Shane wrote:

You might want to go back and read what Mistral (I think) said about how if you're using Netscape, your browser opens offensive posts before you've had a chance to delete them...

Sounds to me like an argument for acquiring a better browser/mail program, or perhaps a greater ability to configure it.

and you might want to consider that newbies to fandom often get slash presented to them as the 'thing to do' in fandom before they know the other side...

Certainly the first fanfic I ever saw (by doing a bland B7 web search) was some fairly explicit m/m slash, which *surprised* me quite a bit. Despite years and years of being a closet B7 fan, I'd never considered a slash reading of any of the characters. It just so happened that I liked it, but I can see that not necessarily being the case.

One of the most cogent arguments I've ever seen against slash (which I came across on Kathryn's site) is that merely by seeing a slash interpretation of one's favourite characters, one's opinion is changed permanently. If slash disgusts one, then one's enjoyment might be spoiled. On the other hand, if one likes slash, then one's enjoyment might be enhanced. Either way, there's no going back.

or that again, people have been known to buy slash zines without knowing what they are, or find a slash story in a mixed zine... in short, there's a lot of ways for people who don't want to read slash to come across it.

All the zine editors I know of have some pretty carefully worded warning text at the front of their zines and on all their promotional material which uses the word 'homosexual' rather than 'slash'. I guess it is incumbent upon the editors of mixed zines to be particularly careful -- not that there are that many of us around. (Are there any others? asks she, glancing round...)

Tavia