GARBAGE LIKE THAT HAS NO PLACE IN FANDOM
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| Title: | GARBAGE LIKE THAT HAS NO PLACE IN FANDOM (the essay has no formal title - the title used here on Fanlore is a sentence from the essay that was chosen to, hopefully, encapsulate the original writer's main point) |
| Creator: | Nanci Casad |
| Date(s): | 1996 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Starsky & Hutch |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
GARBAGE LIKE THAT HAS NO PLACE IN FANDOM is a 1996 essay by Nanci Casad.
It was printed in the Starsky & Hutch zine That's What Friends Are For #2 and was written by that zine's editor.
A similar rant by a zine ed is the 1976-1977 essay by Winston Howlett: Open Letter by Winston A. Howlett Regarding His Review of "Alternative: Epilog to Orion".
Some Topics Discussed
- slash
- real person fic
- Starsky & Hutch RPF
- portraying Starsky & Hutch as anything but heterosexual was an abomination
- feeling persecuted in one's fandom
- some slash fans "seem normal" but they're not
The Editorial in "That's What Friends Are For" #1
This essay was preceded by a short editorial in the previous issue of Casad's zine, something Casad alludes to in the main essay.
The editorial by Casad in That's What Friends Are For #1:
THIS IS MY SPACE — I DON'T HAVE MUCH TO SAY. I'VE MOVED ON TO OTHER THINGS, MAINLY "FOREVER KNIGHT," BUT I FELT I HAD TO FULFILL MY COMMITMENT TO DO THIS S&H ZINE — WE NEED ALL THE STRAIGHT ZINES WE CAN GET! TO BEGIN WITH, I WAS SO THRILLED TO FIND S&H FANDOM STILL EXISTED. BUT ALL THE SLASH RUINED IT FOR ME, MADE ME ANGRY AND SAD, SO I HAD TO GET OUT. MY STARSKY AND HUTCH ARE NORMAL, MACHO, WOMEN-LOVING MEN, AND THOSE WHO THINK OTHERWISE MISSED THE ENTIRE POINT OF THE SHOW! AND DESPITE WHAT I WAS TOLD, THAT S&H FANDOM IS SLASH ONLY, I FOUND PLENTY OF S&H FANS OUT THERE WHO AGREE WITH ME! ANTI-SLASH, UNITE!
The Essay
AN EDITORIAL VIEWPOINT:
ALL THE NICE PEOPLE OUT THERE WHO WROTE TO ME, CONCERNED THAT I WAS GIVING UP ON S&H, DUE TO MY COMMENTS IN TWFAF #1: I SHOULD'VE SAID I WAS GIVING UP ON THE ORGANIZED FANDOM CONTROLLED BY CERTAIN PEOPLE WHO ENTERTAIN THEMSELVES WITH PERVERTED STORIES. I WILL ALWAYS LOVE STARSKY AND HUTCH, BECAUSE EVEN THOUGH THE "SLASHERS" RUINED THE FANDOM FOR ME, THEY COULDN'T DAMAGE THE LOVE I HAVE FOR THE SHOW, THE CHARACTERS, AND THE ACTORS. (SOMEONE ACTUALLY WROTE A STORY ABOUT PAUL AND DAVID WANTING TO FILM S&H HAVING SEX FOR THE SHOW! NOW "THEY" ARE NOT ONLY MAKING S&H DO PERVERTED THINGS, BUT THE ACTUAL, REAL PEOPLE! SOMEONE NEEDS TO BE SUED FOR SLANDER!) AS MUCH AS I WANTED TO BE A PART OF S&H FANDOM, I FOUND MYSELF SURROUNDED BY PEOPLE WHO PREACHED THEIR OWN BRAND OF TOLERANCE ("AGREE WITH US OR GET LOST"), YET WOULDN'T ALLOW ME MY OWN OPINION. I WAS TOLD TO "GO BACK AND REVIEW STAR TREK'S IDIC" DO THESE PEOPLE REALLY BELIEVE HOMOSEXUALITY WAS INCLUDED IN THAT BACK IN THE 1960'S?!??! ARE THEY KIDDING THEMSELVES OR WHAT? I WAS THERE, I REMEMBER IT WELL, AND IT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH SUCH IDEAS! I WAS ALSO TOLD NOT TO USE THE TERM "ANTI-SLASH." NOPE, CAN'T SAY THAT — "THEY" CONSIDER IT "INFLAMMATORY." HEY, TOO BAD! I AM EXTREMELY ANTI-SLASH!! "THEY" DON'T LIKE THE TERM "ANTI-SLASH"?! WELL, I DON'T LIKE THE TERM "SLASH" OR WHAT THESE PEOPLE ARE DOING TO MY BELOVED CHARACTERS, TRYING TO JUSTIFY THEIR WARPED, PERVERTED FANTASIES IN THE NAME OF LOVE! IT'S PORNOGRAPHY, SICK AND DISGUSTING, NO MATTER WHAT OTHER NAME YOU GIVE IT. PORNOGRAPHY IS VERY ADDICTING AND THE MORE YOU READ IT, THE MORE IT PULLS YOU DOWN INTO ITS PERVERTED DEPTHS. IT'S A SICKNESS, JUST LIKE GAMBLING OR DRUGS. THAT'S NOT MY OPINION, THAT IS A PROVEN MEDICAL FACT. GARBAGE LIKE THAT HAS NO PLACE IN FANDOM, NOT WHEN THE SHOW WAS NEVER INTENDED TO BE THAT WAY. PAUL AND DAVID WANTED TO PROVE TO THE WORLD THAT TWO MEN COULD TOUCH AND COMFORT AND LOVE AND NOT BE GAY. IT MUST TAKE A SICK MIND TO TWIST THAT INTO SOMETHING UGLY AND DEGRADING AND PERVERTED. NOW, ODDLY ENOUGH, I HAVE SEVERAL GOOD FRIENDS WHO WRITE/READ SLASH, WHO SEEM PERFECTLY NORMAL ;) , AND ALTHOUGH I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY THEY DO IT, WE JUST DON'T DISCUSS THAT PARTICULAR ISSUE. I CAN'T CHANGE THEIR MINDS AND THEY CAN'T CHANGE MINE, BUT WE CAN TALK ABOUT S&H AND OTHER THINGS JUST FINE. THERE WERE OTHER PEOPLE I USED TO CORRESPOND WITH, UNTIL I REALIZED ALL THEY WANTED TO DO WAS EITHER CONVERT ME TO SLASH OR ARGUE ABOUT IT. ("THEY LOVE EACH OTHER SO MUCH, WE JUST WANT THEM TO BE HAPPY, TO SHOW EACH OTHER HOW MUCH THEY CARE." "THEY'RE NOT GAY, THEY'RE JUST LOVERS." I GOT A BIG KICK OUTTA THAT ONE! "THEM HAVING SEX IS THE NEXT LOGICAL STEP FOR SUCH GOOD FRIENDS" — SORRY, BUT NORMAL PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE SEX WITH THEIR BEST FRIEND!) OF COURSE, I WAS ACCUSED OF BEING HOMOPHOBIC. WHO, ME?! IF BELIEVING SOMETHING IS WRONG BECAUSE IT GOES AGAINST NATURE AS WELL AS MY OWN BELIEF IN WHAT'S WRONG OR RIGHT, THEN OK, THAT'S ME. OF COURSE, IF YOU REALLY KNEW ME, YOU'D KNOW HOW SILLY THAT IS. I'M ONE OF THOSE "AGING, AGELESS HIPPIES" WHO STILL BELIEVES IN "LIVE AND LET LIVE." BUT YOU JUST CAN'T TAKE TWO OBVIOUSLY STRAIGHT, MACHO, WOMEN-LOVING MEN AND TWIST THEIR FRIENDSHIP INTO SOMETHING IT AIN'T! THIS GOES NOT ONLY FOR S&H, BUT ALSO SAM AND AL, KIRK AND SPOCK, HARDCASTLE AND MCCORMICK, NICK AND LACROIX, AND ANY OTHER FRIENDS WHO WERE NEVER PORTRAYED AS GAY OR LOVERS OR ANYTHING OTHER THAN VERY GOOD FRIENDS. HAD THEIR CREATORS PRESENTED THEM AS GAY TO BEGIN WITH, THEN THAT'D BE A WHOLE 'NOTHER STORY! BUT I WOULD STILL OBJECT TO THE SLASH PORNOGRAPHY! YEAH, I KNOW, WE CAN'T ALL LIKE THE SAME THINGS, AND ONE PERSON'S GARBAGE IS ANOTHER PERSON'S JOY... BUT IT'S STILL GARBAGE!! SO THIS IS WHY I LEFT S&H FANDOM. BUT I STILL DO, AND WILL ALWAYS, LOVE THE SHOW AND ALL THE WONDERFUL PEOPLE I HAVE "MET" BECAUSE WE ARE THE ANTI-SLASH! (SORRY IF I OFFENDED ANYONE, BUT AT THIS POINT, DOES IT MATTER? NOW, EXCUSE ME, BUT I'M OFF TO JOIN NICHOLAS IN HIS ENDLESS FOREVER KNIGHT!)
Regarding the Edits to a Later Story
Casad thanked a fan for making edits to a submission to That's What Friends Are For #4.
In this introduction, Casad stated that rape was worse than attempted rape and appears to suggest that this is because Hutch being raped would have made this story slash, a belief that is illustrated by Anne McCaffrey in the 1998 Tent Peg Statement where McCaffrey said she knew a man personally who was "involved in a rape situation involving a tent peg. This one event was enough to have him start on a road that eventually led to him becoming effeminate and gay."
From the introduction to "Prisoners":
SPECIAL THANKS TO THE AUTHOR, NANCY L. ROGERS, FOR ALLOWING ME TO MAKE A SMALL CHANGE IN HER STORY, JUST SO IT COULD BE PUBLISHED BY INTERTWINED, IN ORDER TO GIVE S&H "GEN" (ANTI-SLASH!) FANS THE PLEASURE OF READING THIS EXCELENT [sic] STORY. (IS "ATTEMPTED" RAPE BETTER THAN ACTUAL RAPE? IN THIS CASE, YES!) (AND I'M SORRY, NANCY, THAT YOU HAD TO RETYPE THE WHOLE THING! THE FILE IS PROBABLY OUT THERE SOMEWHERE, LOST IN CYBERSPACE! OF COURSE, NOW YOU'LL FIND IT!) THANKS, ALSO, TO CAMI CUTLER FOR HER INVALUABLE INPUT TO ME IN REGARD TO THIS STORY. AND AS ALWAYS, NEVER-ENDING THANKS TO PAUL AND DAVID.