Hopin' this isn't a silly question by PhoenixRose

BLUE SUN ROOM

Hopin' this isn't a silly question

POSTED BY: PHOENIXROSE
UPDATED: Friday, May 5, 2006 21:09
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Friday, May 5, 2006 2:02 AM

You think you know--what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun.

I've been reading quite a bit of fanfic lately, and I was just kinda wondering why "slash" means what it means. I always equated the word slash with stabby, horrible, slashy B horror movies and the like. Here, it seems to mean "romance between two characters of the same sex" which caught me off guard a bit. No problem with it, and a lot of it is well written and all, just not what I was expecting when I saw the word "slash". So what gives?

*************************************************
One summer.
One mission.
One legion of Browncoats.

Starting June 23rd, we aim to misbehave.

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Friday, May 5, 2006 2:08 AM

FOREVERSHINY

Honestly, I have no idea what the reasoning behind "slash" is. All I know is it's an accepted fanfic term...but don't know where it came from.

Sorry I can't help more.

Cheers,

~ForeverShiny~
An Unreasonable Believer
~~~~~~~~~~~
Can't Stop The Signal.
"Love. You can learn all the math in the 'verse, but you take a boat in the air you don't love, she'll shake you off as sure as the turning of worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she oughtta fall down, tells ya she's hurtin' 'fore she keens. Makes her a home."

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Friday, May 5, 2006 2:08 AM

NUCLEARDAY

Not that I can be any help, but more to muddy the waters a bit more:

It's the idea that slash tends mean a same-sex pairing that always confused me. I'd always taken the term to come from the descriptions, ie: Kaylee/Simon, Mal/Inara, etc (cause of, you know, the slash between the names)...

IIRC there was a thread lingering around at some point with a pretty in-depth explanation of the origins, but I can't find it anymore.

I'm sure someone with more brain cells than I will be along shortly to clear it all up :P

________________________________________________
You can take my hope when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers. (Or if Kaylee asks me nicely...)

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Friday, May 5, 2006 2:11 AM

MMMWIFESOUP

As far as I was aware, 'slash' comes from the actual slash - / - that comes between the pairings of characters/genders when somebody writes it. So for example, it would be Kirk/Spock (KirkslashSpock) or man/man (manslashman).

I'm not entirely certain - and I've never written a word of slash in my life, but that was always my understanding of it.

And the minute I clicked post, I saw that somebody beat me to it.

-- My days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle --

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Friday, May 5, 2006 2:14 AM

PHOENIXROSE

You think you know--what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun.

But, other shippy fic isn't called slash...

I see Mal/Inara or Jayne/Zoe or River/Mal or what have you, but if it's, say Mal/Simon there's always something that says "This is a slash fic" so it can't just be from the slash between names...

*eyes cross*

*************************************************
One summer.
One mission.
One legion of Browncoats.

Starting June 23rd, we aim to misbehave.

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Friday, May 5, 2006 9:05 AM

ELOISA

I'm paraphrasing/copying from Wikipedia because I can't remember which site it was where I saw the clearest rendition ever.

"Slash was originally coined as a derogatory term to describe Kirk/Spock (or "K/S") homosexual fan-fiction, which has been a mainstay of a segment of Star Trek fandom since the early 1970s. For a time in the late 1970s and early 1980s, both "K/S" and "slash" were used to describe such fan-fiction, regardless of whether or not they were Star Trek related. But as homosexuality became more accepted in society, so too did the terms lose their derogatory connotation. "K/S" eventually fell out of use altogether, but "slash" became a universal term to describe all homosexual themed fan works.

Some have begun to use "slash" as a generic term for any erotic fan fiction, whether it describes heterosexual or homosexual relationships. This has sparked mild concern among writers of heterosexual fan fiction. This concern is sometimes based in intolerance of homosexuality, and manifests itself as offense at the notion of being compared to homosexual subject matter. It has also caused concern for slash writers who believe, that while it can be erotic, slash is not by definition so, and believe that defining erotic fic alone as slash takes the word away from all ages suitable homoromantic fanfic, and may cause confusion, when the quite unambiguous words 'erotica', 'adult', and 'porn' already exist."

***
http://forums.ffonline.com/forumdisplay.php?f=19
Creative Writing

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Friday, May 5, 2006 9:09 PM

PHOENIXROSE

You think you know--what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun.

Aaaaaaah, ok that makes a certain amount of sense. Thankee!

*************************************************
One summer.
One mission.
One legion of Browncoats.

Starting June 23rd, we aim to misbehave.

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