Slash

[andrewducker]

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.)

Comments

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

The problem is that to most of the anti-slash people, anything that implies that any canon character might be other-than-heterosexual is automatically slash. That basically covers everything I've written, except for one or two stories where only one of my Original Characters is coded as queer.

And I'm never going to give up on the idea that Action Heroes don't have to be white, middle-class, heterosexual, able-bodied and male all at the same time. So I'm a slash writer. Even when there's no sex in the story. Even when there isn't even a single thought of sex in any character's head in a story.

Gina

[allorin.livejournal.com]

Peter Parker isn't middle-class.

But yeah, I'll give you the rest.

Still, what about those Hobbits, eh? There's heroes for you... ;+)

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

Oh, agreed on the hobbits. Sam, especially, is definitely an all-time hero of the type I was meaning, without any need to slash him and Frodo. There are a couple of pairings elsewhere in LotR that I can almost be convinced by but I think they can be read in other ways too.

Gina

[allorin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the whole Legolas/Aragorn thing? You just know they wash each other's hair... ;+)

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

Obviously Legolas always insists on having his washed first then. The only times I remember Aragorn's hair looking remotely clean was in two scenes at the end of 'RotK'.

Gina