onomatoblog

For new readers: slash is the subgenre within fanfiction that focuses on male/male relationships and/or sexual relations.

Of course, it is completely impossible to give just a short answer to the question “What do you think about slash?”. If I had to, I would say “I like it”, but it’s hardly that simple. For one, there are many ways of reason. For another, every person sees things differently. This is MY view.

(side note: although there is femslash out there, this will focus on male pairings, as they are by far the predominant.)

For one, slash like all other fanfiction plays according to the rules of pairings, and just because you don’t agree with of all of them, you don’t have to disagree with the idea of slash per se.
Another important point is that there are two kinds of slash, as I see it. There is the “ST” kind [UST or RST, unresolved or resolved sexual tension], and what Farfalla once called “looktwohotguys” slash. Although it is not in any way a rule, the first is of a generally higher quality than the second, and the first is in my eyes far more justified and ‘real”.

I think the description of “sexual tension” is enough as an explanation. There is, in the canon, something there, something that it’s possible to play on. There is friendship -or the opposite -but there is a tension that makes people’s imagination spin. Examples of this -in my view, again -would be Kirk/Spock, for example, or The Vampire Chronicles (where it is very obvious, not to say resolved, and although all fanfic for it is strictly forbidden,) although I claim it doesn’t even need slash. I find this kind is interesting to read, because there is something there other people has seen and wondered about, and has a chance, at least, to stay within canon characterization.

“Looktwootguys”, is to me more of an annoyment. To this I count Pirates of the Caribbean, fic, a fact I will argue until the end of time (No. There is no tension. There is not an ounce of a trace of anything even vaguely or remotely resembles slashyness in that movie. None.) and much, much much of the LotR slash I see today. It comes from a very simple function in the head of a fangirl, going something like this: “ooohhh! Hot guys. Oooh, another one. Wouldn’t it be neat if they had some hot heteromorphic sex?” Obviously this kind appears mainly in fandoms where there are movies. It can be well done. It can be funny, it can be provoking. It can also be horribly clichéd and bad, and that’s how it is most of the time. The same phrases, the same flat characterization. When not oven some gratuitous romance works, what will, eh?

There is much left of the discussion, though. Two other kinds of slash, and more of my arguments. For example, there is “let’s see what happens”-slash, which I have seen a lot of in the HP fandom. Then, there is a thing that appears in obvious fandoms ‘for lack of female characters’ slash. Once again, the HP fandom, and a lot of LotR slash.

LotR is complicated, though, as it as a universe can hold all four of the kinds. Sometimes, one single pairing can hold as many as three.
In the movies, there IS sexual tension, no denying it. [I think we can all agree that that is not the case in the books, ehem.] The scene in front of the Golden Hall? Anyone? Bloom even mentioned the homoerotic qualities of some scenes in an interview.
On the other hand, the same pairing, Aragorn/Legolas, can also be a “looktwohotguys’ pairing, which is much less fun. It can also be a “for lack of female characters,” although that would be harder as Aragorn is one of the few with a female in his life.

Are you starting to see what I am saying? And yet, it’s not a condemnation of anything. I have read some Pirates fic, for example, and liked them. Because they were well written, and reasonable within character. The only thing I really don’t like is “let’s see what happens”-stuff, but that’s mostly because I don’t agree with the pairings. In short, I like the slash almost only if there is tension in canon, but hey, if you can create it and stay in character, I am in.)

The opinions in this text are based on ordinary slash stories, smutty or not smutty. Not talking about squickfic, not about age differences, not about this, not about that… Just the most common male/male pairings.