Fan fiction stalwarts slash and
femslash, adored and maligned in equal measure, are particularly intriguing to
both fans and scholars. Given the general lack of canonically LGBTQIA
characters in popular culture, I’d argue that the majority of slash involves
taking characters that are either overtly or assumedly straight and cisgender1
and asking “what would happen if they were queer?”
Sometimes this means lots of gay
sex between superheroes, but sometimes slash fiction aims for honest
relationships and self-exploration, contemplation of identity and politics, and
the breakdown of romantic and family drama tropes. Queer experiences have space
to not only be normalised, but made central, even heroic.
Slash fan fiction creates space for queer narratives within popular texts, unbound by commercial conservatism. Ika Willis describes slash fiction as a “site of resistance” where alternate readings of mainstream texts, as well as personal ideologies and pleasures, can be explored and legitimised.2 Her focus is on slash in Harry Potter fandom, in which fans choose to make space for queerness within the series’ canon.
And for those of you still
squicked out by the sexy part, Elizabeth Woledge argues that the subversive
potential of slash in its foregrounding of interpersonal intimacy; erotics are
merely an extension of this emotional sharing, and a way for writers to further
explore ideas about healthy or unhealthy relationships.3
The sharing and discussion of
romantic fan fiction, slash fic in particular, creates opportunities for users
to contemplate and discuss their own identities and experiences. Through fan
fiction, fans create a safe space to consider their own values and identities, and
to share those ideas with others. Zubernis and Larsen have discussed the
therapeutic potential of fandom4,
whilst Alexis Lothian, Kristina Busse and Robin Anne Reid have conducted
discussions with fellow fans about slash and queerness, arguing that “participation
in electronic social networks can induct us into new and unusual narratives of
identity and sexuality, calling into question familiar identifications and
assumptions.”5
They write that engagement in slash fan fiction constitutes part of a greater queer
experience of fandom:
“For us, slash fandom has become a place where a young urban dyke shares erotic space with a straight married mom in the American heartland, and where women whose identity markers suggest they would find few points of agreement have forged erotic, emotional, and political alliances. We do not wish to make excessive claims for the radical diversity of a space dominated by middle-class, educated, liberal, English-speaking, white North American women. Nevertheless, our own experiences in this virtual sphere suggest there is something interesting, and queer, going on here.6
Yes, I concede that so far this
discussion of slash is being rather idealistic. Depending on your opinions and
experience, these visions of gender and sexuality may still be too essential,
too romanticised and inherently problematic. After all, fan fiction also tends
to rely on genre tropes, however subverted and reappropriated they may
originally have been. However, even if a straight cisgendered woman writes queer
experiences through rose-coloured lenses, it does not directly pose a threat to
LGBT rights. Perhaps it can also be a gateway drug of sorts, a means of
introducing LGBT issues to audiences on a personal level.
What are your thoughts? There’s a
lot to discuss when it comes to slash. However, before we zoom too far
off-topic, let’s look at another subversive element of fan fiction.
1 As we all know by now, modern commerical and
mainstream narratives are based on an unspoken heternormativity - characters
are at least assumedly straight, in the sense that we're encouraged to see them
as straight unless repeatedly told otherwise (and usually because their
sexuality plays an integral role in their story arc). But that's a whole
'nother realm of discussion.
2 Ika Willis, “Keeping Promises to Queer Children:
Making Space (for Mary Sue) at Hogwarts,” in Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet, edited
by Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2006), 168.
3 Elizabeth Woledge, “Intimatopia: Genre Intersections
Between Slash and the Mainstream,” in Fan
Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet, edited by Karen
Hellekson and Kristina Busse (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2006), 97-114.
4 Lynn Zubernis and Katherine Larsen, “Fandom as Agent
of Change: Transformative Whats?” in Fandom At The Crossroads: Celebration,
Shame and Fan/Producer Relationships (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge
Scholars Pub., 2012), 82-115.
5 Alexis Lothian, Kristina Busse, and Robin Anne Reid,
““Yearning Void and Infinite Potential”: Online Slash Fandom as Queer Female
Space.” English Language Notes 45.2
(2007): 103.
6 Lothian, Busse and Reid, 104.
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