my experience with slash vs. female characters.

So this fictional women, especially WOC, vs slash discussion that is going on atm... it should be right up my alley, right? Women! Gay rights! Racism! Weee! ...except we have had this discussion oh-so-many times. I've been following fandom in, what, almost ten years now (seriously. Almost ten years. Fuck) and this discussion comes up minimum every second year, people follow it, write meta about it... and then go back at writing white men like nothing happened. I do hope that something changes this time, that people will think about why they prefer white men - finds them more interesting, whatever - now that we have a growing number of female coc in fandom: Uhura (Star Trek), Gwen (Merlin), Zoe (Firefly)...

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Now I don't read alot of slash. I usually find male characters, especially white male characters, to be boring. They are everywhere. If I read a news paper, then there's a white man. If I turn on the tv, then there's a white man. If I open a book, then there's a white man. Men, especially white men, is the norm, and I don't participate in fandom to see the same old crap as I see everywhere else. I want to see something else, and so, if something related to fandom doesn't involve a awesomesaucey female character, then it's very rare that I can bother with reading, seeing or thinking about it. You could make an argumentation that male/male romantic and sexual relationships aren't the norm either, but male sexuality is: what is considered to give pleasure is in our society seen from a male POV. Not to mention, that in the LGBT-movement and in the queer society, homosexual men is the default too.

Now, even with this preference for femmeslahs and het, I do read some slash - You can't be a part of fandom and never having read a single slash fic (especially not even you have been a part of the HP-fandom, which I have. Draco/Ron = ♥ ) - and I have to stop reading in... 8 out of 10 times. Why? Because to make the male/male relationship work, the author chooses to either ignore or bash the female characters, especially the male characters' canon love interests. And then I'm just not buying it. At all.

If you think writing male/male makes you into some sort of fab gay rights activist (...eh) or helps you explore your own sexuality (which usually is an argument I buy*, 'cause female sexuality comes in all variations) or if you just find male characters more interesting**, then fine, go ahead. Enjoy yourself. But if you choose to ignore that the canon female characters are important to these male characters or outright bash the female characters, then you have a fucking problem. Then you are participating in a misogynistic act. And if the female character is also a woc, then add racist act to it.
It is possible to write male/male without bashing the female characters. I've seen it done. But more often than not, in my experience... the author chooses not to do so. That's fucked. I mean, really fucking fucked.




*that being said, it is an argument that actually makes me a bit uncomfortable. Very often slash comes of - to me - as fetizing gay men, which... ain't okay in my book.
**though I do think you then should wonder why. Is it because there's more possibilities with the male characters compared to the female characters? Is it because you find it easier to identify with the male characters? Then it might not be because female characters are boring per se, but because we live in a fnhskjfa patriarchal society, where the female ideal still is seen from a male POV and does very often not fit with how the real world's women are and what we want and dream about and think about and what have I. And by only focusing on the male characters, then you're bloody hell not changing status quo.

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ANYWAY. I mainly just wanted to link to bana05's post: Black Women, Slash, Fandom, and Canon (Long Meta Is Long), which I thought was pretty damn good.

and so: Comment with the name of a female character (in any show, movie, book, comic, etc that you think I'm familiar with) and I'll tell you one thing I love about her. In return, you can do the same in your journal (if you like!).