Zoë Rayne's Slash Theory
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Zoë Rayne's Slash Theory |
| Creator: | Zoë Rayne |
| Date(s): | 1998 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | online here |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Zoë Rayne's Slash Theory is a 1998 essay.
"Below is a treatise on slash, especially how slash is, in my opinion, evolving."
Fandoms Highlighted
The essay's author very briefly analyzes what they consider the main slash pairing in the shows below.
- Blake's 7
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel
- Due South
- Highlander
- Pretender
- The Professionals
- Profiler
- The Sentinel
- Stargate SG-1
- Star Trek: Voyager
- The X-Files
- Xena and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
Excerpts
Evolutional Slash Theory
While I was at Escapade--a slash convention held annually in California--in 1988, I attended a panel where the topic was "Buffy: the Vampire Slayer--Can We (Should We) Slash This Show?" The facilitator at this panel put forth a theory regarding our changing perceptions of what is and is not slashy. What follows is my interpretation of Shoshanna's theory, as I have adopted it.
Danger
A lot of what makes a show or pairing slashy, according to this theory, has to do with the element of danger intrinsic to the relationship. In the 1970s, K/S was a dangerous concept simply because the writers put Kirk and Spock in a homosexual relationship. However, attitudes are changing in the 1990s. To paraphrase a fellow Escapade attendee, "If Mulder and Krycek are having sex and Mulder's biggest concern is 'Does this mean I'm gay?' then the writer needs to seriously re-evaluate their story concept."
This danger factor can manifest itself in many ways but one of my personal favorites is as animosity between the characters, a love/hate relationship. I also tend to interpret that kind of hostility as repressed homoerotic tendencies or unresolved sexual tension (UST). Is it healthy to think of anger and violence as sexual traits? I don't know the answer to that one, but I do know that homophobia is often a symptom of a subconscious attraction to persons of the same gender.
Testing The Theory
I evaluated the pairings that I find most appealing and listed my conclusions below (in alphabetical order by fandom, so as not to show any favoritism!). These descriptions are based purely on my personal view of the relationships in question. This is not a complete list of slash pairings by any means; it is merely a sampling based on my personal favorite fandoms and pairings.
My Personal Biases
Because my personal opinions skew my analysis of what constitutes slashy pairings, I wanted to briefly discuss my views on erotic fiction. You'll notice that the pairings I listed were traditional male/male (m/m) slash pairings. With a few notable exceptions, female/female (f/f) pairings do not set off my "slash alarm." I'm sure that this is linked on some level with what turns me on in erotic fiction--two men together is much more of a turn-on than two women. This is true even when one or both of the characters involved in f/f erotic fanfic are sexually attractive to me. So, all you psychologists out there, make of that what you will.