What constitutes a slash story?

[lunabee34]

I have a question.

A few days ago, I read the delightfully funny The Awful Truth by blade_girl. The rec in which I found the story states: I rec this one with a caveat to slash fans - as a fan of both slash and gen, I must tell you this story contains apparently slashy elements, but is ultimately gen (regardless of the author's notes); and may prove unsatisfying to a slasher. That being said, I find it a plausible, positive, and touching take on the characters and their friendship.) I found this description intriguing and it was pretty much the impetus for me reading the story. The notes for the story itself state: A slash story AND a gen story at the same time. I can’t explain that without giving away the ending, so I ask you to read regardless of your preference. Both the writer of this story and at least one reader of the story (and I assume probably more) seem to think that labeling this fic as slash is problematic.

So my question is the following: what makes a slash fic?



In "The Awful Truth," John and Rodney attempt to have sex. Poorly. By the story's end, they have not had sex but they have kissed several times and rubbed each other's torsos awkwardly. Each reveals that although he had lately been wondering whether the deep and abiding McShep friendship was concealing sexual/romantic attraction, ultimately only friendship exists between them. This story is hilarious but also contains sharp character insights and very astute observations of the McShep friendship dynamic.

In my estimation, this story falls squarely in the slash camp. Even though John and Rodney don't have sex and even though they decide that they don't even WANT to have sex with each other, the fic is about them exploring the possibilities of a romantic relationship with each other. John and Rodney both legitimately believe at the fic's beginning that they might have romantic feelings for each other, feelings that they should act on. Just because when the fic closes, the two remain friends instead of lovers I can't handwave away that the majority of the fic is about them coming to terms with their feelings for each other and how they will proceed based on those feelings.

We all seem to agree that when a fic contains same sex sex, we've got slash. Elizabeth and Teyla necking in the Gate Room? Check. Slash. Sam blowing Dean in the backseat of the Impala? Check. Slash. Even when the characters having sex with each other don't like each other at all (Spike and Xander hate sex in the Basement of Doom? Check. Slash.), we still consider the story slash. When same sex characters are having sex in a story, we don't consider character emotions or motivations at all in labelling the fic. Two or more dudes doing it (for various definitions of doing it) or two or more chicks doing it (for various definitions of doing it) is slash.

When a story lacks sex, though, we run into differences of opinion. I think most of us don't believe that a story has to contain sex in order to be slash (but I might be wrong). I don't believe that. We don't think stories have to contain sex in order to be labeled het. Many excellent het love stories never expose more skin than a flash of delicately bared ankle. I think that when a story deals with at least one character's romantic and/or sexual feelings for another character of the same sex, we've got a slash story. These feelings may be unrequited or never admitted to the object of interest. They may be rebuffed. And like in "The Awful Truth," the characters may decide that they were mistaking deep friendship for something more.

So, what do you guys think? Am I way off base here?

Comments

[trobadora]

I think that when a story deals with at least one character's romantic and/or sexual feelings for another character of the same sex, we've got a slash story.

Hmmm. I was with you until this. I would call the story you cite slash, but not, for example, Dasha's Salt of the Earth, despite the fact that McKay's in love with Sheppard. I think for me, it's the focus of the story - "The Awful Truth" is all about the potential of romance, and Salt of the Earth is not.

And the labeling problems - I think they don't stem from the absence of sex (there's plenty of G-rated slash out there), but from the conflation of slash (or het) with shipper fic/OTP fic.

[shannon730.livejournal.com]

I agree with you, sex in the fic isn't what makes it slash..or het. Of course, I also don't think every fic must have sex so I differ from many people in fandom anyway. Simply being a romance story can make it slash.

And you know, honestly this seems to come into question more with slash than het fic. I hate to say it and don't intend to start an argument with anyone else but I think some of it goes to the idea that entirely too many people still view homosexual relationships as only sexual.

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

I think I've had this discussion before *bg*

I think the issue is slash as mere descriptor of m/m fanfic vs slash as generic category...like, I wouldn't like reading that story as a McShepper, bc it ultimately negates my personal investment. Just like I don't like reading betrayal fic. So if slash is meant to denote actually emotional investment cum sex, then it kinda fails...just like I'd never call Cowboy Days het, even though there's explicit het sex, bc there's no emotional investment attached to the sex and it's not a central plot point.

Now this story sounds different, but I can totally get why someone for their own idiosyncratic shipper methodology would call is gen...or maybe we should call it SMARM?>?????

[executrix.livejournal.com]

I certainly believe that there's such a thing as PG- or even G-rated slash, especially in a series context ("All right, Blake, can we finish liberating this planet so we can go back to the ship and have sex?" "Of course, Avon, it'll only take 19 more chapters"). For me, the dividing line is whether the story involves an erotic relationship rather than other kinds of love.

Hmmm, I wonder if there should be a category for "slash gambit denied"? There definitely should be a pairing marking for "X doesn't have sex with Y in this story."

[spikedluv]

I think most of us don't believe that a story has to contain sex in order to be slash

I totally agree! G-rated slash is still slash.

However, a caveat after reading the other comments: when pairings are listed, I sort of expect the story to *end up* with that pairing, no matter where it started, and if it doesn't, a feel a bit gyped having devoted my time to it. (Of course, I'm coming from the position of mainly reading slash pairing fic because of a) interest and b) time.) I prefer friendship fic or betrayal fic or break up fic to be clearly labeled so I know what I'm getting when I start reading. I think that, if I'd started reading this fic you mention, I would have been sorely disappointed in the ending, and therefore dissatisfied with the entire fic.

That said, I know that different people come to their fic reading with different desires and expectations, that's just mine. *g*

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Huh. That totally sounds like slash to me.

what makes a slash fic?

[thelastgoodname.livejournal.com]

A slasher makes a slash fic. (A genner makes a gen fic? A heter certainly makes a het fic.)

[kitty-poker1.livejournal.com]

I agree with you that this story falls firmly and squarely into the slash camp, partly because of the paucity of any other description. It's not het, not gen, but gen slash. I'm a great fan of hot sex in my slash but it's not an essential.

John and Rodney thought about taking their relationship to a sexual level, and there's something to be said about confusion between very close friendship and sexual feelings. They can be easily confused in these days when sex is in our faces all the time.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Coming late to the conversation...

It's very interesting to me that you used that example, because the author actually ran that story past me before she posted it and we went back and forth for a while on whether or not I thought, and she thought, that it ought to be posted as a John/Rodney story or not. I adore the story -- it's really one of my (many!) favorite stories in the fandom, precisely *because* it does such a nice job with relationship ambiguity and there's so little of that out there. And personally, I do consider it to come down more on the gen than slash side because of the affirmation of the gen and very specifically not slash relationship at the end. (When she asked me about it, one of the main criteria that I applied in trying to figure out how I'd label it was, "Would a slash or a gen fan be more satisfied/affirmed by the ending?" And I think it's a fairly gen-affirming story.)

On the other hand, I hadn't considered your argument that experimentation stories are inherently slash (or, as the case may be, het) -- because they specifically deal with the characters working out their own position on the sexuality spectrum -- and I think there's a lot of merit to that!

The above discussion of slash as descriptor vs. slash as genre really strikes a chord for me, because I do think of slash as a genre more than a descriptor (I wouldn't call most published gay lit "slash", for example, because it doesn't follow what I generally consider slash genre conventions). I wonder if the way that an individual fan would categorize a marginal or gray-area sort of story is very dependent on where ze falls in the descriptor vs. genre continuum!