Stealth Slash
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Stealth Slash |
| Creator: | Nightspore |
| Date(s): | August 5, 2004 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | |
| Topic: | Fanfiction |
| External Links: | Stealth Slash, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Stealth Slash is an essay by Nightspore.
It is part of the Fanfic Symposium series.
Excerpts
I find that slash fanfiction is in a similar position as the freak of the last century. It is considered a sideshow to the main act, a weird, perverted offshoot of allegedly canon fanfic, something authors should be embarrassed about and apologize to the rest of the fandom for. Slash writers and readers tend to congregate together and form their own separate communities, but this insular tactic, while providing support and encouragement amid the ranks, has also trapped slash connoisseurs in a self-imposed leper colony. The majority of fandom does not really want to deal with slash - they'd prefer it to disappear altogether, or at least have the decency to warn 'normal' people when they are about to happen across it.
So is labeling slash as such just politely warning readers that there is something in a story they might find offensive, or is it the literary equivalent of a carnival barker spieling outside a dank, darkened tent?
Fan Comments
[non_horation]:
I do like to see labels on fic. Not warnings necessarily that the content might be found offensive, but labels so that I know what I'm getting into. For me, there are some fandoms that slash well, and some that don't. And why would I want to waste time reading a fic that contained elements that made me unhappy? Fanfic is supposed to be about fun.
Also, I really don't think that slash is the kind of fandom pariah that it used to be. In most of my main fandoms, it's at least on the same level as het (usually above it), and the slashers all run around patting one another on the back for daring to go against the "hostile fandom" that is all in their minds. [1]
Carmarthen:In most of my main fandoms, it's at least on the same level as het (usually above it), and the slashers all run around patting one another on the back for daring to go against the "hostile fandom" that is all in their minds.
Other than in anime/manga fandoms, I still haven't seen a lot of flaming stories just because they're icky het. Even the most slash-friendly fandoms still tend to get their share of that.
Granted, I think feeling persecuted because some twit whose capslock key is stuck doesn't like gay people is silly. But I really don't buy that slash has become higher-status than het in fandom. [2]
[agilebrit]:At least if it's labeled, if you get a flame saying "This sucks; how dare you write these two characters together?"--you can say, well, dumbass, it was labeled, why did you read it? If a reader goes into something blindly, not knowing what to expect, and then is shocked by something they didn't expect, then flames are almost a given. If you label the pairing and don't call it slash, then someone going in expecting a friendship fic might be surprised and a little angry for investing the time needed to read it, when they might find the subject matter frankly offensive.
I don't think you change people's attitudes by smacking them in the face unexpectedly. And I agree with non_horation above. At least in my fandom, slash is by no means a pariah. And I don't think a review saying "I don't normally read x pairing, but this was really good" is a left-handed compliment at all. If I get a review like that, it tells me that I made a reader think about a pairing in a new way, and I like getting one of those a whole lot better than one from someone who'd think the pairing was good just because it's their 'ship.[3]
ranalore:I'm curious as to which segments of fandom the author is hanging out in, because while I think this article might have been true for a number of slashers ten years ago, I certainly don't find it's true today. I don't label my slash stories as such in order to warn people away from them. I label them as such so that people will have some idea as to the content, and will be able to decide if they're in the mood for said content. It's the same for my gen and het stories. Nor am I the only one. I don't think I know any fans who, within the confines of fandom, feel they have to keep their slashing to themselves simply because it's slash.
I've never felt a need to apologize for writing slash, and while I have certainly encountered insular communities in the greater faniverse that would have liked both to make me feel ashamed for writing slash (and het more explicit than a kiss), and to eradicate the genre of slash, the greater faniverse itself strikes me as much more open-minded. Frankly, to my mind, it's those insular, homophobic communities which are more comparable to the freakshows of old, with their list rules of "NO SLASH" and cries of, "Boysex, ewww! Girlsex, ewww!" standing in as the carnival barker. [4]
[louise_allana]:A technicality:
The writer of 'Stealth Slash' says (of people who avoid stories based on their slash label) "I can't understand why people would only want to read stories... where the hero is always good and justified and wins in the end." Please don't lump together all non-slash writing in this way. There is a lot of subtle, complex and well-written fanfic that is not slash. If your argument is true, there should be no need to simplify to this extent. - From a dedicated slash reader. [5]