webbgirl | Feeling both a bit ranty and allegorical today... (Reply)

I've been a slash reader (and on the rarest of ocassions, writer) for about 6 years now. A drop in the bucket of fandom compared to some, but enought time to have seen many anti-slash posts, essays, rants, etc... I've seen a few recently though that have a similar theme. "I'm not a homophobe but I don't like slash and people keep opressing me by writing it!" I may be paraphrasing a bit here, but that's the jist.
ETA: Cut for f-list saving purposes.
Here's the thing. I'm not a fan of melons. I've never really liked them (texture issues mostly) so I stay away from them. I'm more of a citrus fruit girl myself. (Sorry Rodney fans.)

I find that it's fairly easy for me to avoid eating melons. However, there are some folks who seem to have a problem with the fact that I like citrus fruit. Basically, they're standing up in the restaurant when my grapefruit is delivered and shouting "HOW DARE YOU ORDER GRAPEFRUIT IN MY PRESENCE!" Really? Why does my having grapefruit offend you so much?

I will happily support your right to scarf down that cantaloupe even though I find it less than pleasant. I can understand being upset if someone snuck some grapefruit in with your cantaloupe when you weren't expecting it, but when you purposely seek out grapefruit eaters for the sake of telling them how wrong it is? WTF?

My eating grapefruit does not make me a bad person. And even if you find kumquats disgusting and reprehensible, that doesn't mean that people who enjoy them are.

And guess what? Liking citrus fruit does not preclude people from liking melons or even various forms of berries. That just happens to be my deal. There is no hive mind in fruitdom.

So now that I've completely overworked the metaphor...

There seems to be a couple of misconceptions on the part of some anti-slash folks.

1) "Slashers don't care about the characters, it's all about the buttseks." Yes, there are many PWPs and NC-17 fics in slashdom, but there are also rated G ones as well. I'm willing to guess that there are many PWPs and NC-17 in hetdom as well. As far as caring about the characters? That comes down to good and bad writing. PERIOD. It has nothing to do with whether the author is writing two men or a man and a woman, if they're writing a one-dimensional character it's bad writing. Oh, and those fics where the characters are supposed to be two guys but one of them is really just an emo chick with a penis? BAD WRITING!

2) "Slashers want their characters to be together on screen." While this may be true in a few cases, for the most part no. Most slashers are happy with good characterization on the show and a few subtext bones thrown our way. (And just because you don't see the subtext doesn't mean that it's not there!) Fanfiction for many is an exploration of 'What if'. Since for most mainstream American shows we're not going to be seeing a healthy homosexual relationship (I'm soooo looking at you CSI Writers), we have to imagine what it would be like in the context of our favorite shows.

3)"For slashers guys can't just be friends without having sex."  This one fails as well. There are male/male relationships that I see as strictly platonic on screen. I agree that there are those writers with the "any two hot guys" theory, but again this comes down to writing and characterization skill. Also? If you present this argument and then segue into how "non-canon Het Pairing A" is your OTP? I will point and mock mercilessly at your hypocrisy.

4)"Slashers hate Female Character B because she stands between their pairing." Mmmm...I'll give you a partial credit on this one. There are absolutely fen out there who hate on a character for this reason. However, attributing this to someone being a slasher rather than them just being a hater earns the fail portion. Het folks have been doing the same thing when more than one female is introduced. Also? Sometimes the character actually does suck. (Again looking at the CSI writers on this one.)

5) A more recent one "Incest equals Slash equals Incest". Soooo many ways of NO! There are a multitude of slashers who do not read or write 'cest fics. Unless the characters are related somehow there is no 'cest. While on this point though, just because someone reads 'cest doesn't mean that they want to jump the bones of their entire family. People who believe this will be laughed at for an inability to distinguish fiction from reality.

In summation: It's fine if it's not your thing, but just because someone else enjoys it does NOT mean they are trying to oppress you.