Slash fiction
Slash fiction is a genre of fan fiction. The term refers to a sexual or romantic relationship between two same-sex (originally only male) characters in fan fiction. These pairings are often described in detail as the pairing is likely to be the focus of the story (though this depends on what genre of fan fiction one is reading – ex. gen or ship). Slash tends to occur outside the canon universe but does not necessarily oppose canon. "Slash" once referred to fan fiction in which one or more media characters were involved in an explicit adult relationship as a primary plot element. Now it is simply the term used to refer to any pairing between characters of the same sex. Femslash is a is a sub genre of slash where the a romantic or sexual relationship occurs between two female characters from canon. Slash is also present in various Japanese anime or manga fandoms, but is referred to as shounen-ai or yaoi for relationships between male characters, and shoujo-ai or yuri between female characters respectively.
The name arises from the use of the slash symbol (/) in the description of the primary pairing involved in the story, as compared to the ampersand (&) conventionally used for friendship fiction.
History
Although slash is believed to have originated as a purely homosexual style of fan fiction, it has evolved from there into a wider definition.
It is commonly believed that slash fiction originated within the Star Trek: The Original Series fan fiction fandom, with "Kirk/Spock" stories first appearing in the late 1970s. This should not be surprising, as modern fan fiction as a whole owes its start largely to the popularity of Star Trek. From there, increasing tolerance and acceptance of homosexuality, and frustration with the portrayal of gay relationships in mainstream media, fed a growing desire in authors to explore the subjects on their own terms using established media characters. Slash fiction followed the Star Trek franchise through spinoff that followed the original series, and quickly spread to other television shows, movies, and books.
Present-day slash
Slash fiction continues to follow popular media, and new stories are constantly being produced. Slash fiction readers and writers, fan fiction writers writing in other genres, tend to adhere closely to the canonical source of their fiction, and create a fandom for that particular source. Of the diverse and often segregated slash fandoms, each fandom has its own rules of style and etiquette, and each comes with its own history, favorite stories, and authors. Popularity and activity within each fandom rises and falls in relation to that of the source of the material.
Though the demographics vary from fandom to fandom, most present-day slash fiction (unofficial estimates range as high as 98%), is written by heterosexual women. Readership is less clearly defined, though studies indicate the majority of readers may be heterosexual women and homosexual men. Speculation to popularity of slash among this specific demographic is abundant. The generally accepted theory is that heterosexual women find male/male relationships erotic, much as some men consider lesbian relationships appealing.
An ambiguous definition
The term slash fiction has several noted ambiguities within it.
Though technically erroneous, some people assert that some published works constitute slash fiction, despite the fact that it is not fan-created. This is likely due to the relative void of canon homosexual relationships in source media. For example, Star Trek has rarely portrayed gay or lesbian relationships on screen outside of the mirror universe (it was done once in an episode of DS9); there have been two officially licensed Star Trek novels that have involved homosexual relationships: the 1985 novel Killing Time by Della van Hise, and the 2001 novel Section 31: Rogue by Andy Mangels. Other authors' works that deal with homosexual themes or characters are sometimes described as slash fiction as well.
Due to the lack of canonical homosexual relationships in source media, some have come to see slash fiction as being exclusively outside of canon. These people hold that the term 'slash fiction' only applies when the relationship being written about is not part of the source's canon, and that fan fiction about canonical same-sex relationships is hence not slash. The recent appearance of openly gay characters on screen, such as Willow and Tara in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and many of the characters in the Queer as Folk series, has added much to this discussion. However, abiding by this definition leaves such stories without a convenient label, so this distinction has not been widely adopted.
More recently, some slash authors have begun to write slash fiction that contains transgender themes and transgender/transsexual or intersex characters [1]. As a result, the exact definition of the term within this respect has often been hotly debated within various slash fandoms. The strictest definition holds that only stories about relationships between two male partners ('M/M') are 'slash fiction', which has led to the evolution of the term femslash, or femmeslash. The pseudo-Japanese terms yaoi for male/male stories and yuri for female/female stories are also used.
Due to increasing population and prevalence of slash on the internet in recent years, some have begun to use "slash" as a generic term for any erotic fan fiction, whether it describes heterosexual or homosexual relationships. This has sparked mild concern among writers of heterosexual fan fiction. This concern is sometimes based in moral objection to homosexuality, and manifests itself as offense at the notion of being compared to homosexual subject matter. It has also caused concern for slash writers who believe, that while it can be erotic, slash is not by definition so, and believe that defining erotic fic alone as slash takes the word away from all ages suitable homoromantic fanfic, and may cause confusion, when the quite unambiguous words 'erotica', 'adult', and 'porn' already exist. In addition, a number of journalists writing about the fan fiction phenomenon in general seem to believe that all fan fiction is slash, or at least erotic in character.
Content ratings and warnings
Slash fiction, like other fan fiction, sometimes borrows the MPAA film rating system, using the labels G, PG, PG-13, R and NC-17 to indicate the amount of sexual content in the story. Not all slash fiction has explicit sexual content, although it should be kept in mind that if a story claims to be or contain slash, and is unrated, it is likely explicit. The interaction between two characters can be as innocent as holding hands or a chaste kiss. As the result of trademark issues over the use of the MPAA rating system, some fandoms have created their own rating systems. If a story contains themes which may offend or which some readers may find distasteful (e.g. non-consensual sex, incest, BDSM, shota also known as underage or chan or even heterosexual sex), it is considered polite to include warnings in the story header: Some sites require all stories to be rated and have warnings attached, often by using a beta reader.
The term 'no lemon' is sometimes used to indicate slash stories without sexual content. Anything with explicit content may be labeled 'lemon'. The terms 'lemon' and 'lime' arose from the anime/yaoi fandoms. 'Lemon' refers to a hentai anime series, Cream Lemon. 'Lime' is sometimes used to indicate that the story contains only mild sexual content, similar to a PG-13 film.
Squick
An offshoot of fanfiction worth mentioning here is squick, and sometimes referred to as squickfic. It is very similar to slash, but instead of attempting to merely arouse or entertain the reader, squick purposefully tries to make him or her uncomfortable in the extreme. Sometimes squick isn't even relationship based, and involves no intimate relationship, but violence instead. Most, however, are a combination, and would merit a rating stronger than NC-17, if possible.
Currently circulating, there are a few 'squickfics' that transcend the NC-17 rating by several degrees. What is considered to be the 'best' squick can usually make the reader physically nauseous enough to throw up, if he or she is daring enough to read all the way through.
Original Slash
There is also an up-and-coming genre loosely called “original slash” (original characters and settings, with the emphasis on a homosexual – m/m or f/f – relationship between the main characters). Such writing is not easily defined as homoerotic, as erotic content is variable, and plot and emotional development tends to take precedence over sexual scenes.
Like traditional fan based slash, original slash is predominantly written by women for women, although there is some crossover with the gay literature male readership base and authors. Many of the writers honed their chops writing fan-based slash fiction before venturing out into their own titles and characters (P. L. Nunn, Manna). There is a substantial amount of free amateur writing available on the internet with a similar readership to fanfiction. Many authors are self-published either on the internet or through POD, although Original Slash is a growing professional market within e-publishing circles. Some, like Torquere Press, are dedicated to M/M and F/F titles, with many other e-publishers of erotica and romance are adding “gay” sections to their line up. Genres run the gamut from science fiction & fantasy (Sean Michael, Fiona Glass, K.M. Frontain, Ann Somerville, Dusk Peterson), traditional romance (Emily Veinglory, Julia Talbot, Laura Braumbach , Sarah Payne), horror (James Buchanan), paranormal (Mychael Black, Sable St.Germain, Kay Derwydd) and many others.
Slash controversy
For many people, slash is a controversial subject. In addition to the legal issues associated with traditional fan fiction, some people believe that it tarnishes established media characters to portray them in a way that was never illustrated canonically. Slash fiction writers, however, often believe that sexual orientation and romance aren't necessarily fixed entities, and that it is impossible to conclusively state that any character is straight, gay or bisexual.
There is vociferous debate on the canonicity of any relationship, be it homosexual or heterosexual, on various fan fiction websites. However, a certain percentage of slash writers choose their fandom because they believe it is actually likely within their chosen universe, and that the original creator was unable to write about it for fear of losing popularity. For example, Angel/Spike fanfiction within the Buffyverse: in the Angel DVD commentary for A Hole in the World, Joss Whedon, the creator of Angel said, "Spike and Angel...they were hanging out for years and years and years. They were all kinds of deviant. Are people thinking they never...? Come on, people! They're open-minded guys!" as well as Spike saying "Angel and me have never been intimate. Except that one..." to Illyria in the episode "Power Play". Needless to say, this has been seen as a vindication of some fans who have been arguing this point since the characters met. Other slash relationships believed to be evident (if hidden) in different media may be found in Harry Potter, Smallville, Friends and House.
Occasionally some forms of erotic fiction can prove to be particularly controversial: of note is slash involving underage characters (often termed 'chanslash'; examples include some Harry Potter slash) or real person slash ('RPS', where people who actually exist, most often celebrities, are characters in slash stories) could be considered distasteful by those who otherwise find nothing objectionable about erotic fiction in general.
Chanslash
Chanslash has obviously controversial aspects associated with it, in that underaged characters are portrayed in sexual situations. The people owning the intellectual property rights to these characters are often unhappy with Chanslash because of the potential legal ramifications, and concern over negatively impacting the popularity of the character. Some studios owning the rights to slashed characters have issued cease and desist orders in the past as a result of this type of slash.
Real person slash
Real person slash (RPS) seems to have gained popularity with the rise of boy bands in the 1990s. These singing groups, like *NSYNC or The Backstreet Boys, had public personas that were carefully designed and marketed to their target audience of girls and young women. As these boy bands were famous for being 'packaged' rather than for the sincerity of their public image, many slash authors had few moral qualms about treating them much like fictional characters. Real person slash involves taking the celebrity's public image and creating slash stories with them. From boybands, RPS began to encompass other musicians, sports figures, actors, and even prominent political figures.
The legality of using a real person's name to tell a story has frequently been questioned. As a result, authors often preface their stories with lengthy disclaimers that clearly identify the story as entirely fictional. Real person slash took on a new dimension when slash fans and writers began to use blogging services to create fictional journals that purported to be owned by celebrities. These journals do often include disclaimers that explain their true (fictional) nature, and that authors are participants in role-playing games where they take on the persona of a celebrity.
Evolution of slash
In recent years, slash fiction has moved beyond text-based literature. With the help of the internet to promote and distribute multi-media content, and growing prevalence of the slash phenomenon, new forms of slash and slash analysis have begun to appear.
Slash Artwork
In addition to fiction, fans also create artworks depicting their favorite characters. In recent years, the widespread availability of imaging software such as Adobe Photoshop has allowed slash artists to manipulate photographs of their subjects to produce romantic or erotic images that imply a homosexual relationship, either as static pictures or animated GIFs.
Prior to the widespread home adoption of computers, however, most fanart was done by hand, using such techniques as pencil and ink line drawings, pointillism, and painting. Charcoals, gouache, watercolors, and other media were less widely used.
Hentai has an intimate connection with slash, as many slash stories are accompanied by links to hentai-style illustrations.
Slash in academia
Slash fiction was the subject of several notable academic studies in the early 1990s, as part of the cultural studies movement within the humanities:
- Cicioni, Mirna (1998). "Male Pair Bonds and Female Desire in Fan Slash Writing." In C. Harris & A. Alexander (Eds.) Theorizing Fandom: Fans, Subculture and Identity. Cresskil, New Jersey: Hampton.
- Penley, Constance (1997). NASA/Trek: Popular Science and Sex in America. New York: Verso. ISBN 0-86091-617-0.
- Bacon-Smith, Camile (1991). Enterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular Myth. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-1379-3.
- Jenkins, Henry (1992). Textual Poachers. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-90572-9.
Most of these, as is characteristic of cultural studies, approach slash fiction from an ethnographic perspective, and talk primarily about the writers of slash fiction, and the communities that form around slash fiction. They focus only minimally on textual analysis. Though they take an ethnographic approach, which comes from anthropology, they are with the exception of Jenkins, somewhat uninformed on current trends and debates within ethnography.
Non-sexual context
In a non-sexual context , a slash fiction is a story that lasts less than 5 minutes , mostly 1 or 2.
Slash timeline
- 1974: "A Fragment Out Of Time" is the first known Star Trek slash to be published in fanzine. The author was Diane Marchant. The vignette was published in Grup #3. The language was highly coded and didn't refer to Spock and Kirk by name but rather referred to them as he and him.
- 1975: In "Grup" #4 Diane Marchant published a rather indirect essay about K/S. The first public discussion of this essay occurred in the Star Trek letterzine, "Halkan Council".
- 1976: According to the National Library of Australia, the Star Trek Action Committee was formed as a Star Trek Club. This Star Trek Club held its first meeting in April. Members included Susan Clarke, Julie Townsend and Edwina Harvey. This fanclub would publish the Star Trek adult fanzine Beyond Antares, which contained both het and slash.
- 1976: In June, "Alternative: Epilog to Orion" is written by G. Downes and published as a fanzine. It was the first K/S zine to appear.
- 1980s: Actors and fans of Blake's 7 began interaction at conventions. This sometimes led to correspondences, personal phone calls, and general chit chat. In the midst of an unrelated fannish argument, some fans showed the actors slash fanzine based on Blake's 7 as a form of punishment for things in other parts of fandom. The actors were upset because they did not view their characters as homosexuals and they saw slash as a violation of trust with their fans. One of the actors tried to ban slash authors and slash from the Blake's 7 fandom. Eventually, this died down and the Blake 7's fandom went on.
- 1980s Zebracon a slash convention is held in Chicago, ILL. It was initially focused on Starsky and Hutch fandom (Zebra 3 was their car's call sign). It then branched out to embrace Professionals and other cop/spy/sf shows. The convention was held annually and then switched to a 2 yr cycle. The next (and possibly last) Zebracon will be held in 2007. http://www.zebracon.net/
- 1981 The first MediaWest*Con is held under that name (following T'Con in 1978 and 2'Con in 1979) over Memorial Day weekend in Lansing, Michigan. A fan run, SF media based convention sponsored by T'Kuhtian Press, MediaWest*Con programming has reflected member interest in both slash and gen content. http://www.mediawestcon.org/
- 1990 Escapade - a fan run media based slash convention was first held near Santa Barbara, CA, bringing together slash fans face to face (some for the first time). Most attendees were women and the first fandoms focused on the Professionals, Blake's 7, Star Trek and Starsky & Hutch. As of 2007, the convention has been held every year and has grown to encompass a wide range of attendees (men and women) and many fandoms. http://www.escapadecon.net/
- 1992: The Nifty Erotic Stories Archive, or Nifty for short, is established. The 'Gay Male - Celebrity' sub-section of the archive proves to be a breeding ground for many different types of slash fiction, particularly RPS and boyband fiction. It is one of the largest collections of RPS in existence, with more than 1,500 boyband stories alone, some of which were several megabytes of plain-text in length.
- 1993: First slash mailing list created, run from a private list-serv on the East Coast. It was called "Virgule" (another name for the / symbol) and membership was limited to women. It remained active through the 1990s, until more fandom specific slash mailing lists on Egroups and Yahoogroups became popular.
- 1995: Seven slash stories were posted to alt.tv.x-files.creative.
- 1998: On alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated discussion ensues regarding the issue of whether or not slash and het need to be rated differently.
- 1998: Real Person Slash archives for pop bands begin to emerge online. Boybands such as Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC figure prominently, but other bands such as Savage Garden, The Cure, and Placebo also had early archives. (The stories pertaining to *NSYNC and Savage Garden have recently taken on a certain irony. *NSYNC band member Lance Bass announced in August 2006 that he is, in fact, gay. In July of the same year, Savage Garden frontman Darren Hayes announced his marriage to boyfriend Richard Cullen on his website.)
- 1999: Star Trek OS writer Karmen Ghia publishes interviews with many of the more prolific contributors to alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated.
- 1999: On May 19, the Master and Apprentice archive was founded. Currently, this archive is the largest archive of Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon slash on the Internet with over 2,400 stories archived. This archive was also important in that it seems to have set the trend of writing stories based on media before the media is released to the public.
- 2002: On September 12, the FanFiction.net archive removes and bans real person fiction and NC-17 rated stories.
- 2004: Largely successful slash community slacken_ties is created on LiveJournal. It is dedicated to slash fiction featuring Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand. The band itself has acknowledged the site, with Alex Kapranos saying, "Slackening ties for the girls at slacken_ties!" in a 2005 gig at the Scala, London. Alex Kapranos also reportedly promotes the site by talking about it with fangirls after concerts.
- 2006: Australian newspaper 'The Advertiser' acknowledges the Nick/Greg slash relationship from CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in an online article about the Logies.
See also
External links
- An article on a Franz Ferdinand/Morrissey slash story
- "Harry Potter and the mystery of an academic obsession" -an August, 2006 Observer article discussing Harry Potter slash.