Do slash writers think of slash writing as risk-taking?

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Title:	Do slash writers think of slash writing as risk-taking?
Creator:	Flamingo
Date(s):	June 22, 2000
Medium:	posted to a mailing list
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Do slash writers think of slash writing as risk-taking? is a 2000 essay by Flamingo.

It was posted to ThePits, a Starsky & Hutch mailing list and is quoted here on Fanlore with Flamingo's permission.

Some Topics Discussed

• slash writing and gen writing
• female empowerment through writing
• women who write slash are risk-taking

The Essay

[Writing slash] is definitely risk-taking for several reasons. And it is risk-taking for people who write it and don't even realize it.

For example, I am a federal worker in a career position (i.e. hard to fire). There are legal protections that keep me from being sexually harrassed, that protect me against discrimination because I am a woman, because I am over 40, and that even protect me because I live as a homosexual. I can't be fired, or disciplined, or discriminated against in any of these ways, and having experienced discrimination on all these levels at some time in my life, I appreciate these protections incredibly.

But I can fired *easily* because I write slash. There is a morals standard that could be used to fire me if it were discovered that I wrote what is considered pornography. So, every time I turn out another slash story I'm risking my career. And since I am highly specialized in my career, the chances of my finding another job in it, are *nil*.

[some personal information redacted]

Morals clauses are very common in almost all places of employment. They are used to immediately dismiss people who have been accused of sexual offenses or other things. In fact, my partner just was involved with the abrupt termination of a long-term, high grade federal worker who was discovered exposing himself. They fired him with no problem. These kinds of firings are almost always held up in court if the employee sues, and "community standards" are used in justification. There is nothing that I write that falls within "community standards."

But there are other reasons why women who write slash are risk-taking. Slash is the first pornography (using community standards to define it) that has ever been written *by* women *for* women. It is a unique art form. While women have certainly written porn before, it was never done for a female audience exclusively. (While there are a few men in slash, the percentage is not really relevant. Slash has always been a woman's medium.) Politically, this is significant. And considering that throughout history, women's writing has been the most oppressed writing of all, *and* that women's writing about their *own* sexual fantasies are even more oppressed, writing slash is an act of political rebellion. And you didn't even know it, did you? ;-)

That it is common and taken for granted in fandom does not make it any the less risky. Fans have turned in slash fans to The Powers That Be of the show they are writing about in the hopes TPTB will sue them. Fans have threatened to turn in slash fans to their places of employment so that they might be fired! I have a rather startling collection of hate emails that are generated through the archive. I know slash fans whose marriages broke up, and the husband used slash as an excuse to do it (though how her slash collection could make him want to run off with another woman, I can't say). Fans have lost good friends over it. It generates more controversy than any other topic in fandom and many lists have dissolved under flame wars about it. This is not risky? That new fans often have to be warned not to be so open about their activities (regarding the mundane public) is kind of rattling to those of us who understand just what the consequences can be in the real world. Teachers can easily lose their jobs just for owning it, never mind writing it or producing it! (Teachers, librarians, and others who work with children are held to a much stricter morals standards that other professions.) And there are lots of teachers in slash fandom. I know a woman who works for a major corporation, who has been a slash writer for 20 years. To her utter horror, another slash fan came to work in her office, and this fan believed that slash should be treated as any other normal hobby, and told this woman's co-workers about her funny little hobby!!! The woman I know managed to tell this foolish woman that if she discussed her activities again, she would dearly regret it, but she was really sweating it out for awhile.

I feel that I am taking risks when I work on it, but it also is very natural for me to write it. Just like working with animals is natural for me, but I never forget the dangers involved.

There is a huge difference between writing a slash story and a straight story. As someone who loves both gen and slash, and who writes pro and slash, I hope I can explain this. I write science fiction, and experienced science fiction writers will advise newer writers that if their story can be told without its science fiction trappings, then it shouldn't be a science fiction story. Because a science fiction story is about the science-fictional ideas that might generate a story, that the action of the story should evolve from the science -- if your story is basically a love story that can be told in any time or place, then it's not really science fiction. But if it's a love story that could only take place because someone has developed a new space travel, or a new way of regenerating organs, or a new form of communication that passes through time...then it's science fiction. In writing stories for a non-slash audience, the focus of the story is the conflict and its resolution, the plot and its repercussions. There might be a romance in the story, and the romance could be pivotal to the story, but that's still not the same as a slash story.

While the best slash stories also contain conflict, character development (please!) and plot (pretty please!), the thing that makes it different from pro fic or even gen fic, is that the primary focus of the story should revolve around the relationship of the primary characters. If the relationship isn't the biggest issue in this story, then it's going to fail as a slash story. If I want to read a police procedural, I'll read pro fic or a gen story. When I go to slash, as a writer or reader, I want to see the relationship between these men be paramount. I want the conflict and the plot to revolve around that relationship, whether it is resolved for good or ill. If the relationship is just "one more thing" in the story, then it is extraneous and doesn't need to be there. I don't care if they solve another case. They damned well better be dealing with their relationship, or that writer isn't going to be getting me to read a lot of her stories.

If you go to the slash archive you can see a great, and short, example of this in action, by reading Suzan Lovett's "Foster Child of Silence and Slow Time" -- this is a story with no body contact, no passion, no undying declarations of love, but it is a slash story. It is also a *real* story in every sense of the word. You must read this story to appreciate its genius.

And another good example of a story that could not be anything but a slash story is Terri Beckett's incredible "Enchanter's Nightshade." This story may have one of the most incredible uses of language of any SH story I've ever read. Again, for those of you a bit timid about slash, this is a great story to look at as it is devoid of sexual situations, and yet can only be a slash story. It's incredible. I wish I could write like this. I think both these stories perfectly illustrate the difference between slash and other forms of story-telling. They're both brief, and I think anyone can read them and appreciate them.

Fan Comments

And how about slash readers? I think this long post from Flamingo is very interesting and I agree with it. But even to read slash is risky if you are open enough to discuss it with others in the public.

[snipped]

Why do I read when it is risky? Because I need it. I have to. It is part of my pleasure. I use it to deal with certain things in my life. It helps me a lot. I can't get through without it.

It is also tricky to read slash and deal with individuals who live with you -- I have spent hours explaining the concept of erotic fiction by women, for women and the fact that slash is not gay fiction meant to demean hetero men -- and I have to go through that explanation fairly regularly -- but that is okay if at the end of the day I am left alone to do what I want to!

The hate mail that Flamingo mentions and I am sure others get makes me see red. Will other people never learn to mind their own business and not try to impose their idea of morality onto others who have a different world-view? I guess it is not in human nature for some people and is hopeless. But their nattering does not stop people like Flamingo from doing their own thing (thank God!!).

I hope everyone takes Flamingo's advice and reads "Slow Time" and "Enchanter's Nightshade". I just read EN just a couple of nights ago and was immediately moved to write an LOC to the author. I couldn't believe that story and how incredibly lovely it was. "Slow Time" is also a miracle. Every time I read it I think more deeply about it than the time before. They are exquisite because yes, they are 100% slash with nary a peck on the cheek. You can therefore read them and be comfortable with whatever level of slashness (is this a word?!) you can deal with.

I hope that no one on these lists ever is intimidated to stop what they enjoy doing. If you are not hurting others, take your pleasure where you find it.