What's so compelling about slash fiction?
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| Title: | What's so compelling about slash fiction? |
| Creator: | Alanna |
| Date(s): | March 10, 2003 |
| Medium: | journal post |
| Fandom: | mentions West Wing |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | What's so compelling about slash fiction? - Alanna, Archived version; archive link |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
What's so compelling about slash fiction? is a 2003 essay by Alanna.
The Essay
I've been wondering lately what, exactly, I find so compelling about slash. The fact that I read m/m slash is something that many of my RL friends find confusing, since I'm pretty much only attracted to women in RL. (Slash, they get, at least theoretically. And many friends understand the attraction of Two Cute Guys! They don't understand why my slash reading/writing doesn't gravitate more towards Two Cute Girls.) I don’t seek out f/f slash and have read very little of it. Partially because media serves up so few female characters that I find compelling. (Asskicking women are compelling. Sarah Connor in T2, for instance. Linda Hamilton. Biceps. Weapons. Attitude. mmmyeah.) Partially because the few shows that have compelling female characters don’t often pass the Dykes To Watch Out For test: “One, it has to have at least two women in it who, two, talk to each other about, three, something besides a man.” Without evidence of a friendship at least as compelling as the characters involved, there’s little basis for the slash, IMHO.
Regardless, the fact that I’ve recently fielded questions about the allure of m/m pairings has had me contemplating what it is about slash in general that I find so entertaining. I’ve narrowed it down to several generalities: genre, transgression, and community.
Slash, like any genre, is fairly scripted. Similar to romance novels or westerns, slash has scripted plots as well as scripted characters. Both are defined by the parameters of the show or source material and, partially, the genre. While there is some latitude with regards to plot for AU stories or post-show stories, even there they’re typically some variant on the boy-gets-boy (or boy-keeps-boy) theme. Regardless of the fandom, when reading slash you have some sense of what to expect prior to starting a story. Good stories are those that surprise and entertain without violating expectations.
I often steer clear of stories that I know to have excessive angst, so I have the expectation of a happy ending. (Where by ‘happy,’ I simply mean some reasonable sort of resolution where no one is dead or dying or maimed or has a lasting hatred for their significant other. Not necessarily skipping through fields of daisies or anything equally absurd. And, frankly, I’ve read stories w/ unhappy endings and been completely absorbed in those, too.) In any given fandom, I have the expectation of certain characters/characteristics. Unless a story is an AU, I have the expectation of a certain history and backdrop. Given that slash is something I read in between studying and working, I don’t want to devote my full attention and/or energy to the task. Familiarity with the ‘script’ of slash allows me to access and enjoy stories regardless of the amount of attention I choose to devote.
Likewise, stories or characterizations that read ‘wrong’ to me do so because they fail to meet my expectations. I’m often irritated by stories peopled by characters that don’t even bear a resemblance to the ones I know and love. Characterization suffers most from scripting, as can be seen in the ‘any two guys’ phenomenon where the plot is the given preference over the characterization. When characters are forced to play a certain role in stories (be it the Hero or Villain or Lover or Spurned!Lover or what-have-you) that is inconsistent with my concept of those characters, it is jarring because of the unfamiliarity. Likewise, when characters are placed into circumstances that are unreasonable or unrealistic for the canonical universe, it rings false. Familiarity with the genre, and the expectations that arise as a result, allows for an easier read.
I devoured romance novels in my youth. In addition to the familiar story-lines, I read them for the sex. Sex – and sexual tension – is certainly another draw of slash. The primary difference between slash and romance novels is that slash stories (at least the ones that don't cause me to reflexively hit the 'delete' button again and again) have better characterization and inherent transgression.
Fanfiction of any flavor is transgressive. It involves turning a solitary spectator sport – watching prepackaged television shows that were designed as advertising vectors – into participatory activities. Fans subvert the text, fix the flaws, take ownership of the shows/source materials. The powers that be are selling us a product. We’re buying, and then we’re deciding for ourselves how to make use of our purchase. We’re taking control. That appeals to my inner child that still occasionally grumbles, “you’re not the boss of me!”
Slash fanfiction transgresses by revolving around a queer couple. This appeals to me because it better reflects my life than does het fiction. However, considering the queer couple in question is generally male/male, slash also has the benefit of *not* being a reflection of my life. There is no character to whom I have to compare myself, nor one with whom I would hypothetically be competing. (As a tangent, I think I'd have more of a tendency to mary-sue my characters were any of them female. Except instead of all-knowing yentas, my mary-sues would be armed. They'd be Strong! and Capable! and Kickass! and Articulate! and Beautiful! and Compassionate! and Brilliant! and Funny! but mostly Kickass! and not in anyway realistic.) The stories aren’t about me and aren’t supposed to be about me, which I find freeing. In some ways, I think that allows me to explore issues I might otherwise steer clear from – complexities of life and imperfections of character that aren’t all lovely and happy and easy to handle, but make the character and/or the story ring true. It allows me to contemplate imperfection as the norm - and the ideal - rather than the opposite. This is as much true for what I’m reading as for what (little) I’m writing.
I can’t divorce slash from its larger context. The community nature of fandom is a major draw. Slash reading and/or writing enables me to interact with incredibly intelligent women, and the stories would not be as interesting to me without the meta-discussions and the fannish interactions. I'm not saying I wouldn't *read* it, but it wouldn't be something I considered a hobby per se. For me, fanfiction is as much about reading LJ entries, dissecting the shows or other source materials, and chatting online about the writing process as it is about the stories.
Which brings me to a comment eyrea made in her LJ not long ago about a conversation she'd had - the idea that slash, as something written primarily by women for women, belongs on a lesbian continuum; it is a shared erotic experience among women. To a limited extent, we're discovering and/or revealing our personal kinks through the fiction we read, write and discuss. (‘Limited’ because constraints of good writing and good characterization – as opposed to personal hot buttons - should determine what works in a given universe and what does not.) In that way, fandom serves as a forum in which we can discuss topics that, in other contexts, may be taboo. As such, slash becomes a feminist act.
Slash has also given me a forum in which to practice writing – something I hadn’t done for over a decade prior to discovering fanfiction. Within this context, I don’t have to do the work of constructing an entire universe and peopling it with my own characters. Instead, I can focus on the craft of the thing. I can learn what makes decent dialogue, characterization and narration. I can practice within a safe space, with community support and feedback.
Fan Comments
[therealjae]:
This was fascinating. Thanks for posting it! It also, interestingly enough, touches on some of the points that came up in a conversation I had last night about whether or not fanfiction is inherently about fantasies. That's something I want to post about in my own livejournal -- hopefully later today -- so rather than sound repetitive there, I'm opting to clutter *yours* with my personal response to what you've said. ;-) Hope that's not a problem.
I've been wondering lately what, exactly, I find so compelling about slash.
What I've wondered, for myself, is *whether* I can claim to finding slash compelling in the first place (at least on the level of the genre). I mean, certainly there's a level on which I must, since almost everything I've written has been slash. On the other hand, as a reader, I tend to consume at least as much het and gen as I do slash. On the third hand (eek! where did that extra hand come from?), my *favourite* stories do tend to be slash. On the fourth hand, well, I'm still a monofan. A lot of people have predicted that the desire for more slash would pull me outside of the fandom I'm in, I've never felt that particular desire. It's confusing. There are a thousand reasons why I don't tend to refer to myself as a "slasher" or a "slash fan," and they all stem from this sort of confusion.
I think what it comes down to is that I like the idea of fanfiction in general and West Wing fanfiction in particular, and I'm also -- as a queer woman -- interested in what I think of as Queer Things (queer identity issues, queer politics, queer culture, queer sexuality). I like it when the two can come together, and that's somewhat more likely to happen in slash than it does in gen or het fanfiction. Slash that doesn't contain any Queer Things doesn't really hold any particular interest for me; I'd much rather read, say, a gen story about the West Wing staff trying to get a hate crimes bill passed than a slash story that takes the "they're not gay, they just love each other" approach.
Slash, like any genre, is fairly scripted. [...] Good stories are those that surprise and entertain without violating expectations.
Yep, it is scripted, and I *hate* that about it. The traditional plots didn't even hold my interest very well when I was a newbie who'd never read them before -- now, after reading several dozen (several hundred?) of them, they make me jump for the delete key. I'd agree with you that *good* stories surprise and entertain without violating expectations, but at least for me, a truly *great* story to me is one that takes my expectations and shreds them to a thousand tiny pieces. I don't *want* to know the jist of what's coming because I've read it before. I put up with that because there are certain scripted plots that I actually think make for good stories, but I'd much rather the writer come up with something new.
I often steer clear of stories that I know to have excessive angst, so I have the expectation of a happy ending.
I've actually found that the stories with the sappiest, happiest endings are actually the excessively angsty ones. I don't know how to translate it to one of your fandoms, but I think of these as Toby's Tropical Illness, Donna's Daring Kidney Donation, and C.J. and Toby's Tearful Hospital Admission of Love stories. Angst for its own sake, not angst that arises naturally from the story the author is telling. I hate that; hate it, hate it, hate it.
As for the type of ending I want -- I want my endings to be *real*. Whether they end happily or badly, I want the ending to follow naturally from the events of the story. In the pairing I write, I actually have a preference for things being portrayed as messy and unfinished, since that's what I see on the show, but that can be done with both a happy ending or a not-so-happy one. Just keep it real.
Sex – and sexual tension – is certainly another draw of slash.
Sexual tension is for me; sex is not. That's not to say that I find sex in slash stories distasteful -- I've certainly read stories with sex in them and enjoyed them, even been turned on by them right along with the characters. But it isn't part of the appeal. (Good thing, too, 'cause if it were, I'd really be in the wrong fandom. :-) Sexual tension, on the other hand, is a complicating factor and therefore a Good Thing in my book.
The powers that be are selling us a product. We’re buying, and then we’re deciding for ourselves how to make use of our purchase. We’re taking control. That appeals to my inner child that still occasionally grumbles, "you’re not the boss of me!"
YES. Even though I try very hard to be canon-consistent (and therefore don't try to "fix flaws"), this is still a huge motivating factor for me, at least as a writer. After all, I'm writing stories that are essentially taking the text *as it stands* and convincing people (at least for the length of time it takes to read one of my stories) that *this* was what was *really* meant. Mmm, subversive.
I can’t divorce slash from its larger context. The community nature of fandom is a major draw.
Yes, yes yes. To this and the whole paragraph that follows it.
Which brings me to a comment eyrea made in her LJ not long ago about a conversation she'd had - the idea that slash, as something written primarily by women for women, belongs on a lesbian continuum; it is a shared erotic experience among women. To a limited extent, we're discovering and/or revealing our personal kinks through the fiction we read, write and discuss.
I saw this in aerye's journal, too, and it made me frown at the time. I'm not bothered by people saying that for *them*, slash is a shared erotic experience among women, but when they try to say that that's what slash is inherently about, I get ornery. See, for me, slash (and fanfiction in general) isn't an erotic experience. It's a literary experience, a metaliterary experience, and a community experience. So "shared experience," I get -- even "shared experience among women" (although some of my favourite fellow fans are men). When you add the term 'erotic' to that and try to generalize, though, that's where I draw the line.
And your last sentence strikes me as just plain *wrong*. Absolutely *nothing* can be deduced about what I want in bed (or what I fantasize about on my own time) from the stories I've written. I *am* sometimes sexually aroused when I'm writing sexual tension, but only in the sense that I'm also sad when I'm writing sadness and angry when I'm writing anger. It's about a writer empathizing with her protagonist, not about my personal kinks. Frankly it kind of gives me the heebie-jeebies that people might think they know something about my kinks from reading my fanfiction. Bleagh.
Within this context, I don’t have to do the work of constructing an entire universe and peopling it with my own characters. Instead, I can focus on the craft of the thing. I can learn what makes decent dialogue, characterization and narration. I can practice within a safe space, with community support and feedback.
Coming back around to agreeing with you here. Yes, absolutely. Through fanfiction, I've discovered that I need to *write*, and within the fannish community, I've discovered an outlet for my first attempts at writing. That community support is not to be undervalued -- what other writers get that when they first start out? None of them. That's invaluable.
[original poster]:Absolutely *nothing* can be deduced about what I want in bed (or what I fantasize about on my own time) from the stories I've written.
And again, I apologize for my imprecise word choices. I was not using 'kink' in a strictly sexual way *at all*. I completely agree with you on this point. I do *not* think that we only read or write things that we do (or want to do) in our real lives, and do not believe that such things can be deduced from our fiction. I can't emphasize enough that that is NOT what I meant.
Rather, I think of 'kink' as a more general term; I often hear the terms 'realism' kink, 'grammar' kink, or 'loyalty' kink, for example. The ideas/issues/conflicts/pairings/plot twists/whatever that for some reason resonate with me, or I return to frequently, or I seek out. Things I like to see in a story or things I like to hash out with other fans. More of a generic discovering of things in which I am interested or disinterested.
(These thoughts are ill-formed and I'm doing a terrible job of expressing myself on this point. Sorry 'bout that.) For me, I think the 'kink' - the things I like in stories and seek out/return to/etc - are often below the surface. It isn't necessarily the pairing, a sexual act, a specific type of plot twist or anything overt. (I don't automatically enjoy stories simply because they contain the aforementioned elements. They are insufficient to make the story work.) It is things like characters who recognize their own agency and make choices, or who communicate with one another, or seem to genuinely *like* one another.
These themes are framed by the larger story, and may be somewhat obscured by more overt story elements. But *these* are what keep me coming back, these are what makes a story work (or not) for me. It is these themes that I think I'm discovering/discussing. Yes, I think these themes can be erotic. No, I do not think they are always or for all people. And no, for the love of god, I do *not* think that our sexuality can be deduced from our fiction writing/reading.
[therealjae]:Okay, I hear what you're saying. It was the juxtaposition (and general proximity) of these two sentences that made me think that:
the idea that slash, as something written primarily by women for women, belongs on a lesbian continuum; it is a shared erotic experience among women. To a limited extent, we're discovering and/or revealing our personal kinks through the fiction we read, write and discuss.
You refer to slash as a shared *erotic* experience among women, and then talk about kinks in the very next sentence, so that's what I thought you meant.
Even with the correction, though, I don't *everyone* seeks out stories that satisfy their particular (non-sexual) kinks. Some people just like good stories, of whatever type. But I'm sick and my brain hurts, so meh. Maybe I'll have more to say about this tomorrow.
- -)
[original poster]:Angst for its own sake, not angst that arises naturally from the story the author is telling. I hate that; hate it, hate it, hate it.
Yes! This is the sort of angst that I dislike and avoid. I'm not averse to angst that arises naturally from the story. The "sappiest, happiest" endings that you mention are not what I'm looking for at all. When I say I want a 'happy' ending, I mean rather one that leaves me in a positive frame of mind. Hrm. I'm having a hard time articulating what I mean.
I *do* like stories where the characters end up together, where the situation resolves peaceably and/or the characters themselves are happy. But I've also loved stories where the characters don't end up together, where the situation doesn't resolve neatly and/or where the characters are unhappy at the end. It depends on how well-constructed the story is and how closely the characterization matches my understanding of the characters. A 'happy' ending for me can be any one that doesn't leave me feeling as though reading the story was a colossal waste of time.
In the pairing I write, I actually have a preference for things being portrayed as messy and unfinished
Yes, but a messy and unfinished ending is not necessarily an 'unhappy' one, at least not in my world view. Conflict doesn't always resolve, or resolve neatly. I get that. I think that is especially true of WW. What leaves me feeling all happy at the close of many WW stories is not a heartfelt declaration of undying love (something that would have me rolling my eyes and leaping for the delete key), but rather the feeling of utter *respect* the characters have for each other. That's also one of the things about that particular show that keep me coming back for more. These are not people who make *any* decision lightly, certainly not one that might reflect upon their job or PotUS. So, yeah. They might not get together in the end. That wouldn't necessarily be an unhappy ending. Or an angsty one, for that matter.
[jacynrekeah]:Hiya, I don't know you from Eve, but I wanted to chime in on the excellence of this essay.
The only thing that I could possibly add to make this true for me as an individual is that slash has the added kink of involving sex that I will never have. Or rather allows me to create that sex and almost participate in it. Plus, I get to create it in a way that matches my world view and my socio-emotional needs.
Um, huh, re-reading that I'm not sure if I made sense or not. I guess I meant that slash is the closest I will ever get to being a boy having sex with another boy and do it it in way that wouldn't be icky like really being a boy would be.
Yeah, still not making sense, I think.
[gaski]:Very lovely piece of writing, and I agree with most everything in it, especially since I've been thinking a lot about it lately.
First off, yeah, the idea of a pre-packaged universe where I don't need tons of background info is my basic love for it, because I like reading, but sometimes a simple one shot story is better than a whole book. And in fandom I know what I'm getting, who the people are. I'll even, if it's categorized well enough, know if it's fluff or angst, and I can search for either, depending on my need for the moment. It's instant gratification, which is rarely a bad thing, I think.
Secondly, I think I'd add to the list with the fact that for me atleast, part of the appeal is taking characters that are supposedly straight, and seeing exactly how you'd have to bend them (so to say) to make them want to kiss another boy (or girl, though femmeslash is sorely lacking in most fandoms), and if it can be done. I've read the comments on people saying "Slash is bad, 'cause it's OOC", but I disagree. Het can be just as OOC, that depends on the writer. And who are we to decide that simply because the author didn't mention sexual orientation, everyone is straight. ("don't assume I'm straight, and I won't assume you're an idiot") And also the extra friction thing. [Simply put] Het is dull because you don't have to do the whole "Is he, isn't he?" routine, and the joy (and smooching:>) when the character discovers that the other one is.
That's my piece of make-believe, since in my world my "is she, isn't she"'s rarely are. In slash fic, they are, and that makes me want to read it.
And there is more to add, but I ran out of words with which to say it.
[embitca]:However, considering the queer couple in question is generally male/male, slash also has the benefit of *not* being a reflection of my life. There is no character to whom I have to compare myself, nor one with whom I would hypothetically be competing. (As a tangent, I think I'd have more of a tendency to mary-sue my characters were any of them female. Except instead of all-knowing yentas, my mary-sues would be armed. They'd be Strong! and Capable! and Kickass! and Articulate! and Beautiful! and Compassionate! and Brilliant! and Funny! but mostly Kickass! and not in anyway realistic.) The stories aren’t about me and aren’t supposed to be about me, which I find freeing.
Hmm. I'm neither male nor gay and yet I manage to relate to and see myself within the characters I like to read about all the time if they're written like fully-fleshed out human beings.
Which brings me to a comment eyrea made in her LJ not long ago about a conversation she'd had - the idea that slash, as something written primarily by women for women, belongs on a lesbian continuum; it is a shared erotic experience among women.
As both a writer and a reader, I don't consider slash to be a shared experience and certainly not a shared erotic experience. Not all the fiction I read or write is erotic in nature and even when it is, the porn is always subordinate to the characterization and to the other things I'm trying to communicate. And I just don't consider the tasks of reading and writing to be a shared experience. Both of those activities are private experiences for me, just like reading a novel would be.
For me, the shared fannish experience involves discussion about the shows or in the case of RPS, discussion about the popstars I like to slash.
Even if I considered slash a shared erotic experience, I'd have to seriously question the assumption that it belongs on a lesbian continuum. Behind that assumption lies the idea that heterosexuality is limiting and restrictive, that it is 'straight'. It isn't. And I think it could be as easily argued that writing by women for women ABOUT men would rightly belong on a heterosexual continuum. Of course, I don't think either of those ideas make any sense, but certainly the latter doesn't make less sense than the former.
To a limited extent, we're discovering and/or revealing our personal kinks through the fiction we read, write and discuss.
I think that's a dangerous assumption to make about any writer or artist. If I write about a murder, does that mean I want to kill someone?
[kassrachel]:Hmm. I'm neither male nor gay and yet I manage to relate to and see myself within the characters I like to read about all the time if they're written like fully-fleshed out human beings.
I think you're misinterpreting Alanna's original argument. I don't think she was claiming that she doesn't relate to male characters; rather, that part of what's liberating about being a woman reading m/m slash is a certain...lack of automatic comparison between self and BSO. Given how often bodies are idealized in slash, as in most forms of erotica, it's nice not to feel compelled to compare my own shape with the shape of the lovers I'm reading about.
I know that my own experience on this is dual: on the one hand I do relate to, and connect with, the men I write and read about -- but OTOH, I don't necessarily have to relate to either one of them. In reading het romance, I feel a certain expectation that, as a woman, I'll identify with the woman in the pair; in slash, I can choose which character to identify with, or choose to identify with both. That's arguably as true for femslash as it is for m/m, but I don't happen to read much femslash, so my experiences there are limited.
[embitca]:No, I don't think I'm misinterpreting her argument at all. She said this:
slash also has the benefit of *not* being a reflection of my life.
But you're talking about body issues and I didn't see those brought up in her post at all so I didn't leap to the conclusion that this is what she meant. I have to say I've never made physical comparisons between myself and fictional characters. I don't worry about the shape of them in the way that I might with visual representations like magazine ads. Plus, I also read a lot of category het romance where women come in a variety of shapes and sizes so I've never found fiction has given anything to concern myself over in regards to my body image.
I don't read much het fanfic, but I've read some and I do read a lot of het romance novels and all sorts of other kinds of professional fiction and I don't always find myself identifying with the woman. Sometimes I identify with the man in the relationship. Sometimes I identify with a secondary character and sometimes I don't identify with anyone at all because I can't stand any of the characters (Gregory Benford, I'm looking at you).
[thornsilver]: Slashy. I used to be a big fan of romance novels. Of course, that was before I have discovered fanfiction in general and slash fiction in particular. I found that my criterion for romance novels went up very quickly. Now, very few authors even make it into "rainy day" category. I am still undecided whether it is because I am older and wiser, or because I have been exposed to higher quality writing on the net. I almost never read f/f slash, however, it just does not have the same kick. My personal kink being BDSM, somehow even vanilla m/m fiction manages to fit into the category. So, when I am choosing fanfiction, I always look for m/m slash first, and pick the fandom second.
Also, if we suddenly decide that slash is in a "lesbian continuum" because it is written by women for women, I'd have to say that romance novels belong to the same category (even if some of the authors are men, they tend to take female pseudonyms for marketing purposes). And then you'd have to wonder if woman-on-woman scenes in male porn make for a homosexual experience of the male kind. :)
[tawnacyr]: Hrm. Oversimplification?
Which brings me to a comment eyrea made in her LJ not long ago about a conversation she'd had - the idea that slash, as something written primarily by women for women, belongs on a lesbian continuum; it is a shared erotic experience among women.
I won't disagree with this, but I do think it's an oversimplification. Slash is essentially beautiful men presented for the delectation of women; that makes it het. It's also about men fucking men, which makes it gay, and it is indeed written by women to get other women off, which makes it lesbian. It's much harder to pin down, and fits plausibly in every single category. Almost equally.
For me, the draw isn't down to just one thing. I think that the appeal of slash for women is like a smorgasbrod: there is a buffet table of reasons to write slash, and everyone feeds at the same table, but everyone fills their "plate" with different reasons, and different amounts of reasons. Some women may have a little politics on their plate along with objectification, others may FILL the plate with objectification and put queer curiousity sprinkled on top.
For me, I am very dominant and a little ... hazy gender-wise. The sorts of men I like simply do not exist. And because of what I look like on the outside, men who express interest in me want me to be a Girl™. They have very definite ideas of what a woman like me is supposed to act like according to the Heterosexual Bylaws and I'm simply not like that. This causes major disconnects. As a result, I can construct men as I want them in slash -- men who see sex as an opportunity to be more "the same" with a their partner instead of more "different." I've always seen sex as the time when women and men are the most "the same," and most men -- particularly the ones who are attracted to me -- are simply not capable of seeing this.
It's also nice to get away from all the bullshit that comes along for the ride when you get a man in bed, the power inequities, the expectations, all that shit. In slash, it's gone.
And I have no reason to work through that crap with women. Women are fine the way they are. If I want strong women friends with whom I share erotic tension, I've got that. I don't need to write it.
These are only a couple reasons, and not my only two. They are not the same as other women, and there will be many who don't write for those reasons ...