Slash vs women

[beccaelizabeth]

I used to be in fandoms where there were mostly Babes of the Week. They existed solely to have UST with one of the guys, and then at the end of the episode the women went away and the guys went home together. So we ignored the women, because the only real relationship was these two guys who cared about each other more than anything else in their lives. Hence, slash.

But that was a while ago, and there are TV shows with actual women in. Persistent characters with agendas of their own. People as well rounded as the guys ever were. And some of them are dating guys. But TV being TV, they usually break up eventually, or someone gets fridged, or they leave for a spin off show. So I guess I felt like, okay, looking at this, the key relationship? Still two guys. So, more slash.

But now it’s creeping me out: There are women who never break up with their guys, who maybe get married to their guys, who have rings and commitment and stick by them through thick and thin and the world exploding. But we’re in the habit now. We go looking for the two guys. And way too much of the time, we’re the ones who break them up, or fridge them, or figure someone else will write their spin off show. Sometimes we even rewrite whole episodes so the guy gets the girl’s role. And I’ve been reading it, because hey, still slash.

But seriously, what the hell?

I know a lot of good reasons to write slash. I’d dearly love it if more canonical media wrote a wider range of sexualities and relationships. I like this aesthetic we’ve got in slash where working out your relationships and sex life and saving the world a lot are all just part of the one life story, all different parts of being a person, all interesting.

But it’s creeping me out, how much easier it is to find fic where the women are erased than fic where we’re celebrated.

My favourite fanfics now are poly. Because the fandoms have actually already got great het relationships with great female characters, so instead of erasing anything, we just add a little. Or a lot. It’s all good.

But it creeps me out on TV when there’s a show that kills off all the women, silences them, makes them serve the guys’ plots. And it double creeps me out in fanfic, where we’re pleasing no one but ourselves, and the same damn problems crop up.

I want to exist in my stories. Why so difficult?

Comments

Re: here via metanews

[thirdblindmouse]

AO3 is an archive started by slash fans; I doubt it's representative. If you take other websites such as Fanfiction.net or Wattpad into account, I'm sure there's more het than anything else. But even if stories about women were a minority of the fic out there, that wouldn't make them less worth reading. Going instead to m/m stories and wondering where all the women are seems disingenous. If you want to read more fic with women, seek out the stories that involve women. As havocthecat says, femslash authors would appreciate more comments and kudos.

Re: here via metanews

[havocthecat]

I would like to be quite clear: Femslash is not the place to go for a lot of comments and kudos, which people deserve to be warned about. And while yes, we would always like more - just like everyone else - that doesn't mean that we're desperate for them. I feel like you've gotten the wrong idea about what I said.

But I don't think the point of this post is really that beccaelizabeth wants out of dudeslash fandom.

It sounds to me like beccaelizabeth isn't saying that m/m is bad, or the fact that all m/m is, by nature, male-focused, is the bad thing. It sounds to me like what is being said is that certain m/m portions of fandom have written women in a misogynist fashion, and that, in and of itself, is a habit that some m/m slashers have gotten into, and that habit is wrong. Not that m/m in and of itself is wrong.

Re: here via metanews

[beccaelizabeth]

*points at last paragraph*

yes, that. I still like m/m, but there's corners where bad things happen.