Asexuality and Femslash
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| Title: | Asexuality and Femslash |
| Creator: | snowynight |
| Date(s): | May. 23rd, 2011 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | |
| Topic: | Femslash, Asexuality |
| External Links: | Asexuality and Femslash, Archived version - archive link |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Asexuality and Femslash is a 2011 Dreamwidth essay by snowynight made in response to the questions "How do you explore asexuality in femslash? What’s the joy/challenge of writing about it? What do you think can be done to make femslash fandom more friendly for asexuals?"
It was featured in metafandom.
Excerpts
What problem does asexuals face in real life, and in fandom?If homosexuality is the love that dares not say its name, asexuality is the orientation that doesn’t even have a name. In daily life, there is nearly to none awrareness of asexuality. The media is full of story lines of people becoming fully grown through sex. If people say they’re not into sex, they are often taken to mean avoiding the matter and not taken seriously.
[...]
In the media, they ‘re either inhuman, evil, or socially clueless. We have Doctor Who, who’s an alien. Shelden in Bigbang Theory, who is described as an alien. Sherlock, who’s a sociopath. Dexter, who’s a serial killer.2 Even among the LGBTQ movement, asexuality is like a unicorn. The fandom didn’t fare better. The slash debate last year demonstrated a double erasure of asexuality.3
Why asexuality in femslash? Asking this question is somewhat like asking why to introduce disability, bisexuality and female homosexuality, people of colour into fiction. Because it is a part of human life. Because the more representation of minority in fiction, the bigger step it is pushing for acceptability and normalization of the minority. Femslash has always been seen as a step to accept female sexuality, and it can definitely go a further step toward addressing the reality of fluidity of sexuality.
We have to be aware that there is a spectrum along relationship, including particularly close friendship, traditional but not sexual coupling and other unique combination. "It can be just about women making a deeper connection to each other that's erotic, but not necessarily sexual," as spoken by jazzypom.
Research is always important. Just like writing about any minority, proceed with respect and humility. Be prepared to back down.
What’s femslash with one or more asexual female-identified characters like?There’s love, humour, angst, or just like other femslash. Except that one or more of them is not into sex. The resolution of a story doesn’t always result in sex. Femslash with one or more asexual characters are still uncommon, and I only found 3 labelled as such on AO3 as I'm writing.
Comments on Essay
pulchritude:imo someone who tags something as 'platonic' probably isn't meaning asexual as the op means in this essay, though I don't rule out the homoeroticism that may be present. I suppose the idea of labelling an asexual romantic relationship of some sort as platonic just annoys me, as it implies that sex is necessary for a romantic relationship, which is mainstream discourse.
[muccamukk]
I like this essay. It is well laid out, and has good information. I like your points about how our society does not allow women to be ace.
I would point out that there is a lot of canon debate as to whether Sherlock is a sociopath (he says he is in the show, but may have been being sarcastic, and doesn't really act like one).
Re above comment: Wouldn't platonic relationships only count if the characters didn't have sex with other people?
Like there's a lot of smarmy gen in fandom, especially in older fandoms, but the characters involved aren't ace. They have sex or want to have sex with other people.
[elspethdixon]
there's a lot of smarmy gen in fandom, especially in older fandoms, but the characters involved aren't ace. They have sex or want to have sex with other people
Good point, and that's something that's always bothered me a bit about smarmy gen where the author stresses that the characters AREN'T GAY nosirree, NO SLASH here. You can almost read it as asexual romance, except that rather than being a romance without the sex because the characters are supposed to be asexual and hey, you can have romantic relationships that are real and valid without having sex, it's what's effectively a romance without the sex because the writer thinks gay or lesbian sex is icky.
For the same reasons, I've never been 100% sure what to make of the "romantic friendship" genre in Xena fandom, which was basically identical to Sentinel, etc. smarmfic. On the one hand, the idea of getting all the romantic-love-for-your-same-gender-best-friend goodness without the sex scenes I often scroll past anyway was appealing and the term "romantic friendship" makes it sound like it's describing what could be an asexual romance, but on the other hand, some writers were clearly using the term to actually mean "straight women who are straight being platonic friends who act like they're romantically in love but are completely straight did we mention they're straight no lesbian cooties here."
elspethdixon:Kind of belated, but it's ocurred to me that one potential challenge of writing an asexual relationship in femslash is that there's an old stereotype about lesbians not having sex (I'm not sure where it comes from. Maybe from the idea that sex isn't really "sex sex" unless penetration's involved?). I think that would be more of an issue in original fiction meant for a mainstream audience who've never heard of asexuality and don't know much about bi or lesbian women other than what Hollywood has told them than in femslash that's going to be read mostly by a fannish audience that's predominantly female, queer, or both, though.