andrewducker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
andrewducker) wrote2003-12-26 08:19 pm
andrewducker) wrote2003-12-26 08:19 pm
Slash
I've been thinking about Slash ever since I opened my mouth without bulletproofing myself.
Having read the Schindler's List Fanfic/Slash a little later, it's not actually that bad. Well, it's not terrible writing, and it's not offensive.
Except.... except it's solidified something that's been nagging at me for a while - the thing that I've realised I don't like about Slash.
It started with a link that Yonmei sent me to a FAQ page about Slash-writing, which gave various examples of relationships between people, and then said "They sounded romantic, yes? But we changed the genders around, and the people in each case were both men!" (and yes, I'm parapgrasing from memory, as I can't find the page again). This had the implication that as these relationships _could_ be romantic, therefore reframing them as romantic was a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
And I then realised that the problem was that the Slash people seem to think that it's impossible for any relationship to be non-sexual. That if one person cares for another, it must be because they want to have sex with them. If a person enjoys another's company it's because they are desperate for sweaty lovemaking with them. If a person loves someone else, it's because of lust.
Taking the relationship between Oskar Schindler and Itzhak Stern and saying that they worked together to save thousands of lives because Oskar couldn't get Itzhak's sexy looks out of his head takes an incredibly noble act and a great friendship and reduces it to animal attraction. And while I have nothing against animal attraction (it's great!), it's as bad as the idea of Aragorn fighting for Middle Earth because Arwen is threatened - suddenly he's not a hero fighting for all mankind - he's just some guy protecting his girlfriend.
It's reminiscient of the people that think that Men and Women can't be friends, because Men want to shag any woman they know - apparently men and men can't be friends, because deep down they want to shag.
(Oh, and all of the above applies to male/female relationships too, 'Het' fiction annoys me just as much.)
Having read the Schindler's List Fanfic/Slash a little later, it's not actually that bad. Well, it's not terrible writing, and it's not offensive.
Except.... except it's solidified something that's been nagging at me for a while - the thing that I've realised I don't like about Slash.
It started with a link that Yonmei sent me to a FAQ page about Slash-writing, which gave various examples of relationships between people, and then said "They sounded romantic, yes? But we changed the genders around, and the people in each case were both men!" (and yes, I'm parapgrasing from memory, as I can't find the page again). This had the implication that as these relationships _could_ be romantic, therefore reframing them as romantic was a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
And I then realised that the problem was that the Slash people seem to think that it's impossible for any relationship to be non-sexual. That if one person cares for another, it must be because they want to have sex with them. If a person enjoys another's company it's because they are desperate for sweaty lovemaking with them. If a person loves someone else, it's because of lust.
Taking the relationship between Oskar Schindler and Itzhak Stern and saying that they worked together to save thousands of lives because Oskar couldn't get Itzhak's sexy looks out of his head takes an incredibly noble act and a great friendship and reduces it to animal attraction. And while I have nothing against animal attraction (it's great!), it's as bad as the idea of Aragorn fighting for Middle Earth because Arwen is threatened - suddenly he's not a hero fighting for all mankind - he's just some guy protecting his girlfriend.
It's reminiscient of the people that think that Men and Women can't be friends, because Men want to shag any woman they know - apparently men and men can't be friends, because deep down they want to shag.
(Oh, and all of the above applies to male/female relationships too, 'Het' fiction annoys me just as much.)
no subject
Same here. Being a female engineer I've always had quite a lot of male friends. Sometimes there's an attraction, sometimes there isn't, but the friendship is the same in either case.
I wonder if being able to combine friendship with attraction is anything to do with the way that women pretty much grow up knowing that they can't shag everyone they want to because if they do they'll end up with A Reputation, so we are taught very early that we need to develop self-control and make decisions about whether to have sex based on factors other than just whether we'd like to or not.
Whereas (heterosexual) men are traditionally brought up to believe that the limiting factor on how much sex they have is not their own self control but whether the woman will agree to it or not, so maybe they find it harder to regard sexual attraction as just one among many factors in a relationship or a friendship?
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I don't really recall that having 'a reputation' was ever an issue with any of the girls that I grew up with. Nobody really cared, as far as I can recall. Now getting pregnant really young, that was sometimes seen as stupid (but not unusual), but mostly no-one seemed to be bothered.
But maybe it was just my famous ability to be oblivious to social nuance, rather than that 80's scotland was really like that.