Slash

From Super-wiki
Revision as of 10:16, 12 January 2008 by Lea ndra (talk | contribs) (→‎Small Bibliography and Suggested Further Reading(chronological))
Jump to: navigation, search

Definition of Slash

The term slash refers to stories in which a homosexual relationship between two characters is portrayed, whether the sexual part of the relationship is explicitly described or not. Slash can be either femslash (female character/female character) or slash (male character/male character).

Slash fiction is not widely considered to be conventional lesbian or gay fiction, as the characters portrayed rarely identify as homosexual.

The Supernatural Slash Fandom

Although there exist other slash pairings in Supernatural fandom, Sam/Dean (aka Wincest) is the most popular.

Occasionally one or both of the brothers will be slashed with minor and/or recurring male characters; OMCs; or characters from other fandoms, including characters that have been portrayed by either Jensen Ackles or Jared Padalecki in another tv-series or movie (e.g., Sam/Jake from Devour, Sam/Alec from Dark Angel, Dean/Dean from Gilmore Girls). (See also: Crossover).

Although the pairing had been utilized from the beginning, after the airing of 1.22 Devil's Trap on May 4th 2006 significantly more John/Dean fanworks appeared (possibly due to the chemistry between Dean and the possessed John). John/Sam is rarer, but not unknown. Both pairings often explore issues of authority and consent.

Due to its emphasis on emotions and relationships in canon, Supernatural has become one of the major slash fandoms in 2006-2007. Over the last two years Supernatural fiction has evolved to include all possible genres, also, because its canon holds significant sci-fi and fantasy elements that can be easily adapted to suit any kind of universe created by the author.

With its main pairing already transgressing society's norms, Supernatural seems a confident fandom that is ready to explore every flavor of sexuality. See Crack.

Brief Overview of the History of Slash Fiction

In general, fandom scholars agree (Jenkins, Brooker, Bacon Smith) that slash was introduced with Kirk/Spock homoerotic fan fiction in the early to mid-70s in Star Trek fandom. The name "slash" fiction comes from the / between the names of the pairing in fan fiction, and was also presumably coined in Star Trek fiction. Even though initially timidly introduced and confronted with ideas of masculinity and heroism, "slash" gained a wider audience over the years.

Much has been said about why fans (a great percentage of them women) write slash fiction, and it always stands in relation to the concept of slash fiction itself.

Camilla Bacon-Smith understood slash fiction as a way of helping women deal with traumatic love relationships, giving slash the prospect of being a non-threatening, non-aggressive form of male sexuality as means of comfort. The notion that fans write slash as means of theraphy and to write about their own hurt and their need for tenderness seems quite antiquated today, and has been openly opposed by fans and akafans alike for decades.

In the mid-80s, a couple of scholars, with Henry Jenkins as the leading man, introduced slash fiction as a possible reaction to straight-male pornography, a fiction liberating itself from gender hierarchy and genderized images. This form of transgression is also often cited as one of the joys of writing slash fiction.

The transgression of gender has also posed a question that is as vibrantly discussable still today, namely wheter or not slash fiction characters are gay, or rather have their own sexuality fluent between male and female characteristics.

Jenkins furthermore is the first to define slash not as merely concerned with representations of sexuality: "Slash is not so much a genre about sex as it is a genre about the limitations of traditional masculinity and about reconfiguring male identity."Jenkins, Henry (1992), S. 191 Furthermore, the emphasis of sex is identified in its emotional quality.

Over the last 15 years, with the introduction of the internet to the equation, and a much broader fan base finding fan fiction and slash fiction on the internet, as well as the change of social matters in the world, fans have become bolder in describing their enjoyment of slash. While a whole generation of slash writers prided themselves with belonging to a sub-culture, inventing a new form of pornography and transgressing gender lines (and being generally very conscious about all this), a new generation of writers has joined slash fandom. This new generation finds itself in a more slash-friendly environment as per-se, and seems understandably a bit more confident about writing erotic fiction, often claiming that they write slash, because it's mainly a turn on to see two men fuck.

Transgression and recontextualization (see Jenkins, 1992) still seem to play a part, but this new confidence (fueled by generally more acceptance of both female sexuality and lesbian, gay, bi and transgendered people in our society) often reduces the feelings of shame slash-fiction authors and readers might have experienced in the past. Nowadays, slash seems to be a very public, very well-known chapter of fan involvement.

Small Bibliography and Suggested Further Reading (chronological)

  • Bacon-Smith, Camile (1991). Enterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular Myth. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-1379-3.
  • Jenkins, Henry (1992). Textual Poachers. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-90572-9.
  • Lewis, Lisa A., ed. 1992a. The adoring audience. London: Routledge.
  • Penley, Constance (1997). NASA/Trek: Popular Science and Sex in America. New York: Verso. ISBN 0-86091-617-0.
  • Cicioni, Mirna (1998). "Male Pair Bonds and Female Desire in Fan Slash Writing." In C. Harris & A. Alexander (Eds.) Theorizing Fandom: Fans, Subculture and Identity. Cresskil, New Jersey: Hampton.
  • Harris, Cheryl, and Alison Alexander, ed. 1998. Theorizing fandom: Fans, subculture and identity. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
  • Busse, Kristina/Hellekson Karen. Fan Fiction and Community in the Age of Internet: New Essays. North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN-13: 978-00-7864-2640-9

Links of Interest


Articles on the Internet

Retrieved from "http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/index.php?title=Slash&oldid=12445"