Thoughts

[alixtii]

This post from metafandom is making me feel very, very young.

*

The problem with lumping both femslash and m/m slash under the same "slash" label isn't only that somehow femslash always seems to end up dropping out of the discussion altogether (no matter how much some might protest that they really do mean both brands of slash), but that the grouping just plain doesn't make much sense. In addition to the gender of the objects of desire (a not insignificant difference, obviously!), the tropes, the communities, the ethoses (ethoi?), and the dynamics of the fic are all so incredibly different that one can't help but ignore one or the other when using the term "slash"--the two types of fic are just too disparate to fit comfortably under one label. A generalization about "slash" is hardly ever going to speak in any meaningful way to the situation in femslash. The differences between the two genres are legion. (This may vary from fandom to fandom, but in my experience femslash has never been as OTP-oriented, for example, as either m/m slash or het.)

The only thing we're left with is that both types of slash involve same-sex encounters. And while at one point in fandom, the "ooh!" of same-sex sex might have been important enough to link these two within a same genre, I don't think that's the case anymore. We categorize fics now based on the genders of the objects of our desire more than on the dynamics of the relationships involved, I think, and so femslash and m/m slash end up becoming more diametric opposites than anything else.

Of course, there's also still the "saying 'femslash' is like saying 'female doctor'" problem, which is why I try to make a habit of never using the term "slash" unmodified at all.

Comments

[thirdblindmouse.livejournal.com]

it makes sense that writing about women (as they exist in our society) would be different than writing about men (as they exist in our society)

All the things you mention do make sense from this perspective. The OTP difference might be explained this way too. It is my impression that the strong OTPs in boyslash originate from close buddy arrangements (House/Wilson, Angel/Spike, Sam/Dean), which are simply less commonly found among women on TV. When they do crop up, they get similar OTP focus (e.g. Buffy/Faith, Xena/Gabrielle, Ash/Scribbs). Disclaimer: hypothesis not founded on surveys or broad knowledge of either genre.

Might have to make a survey now, though.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think it is partly that the shows which horistically have leant themselves to femslash are ensemble shows with a lot of minor characters; shows which have one or two characters against the world tend to have (at least one of) those characters be male. Xena, of course, is the exception.

[thirdblindmouse.livejournal.com]

The other exception I can think of is "Murder in Suburbia", a light-hearted buddy cop show, British in origin.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

*reads info* Exactly. The fact that we can come up with one example each for each side of the pond is telling, I think. But just think how different femslash fandom would be if there were more shows like those two. (Personally, I like the focus on ensembles, but it'd be nice to see more shows like that with female characters on the screen.)

[thirdblindmouse.livejournal.com]

The other thing I meant to add was that Xena is always the exception. The show is corny, campy, and broke more ground than anyone has built on even these many years later. ::sigh::