Why Slash

Related terms:	Women and Slash
See also:	My Thoughts on Yaoi, In Defense of Fanfiction
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Like the proverbial salmon swimming upstream, there often comes a time in every meta fan's life when they feel compelled to return to the Ultimate Question: but why slash?

Fans sometimes refer to this perennial wondering as "why slash" or "the why slash debate" and answers are as varied as fen.

The persistence of the "why slash?" debate, while no equivalent existential soul-searching exists for "why het?" (rather than specific ship manifestos for favorite pairings), reflects the idea that being a slasher is a question of identity and self-definition for some slash readers, rather than just a reading and/or pairing preference in a fandom.

Some Fan Comments

1995

Heh. Right. In 20-odd years of writing and reading and *active* discussion (the question was raised on more than one occasion, in fact, as to whether there was a correllation between the drive to analyse into the ground and the drive to read/write slash), there has been nothing even approaching consensus amongst the members of the 'slash community'. If you manage to achieve it here, I can only conclude that you're ignoring some major issues!

– Agnes Tomorrow

1997

… I got tired of the many stories that distort the characters beyond recognition: The sweet, sensitive Avons; the genius Vilas; the stupid, naïve Blakes; the evil, devious Blakes; the omniscient Avons; the homicidally jealous Jennas. Needless to say, these show up with equal frequency in gen and slash. An intense relationship between Blake and Avon is a given: it's there on screen. IMODO, extrapolating from the operatic emotions on screen to the erotic, whether it's explicit or implicit in a story, is not as fundamental a violation of the series universe as, say, stories where Avon and Orac bring about sudden bloodless change by undermining the Federation banking system (or many of the equally ludicrous gen plots that hang on some bizarre wishful thinking about Avon's character and the way the world works). I don't think the slash concept, especially in stories that are not explicit, is any less canonical than PGP stories where everyone survives.

What I really like sometimes is a story where it's obvious that the emotions are incredibly intense and clearly encompass, without being limited to, the erotic, but neither of the boys notices. Just like in the series. 8-) What want is stories about that relationship, in any form, and since slash is the only easily identified fan fic that can be relied on to explore that relationship, then that's where I'm going. I don't mind the sex, usually, either, although the novelty wore off a while ago. 8-)

– Sue C

Example Meta Essays

Also, see Timeline of Slash Meta.

1990

• Why Slash? (1990 essay) by [C A]

1997

• What's all this, then? by The Divine Adoratrice (1997)
• Right - why slash? by Susan Legge (1997)
• Why gay stories? (not a complaint), discussion at alt.startrek.creative (1997)

1998

• Zoe Rayne's Slash Theory (1998)

1999

• Why I Write Slash by Kass (1999)
• Understanding Slash Challenge with 39 responses. (May 1999)

2001

• Women and Slash - Why, why, why? by Julad (2001)

2002

• Goes to Motive by Betty Plotnick (2002)
• Slash and Hurt/Comfort by Jessica Ruth (2002)

2003

• Some Thoughts on Femslash by Kadorienne (January 2003)
• What *is* slash? (2003 essay by Flamingo) (April 2003)
• enlarging the borders of imagination by fabularasa (May 2003)
• Why disliking slash is not homophobic by Aja (May 2003)
• Why I Write Slash (essay by Ivy Blossom) (August 2003)
• An Open Letter to the Anti-Slash People by The Brat Queen (September 2003)
• The Cost of the Erection: Slash and Gayness by by Executrix (September 2003)
• The Erotic versus the Realistic: Sex in Slash Fiction by Morgan )0( (September 2003)
• What is Slash? by The Brat Queen (November 2003)

2004

• The Fanfic Symposium: Why do I Like Slash? Plain Answers from a Het Woman by Dark Twin. (2004)
• Must. Not. Comment. by Helen Raven (2004)

2005

• The Joy of Slash: Why do women want it? by Melissa Pittman (2005)
• Okay, fandom question here!, ^{Archived version}, by lunabee (2005)

2010

• Girls who are boys who like boys to be girls... by FayJay (2010)

2011

• sex, and slash sex scenes by Shoshanna. Essay on the writer's initial discovery of and views on slash as the (sole) genre that integrates people's lives in the bedroom with their lives outside it. (April 2011)

2018

• The Who Does Matter by yourlibrarian, written as a response to another post (since deleted) and this Fanlore article's line at the time "while no equivalent existential soul-searching exists for "why het".

2020

• Why I Write Slash from a brief preface by Shadowsplay (23 April 2020)

Other Examples

• Category:Perspectives on Fans
• Category:Slash Meta
• Timeline of Slash Meta
• Writing ‘Slash’ Fan Fiction: Power, Desire and Eye-Candy in a Never Ending Romance