  19. ^ Green, Shoshanna, Cynthia Jenkings and Henry Jenkins. "Normal Female Interest in Men Bonking: Selections From 'The Terra Nostra Underground' and 'Strange Bedfellows'." Ed. C. Harris & A. Alexander. Theorizing Fandom: Fans, Subculture and Identity. New Jersey: Hampton, 1998: pp. 9-38.
  20. ^ Dery, Mark. Glossary. Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyber Culture. North Carolina: Duke UP, 1994.
  21. ^ Viegener, Matias. "The Only Haircut That Makes Sense Anymore." Queer Looks: Lesbian & Gay Experimental Media. Routledge, New York: 1993.
  22. ^ Dundas, Zach, "Hobbits Gone Wrong." In Willamette Week, July 14, 2004, retrieved 2008-07-15. A less-than-complimentary report on slash fiction and its role in the "Bit Of Earth" scam involving fans of the The Lord of the Rings films.
  23. ^ Hunter, Kendra. "Characterization Rape." The Best of Trek 2. New York: New American Library, 1977.
  24. ^ The Kryptonite closet: Silence and queer secrecy in Smallville
  25. ^ "Tosenberger". Journal.transformativeworks.org. http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/30/36. Retrieved on 2009-03-06. 
  26. ^ "squick" definition from Double-Tongued Dictionary
  27. ^ a b Allington, Daniel (2007) “How Come Most People Don't See It?”: Slashing the Lord of the Rings Social Semiotics, Volume 17, Issue 1 March 2007 , pages 43 - 62 doi: 10.1080/10350330601124650
  28. ^ Lo, Malinda. (4 January 2006) Fan Fiction Comes Out of the Closet AfterEllen.com. Retrieved 19 July 2007.
  29. ^ Herzing, Melissa. (April 2005) The Internet World of Fan Fiction Virginia Commonwealth University. Retrieved 12 August 2007.
  30. ^ Dictionary of Anime Fandom Lunaescence. Retrieved 19 July 2007.
  31. ^ Lawrence, K. F.; Schraefel, M. C. (2006) Web Based Semantic Communities – Who, How and Why We Might Want Them in the First Place University of Southampton. Retrieved 12 August 2007.
  32. ^ Tosenberger, Catherine (2008) "Homosexuality at the Online Hogwarts: Harry Potter Slash Fanfiction" Children's Literature 36 pp.185-207 doi:10.1353/chl.0.0017
  33. ^ Thrupkaew, Noy. "Fan/tastic Voyage". Bitch Magazine. http://bitchmagazine.org/article/fan-tastic-voyage. Retrieved on 2009-03-06. 
  34. ^ Lo, Malinda (2006-01-04). "Fan Fiction Comes Out of the Closet". AfterEllen.com. http://www.afterellen.com/Print/2006/1/fanfiction.html?page=0%2C1. Retrieved on 2009-03-06. 
  35. ^ http://j-l-r.org/asmic/fanfic/print/jlr-cyborgsex.pdf
  36. ^ Lo, Malinda (2006-01-04). "Fan Fiction Comes Out of the Closet". AfterEllen.com. http://www.afterellen.com/Print/2006/1/fanfiction.html?page=0%2C2. Retrieved on 2009-03-06. 
  37. ^ http://slayageonline.com/Volumes/Slayage_Volume_4.pdf
  38. ^ "Slashing through the undercult". Daily Telegraph. 2006-02-14. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/02/12/bocovers.xml&sSheet=/arts/2006/02/12/bomain.html. Retrieved on 2007-08-24. 
  39. ^ http://pdfs.voya.com/VO/YA2/VOYA200504Fanfiction.pdf
  40. ^ Leander Kahney (1975-03-05). "Bill/Steve's Sexcellent Adventure". Wired.com. http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2002/06/53071?currentPage=2. Retrieved on 2009-03-06. 
  41. ^ http://bitchmagazine.org/article/fan-tastic-voyage Bitch
  42. ^ Slashing the Fiction of Queer Theory

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