By Jinx (@thefannish.org for emails)
Things slash isn't:
1. A genre
2. Delicious cheesecake
Now, people call slash a genre. They also call it a artform. They also imply strongly that it should all be porn. I hate these people. Let's get that straight. Keep reading anyway or I curse you with pictures of men fucking melons in the corner of your sight forevermore. Also, when I say slash? I mean the kind with chicks too. I can't be fucked to add on a extra word to things that are basically the same.
I like slash. I like hurt/comfort. I like rampant silliness. These are not genres. Hurt/comfort could fall under romance, sillyness under comedy or adventure. Slash? Not so easy. It can be in horror, comedy, adventure, romance, all of it. Y'know why?
Because all it means is that somewhere in the fic, two characters of the same sex who are not normally together are... together. The end.
If slash were a genre, all the fic would be would be two men or two women having sex or something. No dialogue, just smooching and se--oh wait. I guess slash can be a genre. My rants about plots come later, okay?
In any case, I'm still gonna claim that genre is porn.
Where was I. There's another rant (by Lilac, it's in fandom gimmicks and is mostly about queer het) that sort of touches on this. Mostly that it's a kink, not a genre. I'm not gonna call it a kink, I'm gonna call it a feature. So you like a bit of relationship in your fic. And you like it to involve as many penii or vaginii as possible. That's cool. Unless you claim it's activism, then you suck. Where was I.
Right. It's a feature. It's NOT the entire fic. If the entire fic is about how they come to be going ass full throttle or... uh, cooter full throttle? I don't know any cute lesbian terms. Then it's romance.
Romance romance romance with extra gay sprinkles.
You like to read fics with slash IN them. Not 'slash is your favourite genre'.
That said, I guess what really bugs me is that they're segregating it. It should just be mixed in with the rest of the fanfiction, happily just another face in the crowd. Instead it's singled out and paraded around until everyone either hates or loves it. Dude, it's just (in this case) gay porn. Get over it. Go give your hand a break.
I wonder how many of the people who read this had this apply to them.
Carry on with your life and I hope you enjoyed the illustrations.
-Jinx, April 4th, 2005