----- Original Message ----- From: Neil Faulkner N.Faulkner@tesco.net
Why m:m slash? Probably simply because most fanfic, and virtually all
adult
fic, is written by women, who aren't on the whole terribly interested in other women (there are exceptions, though even they seem to like m:m at least as much as f:f, if not more so).
Not disagreeing with the main point-- but I must admit that it puzzles me mightily that women who prefer women would prefer male/male erotica.
As to why slash rather than het: there are a number of reasons, though different writers are probably directed by different combinations of them. Possible reasons might be: *underwriting of the female characters *intensity of interaction between male leads (with or without positive gaydar reading) *failure of writer identification with female leads *deliberate subversion of genre conventions (romanticisation of action/adventure, feminisation of male-oriented culture product) *non-development of sexual relationships (gay or straight) within the show *writer identification with one of the male leads *male lead used for Mary-Sueing *two men better than one *no female competition
Plenty of reasons to go for slash, really. If anything it's amazing het gets a look in.
OTOH, some of those could be good reasons to go for *het,* too; esp. re non-development of sexual relationships, subversion of genre conventions-- I'd argue that a male-male relationship may not be the best way to feminise the action-adventure genre, and in fact may even *reinforce* the inherent masculinity of the genre, by failing to allow for a female voice within it and reinforcing the stereotype of action-adventure being a boys-only game (albeit one with sex in).
Similarly, I have no trouble identifying with many of the female characters (Maximum Power-- ahem, sorry, got a bit carried away there), and while I respect Dana's opinion, I doubt I'm the only one-- matter of taste. IMO it's more understandable in a series like Star Trek, with a dearth of strong women and a surfeit of sensitive males.
In fact, I'm at least partly inclined to view Star Trek as one of the reasons behind the popularity of slash. Star Trek fandom appears to be the dominant form of media fandom at the moment, and from what I can tell the slash genre seems to have originated in Star Trek fanzines. Furthermore, Bacon-Smith's raw data suggests that the transference of slash to B7 fandom occurred at least partly from the influx of Star Trek fans into its fandom (in America anyway), and her interviews with fans suggest that many of them analogise B7 to ST-- likening Avon to Spock, for instance, and referring to the Liberator crew as "ship personell," etc. Now, I'm not denying that slash in B7 has taken on a life of its own, but there may be an element, at least initially, of shall we say thematic transference.
As for the explanation from male relationships in the series-- frankly, after having spent the last two weeks of February going over and over the videotape looking for evidence of sexual suggestion, gay *or* straight, and coming up with nothing but straight for all the principals (anyone who missed that argument and wants the evidence can go to the archive and search recent posts for Fiona+Betty+slash-- I ain't reiteratin' it here), I'm likewise surprised at the dominance of m:m slash (I agree that the reasons from the psychology of the fanfic writer which you cite are valid ones, but not the ones from activities in the series itself).
I would disagree with Dana that the female characters had relatively underdeveloped backgrounds. Blake and Avon might have got more than most, but we probably know at least as much about Cally and Jenna as we do about Vila and Tarrant, and no more about Gan than we do about Soolin.
OTOH, I'd agree with Dana that the women were generally underwritten and given less than their fair slice of the action.
So would I-- but relatively speaking, they get a lot more to do than any SF female character before the Buffy/Xena era.
Fiona
The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane Available for public perusal at http://nyder.r67.net
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