Your thoughts on yaoi

[schmevil]

Although I read (and sometimes write) slash, I've never really considered slash to be an important part of my fannish identity. I'm as likely to fall for a het ship, or femslash ship, as a slash ship, and it's even more likely for me to not ship much of anything at all. And although I have many friends in the slash community, I don't consider it to be my fannish home base.

So what makes a slasher? Are you a slasher? Why do you consider yourself to be (or not to be) a slasher?

[Poll #1347864]

Comments

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

*nod* at everything you've said.

I'm glad you raised the issue of slash as being part of one's sexuality. As much as there are some yaoi and slash tropes that get me worked up, I don't think of 'slasher' as being integral to my lived, sexual experiences, or even my fantasy life. One thing I've learned over the years is that those tropes work for me whether the people involved are bio-male, bio-female or something else. That said, reading slash, yaoi and by-men-for-men erotica has definitely influenced my relationships with men.

Also, those people often tend to go heavy on the by women, for women rhetoric, which makes me feel very alienated.

Why do you feel alienated? Not pushing - I'd just like to hear more of your thoughts on this. I've never been entirely comfortable with it myself.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

It's alienating for many reasons.

I didn't get into slash fandom because it's mostly women, nor is that a part of why I like fandom; it's just something that is. I don't write for women; I write for anyone who wants to read my stories. Because I post my stories in areas where mostly women are going to be reading them, it ends up that the audience is mostly women. But I write stories that are interesting to me, not stories tailored to women in some way that makes them different from stories people who are not women can enjoy. People who are really into "by women, for women", cite those things as really important to them and it makes me feel weird to have those assumptions made about me because I'm in slash fandom.

But most importantly, I'm trans. Many of my fandom friends are trans. Every time someone says fandom is by women, for women, they're saying we're not here, and we don't belong here. And it's different than saying that to cis guys, who do also make up a portion of fandom. Transguys are always being denied their masculinity; that's part of being trans. And for cis women to sit there and say fandom is by women, for women, it's like they're saying "I see you as female" in the same what white folks say "I see you as white" to PoC.

I am not living as a man. That's my choice right now. But I am still trans. I will never not be trans. And so I may not have to deal with people denying me my right to be male IRL, but it still hurts when people insist on making my writing and my fandom interaction all about my body.

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

But most importantly, I'm trans.

I thought so, but since we're still getting to know each other, I didn't want to just ask. ;)

Every time someone says fandom is by women, for women, they're saying we're not here, and we don't belong here. And it's different than saying that to cis guys, who do also make up a portion of fandom. Transguys are always being denied their masculinity; that's part of being trans. And for cis women to sit there and say fandom is by women, for women, it's like they're saying "I see you as female" in the same what white folks say "I see you as white" to PoC.

*nod* Fandom, and slash fandom in particular has a problem with making certain groups of people invisible. Being online seems to make even easier for privileged groups to assume that everyone is like them. While I can see while the FUBU slash doctrine evolved, I don't think it actually solves the problem it's trying to fix. Yes it creates a fandom space in which women are visible and can control the discussion, but it does so through presuming the nonexistence of other groups. I *feel* like it's better than it was ten years ago, though.

For myself, two of my big fandoms are most definitely not woman-identified. American comics fandom is still dominated by guys, and there's plenty of fic by both men and women. Harry Potter, because it's so huge, has a little bit of everything. I have cis guy, girl and a handful of trans friends in each. Those are probably the fandoms I'm most comfortable in. The fandoms I've felt least comfortable in are the ones where you have to go through a thousand fans, before finding a lesbian, never mind a cis guy.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my first fandom was Digimon, and while I didn't read or write fic, I was aware of it (and even hosted other people's fic on my site for a while) and there was a pretty even mix of male and female writers and the whole fandom was pretty well mixed, too, as is the case with a lot of anime fandoms. So my first exposure to fandom and fic was not as a female activity, and my next fandom was Vampire Chronicles, which was mostly female, but people didn't meta about it or make it a big thing, so I didn't even think about it as significant. It was only once I got involved in the greater "media fandom", especially slash fandom, that I started hearing the for women, by women stuff. I'm really glad of that, because if my first introduction to fandom had been "this is something for women, by women", I probably would never have got involved, because it definitely does not feel welcoming.

Now that so much fandom stuff is on LJ and it's much more integrated and multifandom, I don't tend to get active in new fandoms in the same way I used to, which I like. I can just stick with my flist, and add/interact with people based on stuff other than just sharing a fandom.