What is slash? (essay by K.S. Nicholas)
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| Title: | What is slash? |
| Creator: | K.S. Nicholas |
| Date(s): | 1992 (possibly earlier) |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | What is slash? |
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What is slash? is a 1992 essay by K.S. Nicholas.
It is a very early example of a fan explaining slash to other fans. While the essay may appear simplistic to today's fans, it was a bold statement at the time, especially as it was on the newly-visible platform of "the web."
The Essay
"Slash" is fan fiction that focuses on a romantic and/or sexual relationship between two characters of the same sex.
Henry Jenkins, in his excellent book about fan culture, Textual Poachers (1992, Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc. ISBN 0-415-90571-0 (HB), ISBN 0-415-90572-9 (PB)), has a chapter about slash, "Welcome to Bisexuality Captain Kirk": Slash and the Fan-Writing Community, in which he describes it:
"The colorful term, "slash," refers to the convention of employing a stroke or "slash" to signify a same-sex relationship between two characters (Kirk/Spock or K/S) and specifies a genre of fan stories positing homoerotic affairs between series protagonists".
Another book on fan culture, Enterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular Myth by Camille Bacon-Smith (1992, University of Pennsylvania Press, IBSN 0-8122-3098-1 (HB) IBSN 0-8122-1379-3 (PB)) has a chapter on slash, Homoerotic Romance, in which she says:
"Like mass market romances written for women, the vast majority of stories written in this genre are first time stories in which the hero and his ultimate sexual companion discover their physical attraction for each other for the first time. The form, with or without graphic descriptions of sex, is so popular that one recurring Star Trek fanzine is devoted entirely to first time stories about Spock and Kirk."
The majority of slash is male/male stories written by women with other women as the intended audience. This isn't to say that there are not men who write slash. I think the reason for the prevalence of women writers is that fan fiction in general is written mostly by women. There have been many theories proposed about why women write slash, but none that I am entirely happy with.
One theory is a lack of strong female characters to pair males in the show with. This does not explain why some writers, with a show like Star Trek: Voyager which has a strong female character in Janeway, choose to pair her with other female characters like Seven or B'Ellana Torres instead of one of the male characters. And to pair the males on the show with each other, like Paris/Kim or Chakotay/Paris. The lack of strong female characters in many shows does, however, account for the small amount of female/female slash as compared to male/male.
Another theory is that without a female character that they can identify with themselves, women can read erotica without experiencing the guilt imposed on them by society about what is proper female behavior. This does not take into account the fact that many slash writers write straight erotica without experiencing a terrible burden of guilt.
A not quite serious theory is that slash is an allergic reaction to too many "Mary Sues." A Mary Sue is a fan fiction story which features an original female character who bears a striking resemblance to an idealized version of the author or one of her friends. She wins the admiration and respect of all the male characters and undying love of one or more of the male characters while saving the world and/or universe. Sometimes she dies tragically.
I don't know why I read, and sometimes, when I can actually get a story finished, write slash, other that the fact that I enjoy it. I think it would be considered less strange if it were males writing lesbian erotica. It is somehow considered okay for a man to fantasize about two women together, but "weird" for a woman to think about two men. There is definitely a gender bias towards slash writers. We are not conforming to our society's ideas about female sexual expression.