Femslash (meta essay)
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Femslash |
| Creator: | monalovely |
| Date(s): | November 27, 2007 |
| Medium: | online transcript, podcast |
| Fandom: | |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | online transcript here, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Femslash is an essay and podcast at Slashcast by monalovely.
Topics Discussed
- femslash
- lots of female characters means lots of possibilities
- Sherlock with Watson is creepy
The Essay
Slasher communities always seem to focus, unless told otherwise, on the traditional male/male erotica. But after a while, all that butt sex seemed to lose its hotness, for me, and became, dare I say, boring in a sense. Don't get me wrong, there are some slashers out there who'll give you an orgasm on the spot with their fic, but for me, I do want plot. I want emotion. I want sex. I want love.And so I femslash.
I discovered my love for it as I was reading slash. I'd been a fan of fan fiction for a while, and there was a certain thrill that followed a homosexual relationship. It was enthralling. As I expanded my shipping horizons, I found other intriguing pairings, but all with the boys. Ron/Harry, James/Lucius, and the classic Remus/Sirius became rather dull - Snarry, Rucius, and others lost their exoticness. I was sitting there, wondering, "Why aren't the girls ever mentioned?" Often, I noticed that Hermione was often mentioned to be off with Krum or such, and it became a sort of stereotype with her. I never found her as a main character in her own such sensual adventures, other than in het fic. I explored a bit more, and discovered my first Narcissa/Lily fic. Sweet, by Cedar. I read it - and everything fell into place.
Femslash is different. For me, it isn't just about orgasmic struggle and craving the body - that is, unless you have 2 bad girls, or 2 different, like Pansy/Hermione, which does happen to be one of my favorites. The sex is important, but it's not just about it. In lesbian erotica, I find that because there is so much more physicality, or at least I hope, there needs to be such a deep degree of trust. Most of the femslash I read doesn't tend to be spur-of-the moment sex, but it's deeply rooted in emotion, and sensuality.
I have many friends who prefer the boys, and I don't have any problem with that at all. I'm guilty of it. It's hot. It's fun. It's sexy, and in the world of Harry Potter, the possibilities are endless. But perhaps there are some obstacles with writing femslash in the world of fandom. For example, in a lot of Tolkein works, if you are rooted in movie canon (which a lot of people still are), the main focus is one the male heroisism, and HP is no different. But let me ask you, in a Tolkein book, how many girls do you have to play with? Two? Three maybe? Four if you count Luthien? So that comes to...5-7 combinations. With Harry Potter, because many MANY fans are rooted to the book, you have 28 girls. So pairing-wise, it comes to...21,952 pairings. Yes, I did the calculations. Perhaps the reason femslash seems so sparse in other fandoms is because, well, there's no one to pair up. Sherlock Holmes (one of my favorite fandoms) has ONE female character, and others that have such a sparse history and description, that no one would even want to look at it, let alone search for it. Besides, a loyal Holmes slasher always goes for the Good Doctor Watson, and even that just gives me the creeps.
So if ever you find yourself bored of butt sex, sick of blow jobs and flat-chested men, take a chance. See how naughty Hermione and Cho can be. Don't like them? Well, then, you've got 27 other choices.
This is monalovely on livejournal, and this has been my fandom opinion.