Why Slash
| Synonyms: | whyslash | |
| See also: | My Thoughts on Yaoi | |
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Like the proverbial salmon, there comes a time in every metafan's life when they feel compelled to return to the Ultimate Question: but why slash?[1]
Fans sometimes refer to this perennial wondering as "whyslash" or "The Why Slash Debate" or simply "the why slash", and answers are as varied as fen [2].
The longer one is in fandom, the shorter one's response to this question becomes, often shrinking from vast multipost entries to "Because two men = hot".
The persistence of the "why slash?" debate, while no equivalent existential soulsearching exists for "why het?" (rather than specific ship manifestos for favorite pairings), reflects the idea that being a slasher is a question of identity and self-definition for some slash readers, rather than just a reading and/or pairing preference in a fandom.
Example Meta Essays
- Why I Write Slash by Kass (1999)
- Goes to Motive by Betty Plotnick (2002)
- The Fanfic Symposium: "Why do I Like Slash? Plain Answers from a Het Woman by Dark Twin. (2004)
- Girls who are boys who like boys to be girls: "My Thoughts on
YaoiSlash" by FayJay (2010) - sex, and slash sex scenes by Shoshanna. Essay on the writer's initial discovery of and views on slash as the (sole) genre that integrates people's lives in the bedroom with their lives outside it. (April 2011)
Other Examples
Notes
- ↑ Slash Theory metabib 2005-04-22, (Accessed 2008-11-03)
- ↑ Why I like slash. Tough question, plain answers. the_dark_twin 2004-10-09, (Accessed 2008-11-03)
