The spammage continues

[veronica_rich]

(I feel like this should become "Vacation: Day Five-01" or something)

Surely everybody and their pet iguana has likely seen the link to the blog entry by now from the woman who claims that writing and reading m/m slash is perpetuating male heirarchy and expectations, rather than being the subversive, non-mainstream thing we all thought it was when many of us got into it several years ago - before the mainstream actually had ever heard of "slash" or "fanfiction."

My take on slash is that I enjoy it as a form of romance in a way that I don't any longer enjoy the vast majority of "typical" m/f romance novels, by and large. When I buy a book, I buy something about science or history, or suspense and sci-fi, but rarely do I buy a categorical romance, though I did when I was much younger. I understand this sounds like a rather shallow reason for enjoying something that takes up several hours of my life each week, but it would be disingenuous for me to pretend otherwise.

And as much as I love reading and occasionally contributing my own meta on my preferred slash pairings, the fact is that I rarely give it the kind of internal examination we were required in college to give Chaucer, or the reasons behind the 19th century labor movement. I am capable of that level of dissertation - I just don't want to, with slash, or even fanfic, all that much. Perhaps this is why I grew so impatient with all the POTC meta-chatter following DMC - are we not allowed to have something we just enjoy, without having to defend why, so long as we're nice to our fellow fen and don't try to step on their toes? I mean, I asked someone at another post earlier to define radical feminism and explain its appeal over what he called "liberal/status quo feminism." And while he gave me a pretty good explanation, and it's something I would gladly see parts of applied to real-world changes ... the fact is, when you try to apply it to something you do alone in your off-hours to unwind, it just comes across as so much overblown horseshit. Am I alone? Or just exceedingly shallow, that I don't see "something" political in EVERYTHING that comes across my field of vision on a daily basis?

EDIT: Unless lesbian fanfic is being written with an eye toward reality (e.g., women who don't have Barbie-figures and long, flowing hair, who don't want a man in their bed or between them and their girlfriend, or WATCHING), how is it any different from what I have to put up with out of many men on a regular basis? The only difference between their lesbian fantasies and my m/m ones is that they can discuss theirs out in public and it's accepted as being part and parcel of being a hetero man ... but if I try to discuss the fact that I like to watch two hot men get it on for my benefit, I'm perverted and weird. So ... I'd love for this FEMINIST to tell me why I should spend MY time and effort perpetuating a MAN'S fantasy in written form.

Comments

[caniad.livejournal.com]

I think you might be right about radical feminists as nihilists. At least she admitted that she's a radical feminist right up front. I think she could have skipped the rest of her analysis, because I could have told you exactly what she was going to say. She's entitled to believe whatever she wants, but just for once I'd like to hear an original thought from the radical feminist camp. It's all starting to sound the same now, making for a "radical" perspective that is becoming increasingly predictable.

I will say, though, that I'm happy to see an acknowledgement of fan fiction within academia (if she even fits into such a category). I personally think that it's a fascinating part of the literary culture, although I've definitely reached conclusions that are completely different from the writer of that blog. I'd also like to see more discussion of it at the scholarly level, if only to have people realize that alongside the very badly written fics are surprisingly well-written stories.

Oh, and totally agreed about the generalizations that she makes. Honestly. Her analysis isn't even approaching logical.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

My beef is less about her examining it than about her poorly-drawn and stated "conclusions." Where's the research material? Where's her interviews and statistics and sources? Because her descriptions don't fit the slash *I* regularly read; in fact, a rather small percentage of it (and some I've never seen in all my years of reading - like a gay character "turned straight" - where?). What serious scholar/academic would accept THIS as depth research?

[caniad.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I would be interested in a well-developed essay on the topic of fan fiction (and/or slash writing), but this isn't one. I think she's trying to pass off poorly expressed opinions under the guise of scholarly writing, and it just comes across as a bad presentation that verges on being offensive. To be honest, I don't read slash writing, but I'd love to hear some opinions from the people who do. Statistics will be tough to find or even compile, simply because this is (from what I understand) a web-only phenomenon, but it would be a valuable contribution to the literary community. A couple of months back I read an article (dating from the early 90s, I think) from a woman who did a wide-scale study on the popularity of Harlequin romances, which have traditionally been ignored among scholars. Her findings were fascinating and indicated just how important it is to consider the wide variety of reading that people really do. I think fan fiction makes for a good comparison. I've only heard of one professor at the university level offering a study of this, but I'd like to see it discussed more. It's completely not my field (I lean toward the medieval stuff), but I'd be willing to take a class in it.

As for the gay characters turning straight, that one throws me for a loop. I can't imagine anyone offering a serious slash fic only to have it end with the men (or women) walking off into the sunset with someone of the opposite sex. That would pretty much undermine the entire thing, wouldn't it?