My Giant Vagina Hates You
byOnce again, we have Why (M/M) Slash is superior with all its brilliant writers. This is the second time in four months that I've read this argument, and this time, it was posted in a community, so fair game.
Whereas slash fic, while not exactly being true to real gay sex, is less about personal wish fulfillment and more about seeing how characters could feasibly end up in certain situations without going too badly OOC.
Because when I read NC17 fanfic, it's not wish fulfillment to see my favorite characters do the sex?
boys and girls should be in love forever and marry and have babies and stuffs!" are possibly a little more lacking in original/outside the box thinking, so their fics are more likely to feel repetitive and/or dull than people who think "well, that's all very well, but what about this alternative possibility here?
MPreg anyone? *closes Faith marries Xander and pumps out children and stuff fic*
there's like three good good Buffy/Angel fics out there
Only three? *throws recs list out the window* I bet even haters of the ship could find more.
the couples who end up together rarely get any attention in fanfics, because most people are too fixated on what could have happened with other characters.
What? There are other people in the world? No, they can't infer with the true and pure love of the OTP. Khaaaan!
Slash eliminates Mary Sues, basically.
I give up. Don't you know that a penis changes the makeup of a character so much that they can never be Sue-d? Where do I write my apology to Whedon for accusing him of Mary Sue-ing girls? Or does it not work backwards?
the more quirky, creative writers go for slash because it isn't Canon.
I always knew that all het and f/f pairings were canon. Cadman is totally having sex with Teyla, Weir, Carter, Katie, Kate, and dead!Janet. Not to mention Addison/Izzie/Cristina/Baily/Meredith. Also, it totally proves the love between Buffy and Gunn. It's het; so it's canon.
Het writers try to make it out to be like a Romance novel.
They even give Angel hair like Fabio for the bad art. (Oh, wait, that was a m/m slash manip.)
I think a part of why most lesbians might not like femmeslash/yuri is that it is VERY perverted and mostly geared for het males. I think most of it is practically the same as het fiction anyways.
Porn marketed toward straight men featuring women = f/f and het fanfic. Thank you, interwebs.
it feels like "lesbian porn" to me, where the girls all have long fingernails and wear lipstick and do things to each other that would get them slapped if they tried that on me.
*hides my fingernails* I'm such a horrible queer woman.
I have a hard time imagining the female characters together.
But I thought you have creativity and were thinking out of the box, don't disappoint me now, life coach.
I figure if the girls can buy the necessary bits, the boys can enjoy theirs.
I got my Vagina on sale at Target for $4.99. I also bought toilet paper, cereal, and Pretty in Pink on DVD that day.
I find that most slash tends to be well written because in order for the fic to work, the writers have to work hard and have a plausible premise in order to get the characters together.
Those damn younger writers clogging up the interwebs with their unimaginative het porn.
but if it is a rare pairing, then it does tend to be very well written, because a lot of thought went into it.
I knew you loved my Clem/Sheppard/Tigh crossover threesome.
they practice writing it. a lot.
I knew all non-m/m slash fanfic was typed out by sweatshop workers in third world countries on demand from the Bush Administration. I so called it!
Het is much more convenient - slashers have to manipulate characters often in ways that canon doesn't point to, so a lot more character development is needed, and a lot more originality. There are so many more issues to be explored with slash, as well, so the plots are often more interesting.
Do you know how hard I had to work to convince anyone that Sheppard might be straight or maybe bisexual gay?
mainstream culture is so bombarded with heterosexual love stories
No one cares about those lesbians. They can take their pussies and shove it.
Slash is comparatively refreshing in that it offers us the opportunity to let a little more "gay" into our lives.
That's what I tried telling my grandma. Then she suggested that I go to church and let a little more "God" into my life. (P.S. grandma, if you're reading this, I love you!)
the cultural dynamics are vastly different, so there are more perspectives and ideas one can explore in slash, and the relationships are so much more versatile, because it's not immediately assumed that Character A MUST be the top/inserter/dom and Character B MUST be the bottom/recipient/sub/whatever
That's why Wash was always smacking around Zoe and telling her to get back into the kitchen and make him some gorram meat.
the slashfic community is tighter knit
We all braid each other's hair and sing campfire songs together.
I think that writing believably as a male character interacting with another male character challenges the writer a bit in a way that is beyond just word choice and plot. It is character relation.
I know. When I write women, I just pretend they're cardboard cutouts. It's easier to deal with them.
female slash writers are more likely to avoid 'cliche' scenarios.
I knew there was original fiction somewhere. I also knew that the Aliens Made Them Do It wasn't a cliché.
While I do think that the 'excitement' factor (from exploring the forbidden) plays in, I think that it is more of a personal struggle (as a writer) because of the taboo.
We should have Pride parades too. Writing m/m slash is exactly like being gay. You know, because it affects every aspect of our lives. Like when I bring my significant other home to meet my family, I say, "This is my S.O. and did you hear how I'm being oppressed for writing Wesley/Gunn rimming fic?"
It, again, forces the writer to think beyond plot and the basics. I find myself deleting entire paragraphs because it is not good enough-- because there are (though some may argue) different standards for slash fics and het fics.
"Beyond/The rim of the star-light/My love/Is wand'ring in star-flight." Thank god, Gene Roddenberry edited his lyrics out. I mean, he was obviously shipping Kirk/Spock and thus could find his white-out.
My friend has a theory that people who write slash tend to be older, and thus more likely to have had enough practice not to suck.
Maybe I should just have my grandma write my fanfiction. Or better yet, my great-grandma, she's like 103. I bet she'd be magical with House/Wilson. After all, she knows what it's like not to be able to walk very well.
First, they have to be able to think critically and outside the box to be able to see the possibilities in the first place.
I knew that fanservice was myth. As is Queer as Folk.
and femslash... is fun! only cuz writging froplay is funn and thats all femslash is.
OMG, cascadia_rain must stop telling everyone that she took my virginity. And here all this time, I was lying to myself. *cries and has sexual crisis* I need to hire Paul Gross to spear my vagina.
And finally our life lesson: The people who usually write it are in the fandom longer, and have already explored the other options... and found a better one!
Note: Obviously, I write and read all types of fic - m/m, f/f, m/f, and gen - and I consider all to have the equal potential of sucking. I don't really care what you read, but quality is not based on type.