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.
Loose galleries
Date: 2017-04-12 02:35 am (UTC)news nexus download free live wallpapers for android mobile emoji download free free girl sexy free pictures online
http://erotic.googleplay.twiclub.in/?epoch.eva
android markit smartphone android 2 3 poker android download free download for android mobile application play games free games
Experimental Protrude
Date: 2017-04-12 02:45 am (UTC)meet older women online large size high heels women lipstick
http://sissytales.porndairy.in/?view.vivian
dominations für pc sex positions for man and woman sex items christian marriage men gay movie clips gay gratis harley davidson cycles nightgown online shopping
Delivered full-grown galleries
Date: 2017-04-12 03:00 am (UTC)xy sexy which is the best android tablet giochi di google sex photos com download arcade games download free
http://games.android.telrock.net/?stage.abbie
the best store for android free download to android smiley and emoticons android market apps free download cool apps for android
Delivered adult galleries
Date: 2017-04-12 03:00 am (UTC)http://euro.tits.epornstar.xyz/?post.nia
tourist porn girland mum porn tawnie porn arab porn pics free adult community porn sharing
Free full-grown galleries
Date: 2017-04-12 03:14 am (UTC)http://sluts.private.sexblog.pw/?entry.elyse
fucd waitress sex blowjob porn free rough forced plump porn pics porn tubes first anal free hot sexy fuck porn enema porn 2007 jelsoft enterprises ltd
Mature galleries
Date: 2017-04-12 03:16 am (UTC)http://date.top.yopoint.in/?gain.ashley
young speed dating save the date graduation cards quick sex site uk swinging couples pregnant dating service
Grown up purlieus
Date: 2017-04-12 03:23 am (UTC)http://big.naturals.hotblog.top/?entry.devyn
necrophilia porn with live models mickie james does porn evdokia porn micro bikini strip porn uniformed porn pics
Callow Project
Date: 2017-04-12 03:23 am (UTC)download free wallpaper store apps android pc game apps download how to make an app apps para descargar videos
http://erotic.apps.android.blogporn.in/?stage.madyson
how do i develop an android app free photo downloads download strip poker for android pictures applications free music apps downloads
Free grown-up galleries
Date: 2017-04-12 03:26 am (UTC)http://cupid.dating.hotblog.top/?gain.teagan
free dating no credit card webcam chating no 1 datnig site in uk married dating sites review black single men
Latest site
Date: 2017-04-12 03:34 am (UTC)download free application android shop for sexy lingerie download adult movies for free best rated smartphone 2015 andriod programming
http://erotic.googleplay.twiclub.in/?mail.ainsley
free android hd wallpapers download tv for android phone harga android htc android office adult tv mobile
Renewed plat
Date: 2017-04-12 03:41 am (UTC)http://auto.feed.telrock.net/?post-micaela
cartoon porn teen titan free porn star tube cristy lisa porn star two lips teen pussy porn naruto porn powered by phpbb
Unshackle galleries
Date: 2017-04-12 03:53 am (UTC)http://assjob.tobuy.in/?page.monique
erotic theater erotic sayings free adult video adults movies erotic entertainment
Adult site
Date: 2017-04-12 03:58 am (UTC)http://date.super.purplesphere.in/?entry.cynthia
single parents dating free chinese dates fruit free online dating chat rooms no registration chinese date site free sa dating chat sites
Adult purlieus
Date: 2017-04-12 04:03 am (UTC)http://asslick.photo.erolove.in/?entry-kassandra
discover nursing india pictures inflamed red bunions deepika padukone without wearing bra and pantie videos or photoes northriverside park mall pictures vivian nude hsu
Grown up galleries
Date: 2017-04-12 04:12 am (UTC)getjar free application free phone app best popular games for android my top games free google play store download for android phones
http://erotic.apps.android.blogporn.in/?stage.bailee
download what app go launcher ex theme download how to develop app for android apps free to download android phone application free download
My supplementary website
Date: 2017-04-12 04:13 am (UTC)http://photo.lube.sexblog.top/?entry.breanna
free porn thumb clips paid to make porn jeremy jordan gay porn free teen titans porn videos 480p porn
My supplementary website
Date: 2017-04-12 04:16 am (UTC)http://muslim.clit.pornpost.in/?entry.arielle
kim lakas-christian descent operators totally
Public pictures
Date: 2017-04-12 04:28 am (UTC)http://pattaya.girls.blogporn.in/?post-amara
massacre length lisa end rotterdam
Matured placement
Date: 2017-04-12 04:37 am (UTC)http://arab.egypt.adultnet.in/?post-donna
noodles revelations game without mali
Adult purlieus
Date: 2017-04-12 04:49 am (UTC)http://amateur.selfies.purplesphere.in/?gain.kassidy
adult dvd adultsex erotic chess best erotic novels erotic authors
Adult galleries
Date: 2017-04-12 05:01 am (UTC)http://cars.pics.twiclub.in/?entry.natalia
gay teen porn pics porn star kimberley koopmans porn gjrls on motorcycles youngest swedish porn celeb porn video
Mature galleries
Date: 2017-04-12 05:07 am (UTC)http://arab.sex.photo.xblog.in/?post-maliyah
spycam murah refusenik opportunities ala
Pictures from social networks
Date: 2017-04-12 05:09 am (UTC)http://muslim.clit.pornpost.in/?entry-katy
oppana village goal manny mirza
Communal pictures
Date: 2017-04-12 05:14 am (UTC)http://hotties.pictures.erolove.in/?entry-kathy
teen cute non nude models free gay video trailer www cerita sex tante kesepian penasco 12year sex college head football oach job market
Matured placement
Date: 2017-04-12 05:16 am (UTC)body diet sexy boy clothes petticoat training
http://sissy.adultnet.in/?post.aylin
positive quotes of the day lic plate greek island package deals gay man xxx tube sexy video man depends diaper silk socks bras for open back dresses