Interesting Article and Discussion about Slash

[eveningblue]

Do any of you read The Mary Sue? It's a website with a feminist perspective on fandom.

They posted this interesting article yesterday, On the Fetishization of Gay Men by Women in the Slash Community. But what was really great was the comment section--some really interesting, thoughtful discussions of slash by all sorts of fans. (In which I participated. Don't hate me!)

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

I read it, and it was an interesting discussion for sure.

There was one comment that really made me wish people who haven't read any Jack/Daniel in the last 10 years would stop perpetuating the myth that all stories about Daniel resemble Biblio's earliest characterization of him.

But that was one comment out of 700, so you see where my focus lies….

But they must really moderate their comment forums heavily. There was actually DISCUSSION going on, which was quite refreshing.

On the other hand it was quite hilarious to read all the comments from people who don't read slash at all but still had an opinion about who writes it and what it's like.

[eveningblue]

Yes, I really enjoyed the discussion. I miss that from the old LiveJournal days.

Who was Biblio and how did he or she characterize Daniel?

[princessofgeeks]

She was an early and very influential fanfic writer in SG1, and her work was good, but she did tend to cast Daniel as a naif. And focus on how slim and young he was in contrast to Jack.

I've always been puzzled by people's insistence that SG1 is full of badfic. It's not.

But the criticism in that thread about one half of the m/m slash pairing getting overly feminized has more than a grain of truth in it. And in some cases it's borne out by canon to a certain extent.

[eveningblue]

But the criticism in that thread about one half of the m/m slash pairing getting overly feminized has more than a grain of truth in it.

Yes. I avoid those, but they seem to have an audience. To each his or her own, I guess.

"Badfic" is so subjective. I learned long ago that my tastes are not the same as everyone's. My favorite thing to read is SGA John/Rodney slash, because there is so MUCH of it I can find a lot of stories that I like. But the slash often seems pasted on, and I wish some of the writers had just written friendship fics instead.

[princessofgeeks]

Lucky you! There's TONS of John/Rodney. I doubt anyone could ever read it all.