<<I was asked if I would react the same way to an original character who
was gay, and I said no, but that I wouldn't like the character as much.>>
My memory's hazy, but there's another question I think I asked - would a gay
original character bother you as much as a slashed regular character? - and
I think you said something to the effect as "Not as much." But I might be
confusing a question I wanted to ask with another one that I did get around
to asking.
<<The discussion wandered around a bit, it wasn't just me versus them,
that was only a small part of it. And I had things to contribute to the
discussion that weren't just anti-slash. Neil had some good questions
to ask as a neutral non-slasher.>>
I did? That would be a first.
<< It
was also concluded that slash has a huge range, and is read for
different reasons by different people. Slashers are more likely to see
slashy subtext. In arguing from absence of evidence, neither side will
ever convince the other.>>
I've had three 12-hour shifts to mull over this (gotta do something while
making shampoo tanks for wet-vac hoovers), and I think the only thing that
bothers me is the insistence by either pro or anti-slashers that their
reading is the only possible correct one. That particular line coming from
the pro-slash side bothers me more, but I think that's because they just
tend to be so much louder, so much more insistent, and so eager to clutch at
the feeblest of straws and claim them as hard evidence. Basically, the
pro-slashers just become a noisy nuisance, while the anti-slashers can quite
rightly (IMO) point to the thinness and ambiguity of all this so-called
evidence, though not so rightly (IMO) claim that this 'proves' that the
characters are absolutely straight.
I agree with Fiona that all the strongest evidence favours a heterosexual
reading for all the regular characters, at least those who expressed any
kind of orientation at all. I agree with Steve that this does not preclude
any of them being bisexual, and I agree with Dana (if this is indeed what
she was saying) that they may have presented a heterosexual front to conceal
their other inclinations. I tend to regard the Federation as rabidly and
institutionally homophobic, but that is part of my subcanon, unsupported by
the series itself.
In fact, I would say that any sexual reading of any particular character can
only be regarded as subcanonical, as opposed to extra-canonical. I can't
really see much difference between a slash reading of Blake and Avon (who
are obviously 'camp as a row of tents', as I think Ika put it at the panel,
or straight as a die according to others), or a cyberpunk reading of Travis'
prosthetics (as I did in Wit and Wisdom of the Dead). The only real
difference between the two is the relative importance accorded to the
sexuality of the characters, and it's not something I regard as terribly
important. If Blake is planting explosives round a Federation base, who
cares if he's gay, straight or bi?
That's probably my biggest gripe about not just slash readings but het
readings too. They reduce the characters to nothing but their sexuality.
Nobody, straight, gay or whatever, is that one-dimensional. Adult fic seems
to separate the entire universe into Sex and Everything Else, and promptly
homes in on the sex. I consider the Everything Else to be not only more
interesting but more important as well. Consequently I tend to avoid adult
fic not because it squicks me (it doesn't, I'm virtually unsquickable unless
animals get involved), but because it's just so bloody *boring*.
Neil