Let's talk about sex.
Dec. 19th, 2006 08:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
truepennyETA: since ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
metafandom has apparently linked to this post sans context, let me state explicitly that I'm talking about the MISLABELING of original fiction featuring a same-sex relationship--as for example, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
matociquala's Carnival--as slash in reviews and commentary by people who are not slash writers themselves. I'm not trying to talk about what slash writers choose to do within their fandoms and communities. Not a slasher. Don't play one on TV. I'm arguing that slash, as a term, belongs to fanfiction, and should not be applied to works that are not fanfiction. My reasons for feeling as I do, explained in the following post, stem partly from my own career as a pro writer whose work features a lot of same-sex relationships, and partly from my appreciation, as a genre theorist, of the intertextual subversion inherent in what slash does.
The subtext, as Giles says to Buffy in "Ted," is rapidly becoming text.
hth
More specifically, let's talk about slash and why it is offensive and heteronormatizing to equate it with homosexual relationships.
The subversion/containment model (proposed by Foucault and applied by a bunch of New Historicist critics in the 1980s) has buried somewhere in the unexamined assumptions of its premise the notion that somehow subversion is bad. Or nonsustainable. Conservation of energy. A society tends to conserve the status quo.
This may be descriptively true (she says, looking dourly at her own society), but prescriptively, it sucks major moose cock, because it assumes that subversion exists to be contained. Hence Natalie Zemon Davis's elaboration of Foucault with her "pressure-valve" idea. (Which, btw, I think is incredibly helpful for understanding extremely conservative societies--like I said, descriptively the idea can be very helpful.)
Slash is subversion.
(For those of you who are still wondering what on earth I'm talking about, slash is a kind of fanfiction which posits a romantic/sexual relationship between two characters who in canon have no such thing. You might also describe it as an underground movement. It's named for the labelling convention that marks it; the first slash was K/S: Kirk-slash-Spock.)
Slash says, "These two canonically romantically-uninvolved characters have a close, intense, and obviously loving relationship. Our society--as inscribed on these characters by censorship and other kinds of normatizing pressure--does not allow that relationship to be developed in a sexual way. Let's transgress the taboo."
Now, obviously, that transgression can be done mindfully or otherwise, but the key component to slash is the overt sexualization of a non-sexual, or only subtextually sexual, relationship.
That relationship is, 9 times out of 10, between two men. Because, 9 times out of 10, the most intense and interesting relationship in any given canon is--wait for it--between two men. (And that has to do with a whole bunch of other factors and influences including, you know, four or five millennia worth of patriarchy.)
Now, why am I so adamant that slash is not the same as homosexual relationships?
Because I insist that homosexual relationships ought not to be categorized as subversive.
(Okay, yes, leftist liberal commie bitch, that would be me. Please don't tell me you're surprised.)
Labelling a homosexual relationship in a work of fiction as slash is wrong for a couple of reasons. One is that it's eliding the line between a work of fiction and commentary ON that work of fiction. I think it's inherent to slash that it is subverting and deconstructing and undercutting a canon text's assumptions about sexuality and love (using "text" here in a broad and metaphorical sense, rather than the literal one of words-printed-on-a-page). Slash is a game played with canon, and part of its value is in the tension it both creates and illuminates between canon text and subtext.
The other reason that it's wrong to label homosexual relationships, whether in or out of fiction, as slash is that it is reinscribing heteronormativity on our society and our discourse. It's a syllogism. Slash is gay sex. Slash is subversive. Therefore, gay sex is subversive. The subversion/containment model is a BOX, and as long as we keep putting homosexual relationships in that box, we are reinforcing the idea that heterosexuality is the standard by which all other sexualities will and ought to be judged. The same idea that is powering the (often hysterical) attempts to define marriage in such a way that gay and lesbian people cannot have it. Because their committed monogamous relationships are being judged as subversive.
And that's so horribly wrong that it's eaten all my words.
metafandom has apparently linked to this post sans context, let me state explicitly that I'm talking about the MISLABELING of original fiction featuring a same-sex relationship--as for example, matociquala's Carnival--as slash in reviews and commentary by people who are not slash writers themselves. I'm not trying to talk about what slash writers choose to do within their fandoms and communities. Not a slasher. Don't play one on TV. I'm arguing that slash, as a term, belongs to fanfiction, and should not be applied to works that are not fanfiction. My reasons for feeling as I do, explained in the following post, stem partly from my own career as a pro writer whose work features a lot of same-sex relationships, and partly from my appreciation, as a genre theorist, of the intertextual subversion inherent in what slash does.The subtext, as Giles says to Buffy in "Ted," is rapidly becoming text.
hth
More specifically, let's talk about slash and why it is offensive and heteronormatizing to equate it with homosexual relationships.
The subversion/containment model (proposed by Foucault and applied by a bunch of New Historicist critics in the 1980s) has buried somewhere in the unexamined assumptions of its premise the notion that somehow subversion is bad. Or nonsustainable. Conservation of energy. A society tends to conserve the status quo.
This may be descriptively true (she says, looking dourly at her own society), but prescriptively, it sucks major moose cock, because it assumes that subversion exists to be contained. Hence Natalie Zemon Davis's elaboration of Foucault with her "pressure-valve" idea. (Which, btw, I think is incredibly helpful for understanding extremely conservative societies--like I said, descriptively the idea can be very helpful.)
Slash is subversion.
(For those of you who are still wondering what on earth I'm talking about, slash is a kind of fanfiction which posits a romantic/sexual relationship between two characters who in canon have no such thing. You might also describe it as an underground movement. It's named for the labelling convention that marks it; the first slash was K/S: Kirk-slash-Spock.)
Slash says, "These two canonically romantically-uninvolved characters have a close, intense, and obviously loving relationship. Our society--as inscribed on these characters by censorship and other kinds of normatizing pressure--does not allow that relationship to be developed in a sexual way. Let's transgress the taboo."
Now, obviously, that transgression can be done mindfully or otherwise, but the key component to slash is the overt sexualization of a non-sexual, or only subtextually sexual, relationship.
That relationship is, 9 times out of 10, between two men. Because, 9 times out of 10, the most intense and interesting relationship in any given canon is--wait for it--between two men. (And that has to do with a whole bunch of other factors and influences including, you know, four or five millennia worth of patriarchy.)
Now, why am I so adamant that slash is not the same as homosexual relationships?
Because I insist that homosexual relationships ought not to be categorized as subversive.
(Okay, yes, leftist liberal commie bitch, that would be me. Please don't tell me you're surprised.)
Labelling a homosexual relationship in a work of fiction as slash is wrong for a couple of reasons. One is that it's eliding the line between a work of fiction and commentary ON that work of fiction. I think it's inherent to slash that it is subverting and deconstructing and undercutting a canon text's assumptions about sexuality and love (using "text" here in a broad and metaphorical sense, rather than the literal one of words-printed-on-a-page). Slash is a game played with canon, and part of its value is in the tension it both creates and illuminates between canon text and subtext.
The other reason that it's wrong to label homosexual relationships, whether in or out of fiction, as slash is that it is reinscribing heteronormativity on our society and our discourse. It's a syllogism. Slash is gay sex. Slash is subversive. Therefore, gay sex is subversive. The subversion/containment model is a BOX, and as long as we keep putting homosexual relationships in that box, we are reinforcing the idea that heterosexuality is the standard by which all other sexualities will and ought to be judged. The same idea that is powering the (often hysterical) attempts to define marriage in such a way that gay and lesbian people cannot have it. Because their committed monogamous relationships are being judged as subversive.
And that's so horribly wrong that it's eaten all my words.
Full-grown galleries
Date: 2016-08-19 11:22 am (UTC)family hotel budapest old men erection sissy instruction tube
http://sissyabuse.blogporn.in/?post.rhiannon
Ùیلم هایsexy gay bay xxx free videos of xxx sex greece holiday resort gender equality questions girls clothes design male to female transformation tips best cloth nappy
Loose galleries
Date: 2016-08-21 03:00 pm (UTC)http://shemaledating.sexblog.pw/?profile-donna
sex free movies free free pornagrafic vidios transsex shemalevideo.com best shemal sex
Adult galleries
Date: 2016-08-22 09:20 am (UTC)http://granny.xblog.in/?marissa
erotic book erotic horror stories hot sex erotic torture chamber erotic survivor
Delivered full-grown galleries
Date: 2016-08-23 10:25 am (UTC)http://brazil.porndairy.in/?alycia
erotic board game erotic ideas shop erotic emma watson erotic underwater erotic
Renewed install
Date: 2016-08-23 02:10 pm (UTC)http://shemaledating.sexblog.pw/?private-makayla
shemeal sex movies tranys.com freeshemale.com shemalevideo.com shemal sex
Grown up site
Date: 2016-08-27 02:36 am (UTC)erotic poems erotica litature erotic comedy erotic tarot french erotic art
http://blowdjob.net.erolove.in/?theresa
erotic breastfeeding free potno movis sex movies erotic gifts erotic india
New Job
Date: 2016-08-28 08:52 pm (UTC)gospel poems sexy mens thongs transvestite bodysuit
http://sissytales.porndairy.in/?read.willow
aftermarket motorcycle seats cbt ball stretch best hair removal for face burgundy shoes sex penis woman breast lift without implants stockings sissy free canadian dating sites
Grown up galleries
Date: 2016-08-28 09:25 pm (UTC)http://blondesex.twiclub.in/?page.marianna
erotic pictures the erotic traveler erotic romance novels erotic modelling shop erotic
Pictures from community networks
Date: 2016-08-29 03:29 pm (UTC)http://asianshemales.replyme.pw/?blog-kate
shemals sex movie xshemale shemals free sex ladyboys shamle sex movies
My brand-new website
Date: 2016-09-01 08:46 am (UTC)http://bbw.clubs.webcamsex.lgbt/?entry.marianna
new zealand porn for women maxium hottest porn stars porn cum shots stockings hamster free animal porn videos tiffany roxx porn videos
Communal pictures
Date: 2016-09-01 08:36 pm (UTC)http://assjob.tobuy.in/?profile.ashlynn
most erotic movie sex tv free ebooks erotic erotic reads www.erotic.co.za
Communal pictures
Date: 2016-09-02 11:55 am (UTC)http://shemales.xblog.in/?profile-mollie
semales video transsex shemal sex shemails shemals sex movie
Mod Project
Date: 2016-09-10 11:42 am (UTC)http://arab.egypt.adultnet.in/?entry-amelia
nagoor sweet van chapelle snope
My unfamiliar website
Date: 2016-09-10 01:00 pm (UTC)http://auto.feed.telrock.net/?entry-juliet
mariah carey fake porn free best music for home porn free hentia porn tubes grandpa grandma porn free redhead teenie hd porn
Delivered matured galleries
Date: 2016-09-14 03:20 pm (UTC)http://futanari.blogporn.in/?personal-angela
videos pornnos free shemail free shemal movies hard core shemle
My brand-new website
Date: 2016-09-14 11:27 pm (UTC)http://busty.net.erolove.in/?phiz.perla
will rice grow after sitting out all day sarah young porn italian sex tubes the pirate bay, china sweden mexico argentina
Mature placement
Date: 2016-09-15 09:22 am (UTC)http://gay.adultgalls.com/?page_ahmad
gay bottom straight acting gay men gay men uk gay magazines gay man massage
New Protrude
Date: 2016-09-16 08:46 pm (UTC)http://naked.pics.hotblog.top/?post.vanesa
liza harper porn free contortion porn movies sylk and free gay porn gay porn thomas porn naked games
My unfamiliar website
Date: 2016-09-17 11:21 am (UTC)http://blackgay.net.erolove.in/?info.sterling
gay names black gay men gay lube gay cruise lines gay shit
Delivered full-grown galleries
Date: 2016-09-18 05:17 pm (UTC)http://shemale.twiclub.in/?stage.alexis
erotic coupons bondage erotic romance publishers erotic adventures free sdult video
New Job
Date: 2016-09-19 01:34 am (UTC)http://hotties.pictures.erolove.in/?post-eden
pre teen squirt sex vedio alison angel kill dan ball the powder game femdom scissoring free sexy bar foto ragazza
Pictures from social networks
Date: 2016-09-19 03:25 am (UTC)http://arab.porn.pornpost.in/?entry.baylee
passionn porn star sex video watch free upload porn amateur videos free porn housewife gokkun porn free gallery free porn videos q
X-Rumer 12.0.16-18: ReCaptcha breaker
Date: 2016-09-21 10:50 pm (UTC)New updated [b]XRumer 12[/b] recognize and break Google Captcha again,
during automatic registering and posting:
[img]http://s017.radikal.ru/i440/1609/07/3bbec3a7389c.jpg[/img]
Interested? :)
Just Google for the latest subversion of XRumer 12! ;)
[color=gray]P.P.S. XRumer 7.0.12 and another versions are too old - and have less than 10% of functions, that have XRumer 12.[/color]
___
[url=http://www.economyforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=941]XRumer 12.0.17-18: Google ReCaptcha - how to breake[/url], [url=http://depunjab.org/teachers-forum/index.php?topic=12959.new#new]XRumer 12.0.17: ReCaptcha breaker[/url], [url=http://mcrs.org.za/forum/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=721567]XRumer 12.0.17: Google Captcha - how to solve[/url], [url=http://www.catracing.org/hendrb/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=9601]XRUMER 12.0.16: Google Captcha breaking during registering and posting[/url], [url=http://audi-club.ee/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=8623]XRumer 12.0.17-18: ReCaptcha - how to solve[/url]
Latest install
Date: 2016-09-22 03:15 pm (UTC)http://arab.egypt.adultnet.in/?entry-katie
silvestri soxy types stamp hammal
Sexual pictures
Date: 2016-09-22 07:57 pm (UTC)http://gayarab.erolove.in/?pg.john
ronaldo gay gay marines gay in london luther vandross gay john wayne gay