There is a new obsession circling the Internet these days: slash fiction. And no, the term does not refer to the SlashDot Web site, the popular techie news and discussion page.
So what exactly is slash fiction, you ask? It is a substantial genre of fan fiction (aka fanfic).
Wikipedia defines fan fiction as a "term for fiction about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creators." Slash refers to fan fiction featuring a same-sex couple that is not "canon," meaning not part of the original work.
But what's most interesting about slash is not that it features an underground movement of homosexual pairings, but that most slash writers and readers are heterosexual women and that most slash pairings are male/male, according to "Private Uses of Cyberspace" on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Web site.
Slash fiction has somewhat of a cult-like following on the Internet. A simple Google search turns up over 1.5 million results. Yahoo! gives almost 2 million. Fanfiction.net has over 40,000 stories self-defined as slash fiction.
The term originates from the slash (/) used to designate the couple a work featured. The first known slash couple? Kirk/Spock from "Star Trek" in the 1970s.
When I first came across slash fiction, I was intrigued to find how widespread the phenomenon was. And yet it still escaped the radar of the majority of the public.
Most slash stories, however, have not escaped the radar of the publishing/movie companies. In recent years companies have cracked down on slash featuring the characters to which they own the copyright. Some popular slash subjects: "Harry Potter," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Smallville," "Friends," "House" and real-world slash (focusing mainly on boy bands).Slash is also prevalent in anime and manga fan fiction. Yaoi or shounen-ai refers to male/male love, while yuri or shoujo-ai refers to female/female love. Still, shounen-ai seems to be overwhelmingly more popular, returning almost 200,000 more results in a Google search.
When I ask most people if they've ever read slash, they either think it's some sort of gruesome chainsaw-massacre tale or porn.
Now there's a subject to make any parent squirm. Harry Potter porn.
But after reading slash, I can safely conclude that the majority of it is not porn. You could call it erotica. Slash stories range from G to NC-17, but I've noticed that the most famous stories - the ones that have tens of thousands of fans who eagerly wait each installment - are of a PG-13 and sometimes R rating.
So why is slash so popular among heterosexual women?
The Internet has opened up a new world of possibilities, a world where women can shed off the constraints of society and explore themselves and their desires in ways that were never open to them before. Because society has objectified women for millennia, women were rarely allowed to express and explore their sexualities.
Men have always had their magazines (Playboy, Maxim, etc.) and their gentlemen's clubs. Even now, what with Playgirl and other magazines catering to women, female sexuality is still a topic that is rarely, if ever, talked about.
There are very few women who regularly - or even occasionally - visit strip clubs. There are even fewer strip clubs that target women. Society still has not released women from its strict social and moral codes, most of which don't apply to men.With the Internet, women have more access to channels in which to express their sensual desires. But the majority of porn objectifies women. And with the rare porn that doesn't, it's still daunting and a little disturbing to watch porn. At least it is for me.
For me (and with a lot of women that I've talked to), porn isn't erotic because I keep thinking, "I don't act like that. I don't look like that. I don't know anyone who looks or acts like that. Why is this sexy?"
Porn to me (and by no means does this apply to all porn, just the majority) does nothing but illustrate the societal constraints that I am trying to escape. When an erotic scene features a heterosexual couple, women are barraged by images and concepts of how they should look and act.
But with a homosexual male couple, the opportunity to put oneself in the scene is gone, and women are free to enjoy the raw sexuality and erotic energy. Removed from the societal constraints and in a place where they are more or less anonymous, women can experiment with and control the conventional gender roles and expectations - even banish them completely.It's a leveling of the playing field. Perhaps that's the real reason. The women that enjoy slash fiction want to hold the power traditionally assigned to males, the power that may be denied them in real life.
Slash stories are, at their core, erotic fantasies that can be shared and reread. With slash, one can live vicariously through the characters while maintaining a safe distance emotionally from the action.
It seems to be an accepted fact that many men like lesbian porn. If one assumes that is also true, then it makes sense that many heterosexual women find pleasure from the concept of a male/male couple.
Women have been fettered down by society for as long as society has existed. Female sexuality, in particular, has been suppressed. The oft-overlooked genre of slash fiction allows women to unleash and explore that sexuality and regain the feministic perspective that has been censored.
