From Slash to the Mainstream: Female Writers and Gender Blending Men
| Academic Commentary | |
|---|---|
| Title: | From Slash to the Mainstream: Female Writers and Gender Blending Men |
| Commentator: | Elizabeth Woledge |
| Date(s): | 2005 |
| Medium: | print, online |
| Fandom: | slash |
| External Links: | here, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
From Slash to the Mainstream: Female Writers and Gender Blending Men is an academic journal article by Elizabeth Woledge.
The abstract: "This article discusses fiction written by women, that focuses on male protagonists, representation of whose gender is facilitated by the theme of same sex intimacy. This group of texts forms a clear subset of both mainstream science fiction and fantasy as well as of slash fiction, but by no means accounts for the entire spectrum of any one of these genres."
The article focuses on slash, K/S, slash fans as intimatopic interpreters, and touches upon the works of Mel Keegan and how her professional works compare to her Pros fanfic. Woldege quotes much K/S fanfic from zines and describes her experiences at Kiscon.
Introduction
"Slash fiction, the subset of fan-fiction which eroticises the homosexual bonds depicted between media heroes, has generally been considered as, in Constance Penley's words, a "unique hybrid genre of romance, pornography and utopian Science Fiction." Since Penley's essay of 1992 the slash genre has significantly expanded and now appropriates media sources, which could not be considered science fiction. Nevertheless, it remains true that the original slash fandom, that which appropriated Star Trek's Kirk and Spock, is infused with science fiction elements, and that many science fiction and fantasy sources have proved popular with slash fiction writers who create homoerotic fan fiction from sources as diverse as Lord of the Rings, Highlander, The X-Files, Buffy and Harry Potter. It is also the case that science fiction and fantasy elements, perhaps imported from other fandoms, find their way into slash fiction which is not based upon a science fiction or fantasy source. For instance, in the case of Bodie and Doyle from The Professionals slash writers such as Anne Carr and Helen Raven have, respectively, created fantasy and science fiction backdrops for their appropriative fiction. Clearly, despite its diversification much slash fiction does retain an element of fantasy and science fiction (though not always a utopian one), as much as it continues to contain both romantic and pornographic elements. Thus, although Penley's original assertions continue to hold true, the first of her assumptions, that of the "unique" nature of slash fiction needs, I believe, to be re-addressed."
Some Survey Work
Some of Woledge's research was done at KiScon. See K/S Survey for the K/S Press.