Friendship and Slash
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| Title: | Friendship and Slash |
| Creator: | Kenovay |
| Date(s): | July 20, 2003 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | |
| Topic: | Fanfiction, Slash |
| External Links: | Friendship and Slash, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Friendship and Slash is an essay by Kenovay.
It is part of the Fanfic Symposium series.
Excerpts
I occasionally have a problem with plot bunnies. I look at book or films or boy bands and I see two unattached, fairly good-looking men. Maybe there aren't any strong 'vibes', but that can always be overcome in fiction, and most male/male relationships have enough subtext to fuel my belief that what they really want to do is kiss each other. And then I have to think to myself, "Why is a deep friendship between two men not satisfying enough for me?" It doesn't happen with every book or film or boy band - The Fast and the Furious doesn't have a great friendship but could have a very hot relationship, but the Lord of the Rings has some very close friendships and I hesitate to change them. I'm not talking about fiction/reality blurring; I know my ideas are almost certainly not what the author intended or not "true". The problem is, why should I feel the need to insert sex?
Let me use an example. Say there is a film about these two very close friends - call them Adam and Steve - and I am convinced, for whatever reason, that they're gay, deeply in love and fucking like bunnies. Towards the end of the film, the resident bully is fairly pissed off, and decides to take it out on them. He starts taunting Adam, who's closest, about his perceived effeminacy and gayness, and finally starts on Adam and Steve's relationship. At this point Adam finally responds. "Just because I love him doesn't mean I want to shag him," he says firmly. I leave the cinema feeling ashamed. What causes this effect?
Basically, my main discomfort comes from the vague feeling that I am not accepting the validity of non-sexual relationships, and the only way around this is to overcome all of my social conditioning, live as a hermit so as not to be corrupted again, and thus to obtain the ability to see all human relationships in a balanced way; to admire the true comrades and adore the cute, slashy ones. Not possible really, so I'll just have to live with my inbuilt reactions and try and overcome them. Oh, look, a plot bunny! Alexandr Menshikov was a very close friend of Peter the Great, you say?