Slash Essay Research Poll/Post

[pepperlandgirl]

Ok, some of you may remember that I'm writing an essay for my Sex and Gender class about slash fiction. I need to do a bit of original research to get some stats on just who, in fact, reads slashfic. My (rough) thesis statement is Certain scholars are concerned with explaining and qualifying slash because it still seen as abnormal, or outside what is expected for women to fantasize about. In order to understand why this is, one must understand what slash is, who reads and writes it, and how it differs from accepted fantasies. Of course, for 'who reads/writes it" my hypothesis is normal women. But I'd like some data to back that up cuz it'll impress my professors. So I'm posting this poll. I have some requests though.

1) Could you, if you read slash and know several people who also read/write slash, post a link on your LJ to the poll? The bigger the audience, the more response, the better my stats are. I don't think I have a big slash audience looking at my LJ, so I'm going to need some help getting this poll some attention.

2) If you take the time to answer the questions, and you feel like it, could you reply to my post and give some thoughts on what you like about slashfiction? I may want to quote from a few people, so if you're cool with having your thoughts quoted, please post. Also, I would never use somebody else's words without their explicit permission, so if I think you have stunning insight, I will email and ask your permission.

3) I'm posting this in hopes that it will not cause a Kerfluffle. I just need some numbers to make my essay stronger.

I'm also going to put this in my memories so it'll be easy to find and link to. I think I'm going to leave it open for 2 weeks.

So, onto the poll!!!


[Poll #209797]

Comments

[crumblingwalls.livejournal.com]

I think that for me, a large part of the appeal of slash is that it's something that I could never do. I'm bisexual, and there's not a whole lot of new and untouched horizons out there for me, you know? It's like men digging the idea of two women together, I think. One that they could never be a woman in that situation, so it's a little bit taboo, and two, if one's fun, two must be more fun!

On a more serious note: Slash tends to flaunt a lot of gender stereotypes that fill het fanfic. If you're reading about Harry and Draco, or Spike and Angel, or whomever, the odds are that they can both take care of themselves pretty well in a given situation. In many of the fics that I've read where for whatever reason one character does have to take care of the other, a scene or two later, there will be something that causes the dominance in that, the who's taking care of whom, to shift. In a lot of heterosexual fanfiction, you're reading about Spike saving Buffy, or about Tom Riddle ravishing an innocent Ginny and Draco saving her from the big evil man. It's rare to find a fully realised, self sufficient female character in fanfic, simply because it's easier to write them more stereotypically. Frequently in fanfic, there's a gir, and she meets a troubled and broody boy, and the girl gets in trouble, and the troubled and broody boy puts his other issues to rest and/or comes to grip with his problems just in time to save her and sweep her off to bed. Slash, by defying that convention, manages to sidestep a lot of the sweeping generalisations and deus ex machina that comes with it.

In addition to this, I think that a lot of women find slash appealing simply because it requires two men to be possible a little more emotional than they would be in a het fic. No longer can a women be the impetus behind their getting together: One of the men must come out and say or act on that desire. Even in a lot of well written het fic, it works out that the woman declares her love, and the man has been brooding over her, so obviously he loves her as well, and they end up together and have a billion little babies.

The "billion little babies" bring me to my third, and probably final, point. Slash fic is far more open ended than het. I've found that for a lot of people, slash goes hand in hand with angst, and for good reason: Push come to shove, it's simply harder to live as a homosexual in most societies in the world. Parents disapprove. Friends freak out. Many times, there is no happy ending. And I think that a lot of realists sort of appreciate that about slash fic. I got fed up with quite a few pairings when I realised that 90% of the fics ended with "After Ron and Hermione married, the bought the house next door to the Weasley's. Before the end of the year, Harry and Ginny's first child would wander down the road and let himself into the house for tea. Two years later, Hermione had a little girl who they called Lily in honour of Harry's mum. The children got on well, and went to playgroup together, and everyone lived happily ever after." Because frankly, the hell? How many people do you know who ended up with a happily ever after? Because I don't know very many at all, and by "not very many at all," I mean that I know exactly two people, ever who it worked out like that for, where they married each other and were happily ever after with her parents next door and his best friend living down the street. And frankly, they nauseate me and make me feel inferior, because if they're so blissfully happy, why am I not like that? So maybe it's selfish, but I like that slash doesn't always have happy endings, or even endings at all.

Hm. This turned out much longer than it was meant to, and I'm still not near done saying what I wanted to say. I might have to post this in my journal later. In the meantime, if there's anything that I can help you with, let me know: crumblingwalls @ livejournal.com