Slash – A Government Guideline
What is Slash and what does it mean for you, the electorate?
Bugger all actually, unless you watch a lot of television (specifically Fantasy/Sci-Fi) and care enough to go on the net and rave about it. Slash is, at the very core, a disposition to watch any two same-sex characters in any medium (film, television, books, band members) and see their relationship as ‘more’ than friends or colleagues. It is more pronounced in where the subjects have a more antagonistic relationship, for example, Sam Tyler/Gene Hunt of Life on Mars. It’s all about the ’subtext’ and subverting it, ’sticking it to the man’, or, challenging traditional patriarchal values.
It has to be noted, however, that it is not simply a regular ’ship in that it advocates canonical relationships between all same-sex characters (male, it’s just slash but with female characters it’s called Femslash, aka, Buffy/Faith). The series Torchwood is an exception in that it features an omni-sexual character who has a romantic relationship with a character who was previously seen to be straight. I wouldn’t class on-screen same-sex relationships as slash because it’s canon and the fans aren’t really subverting anything. Series such as Queer As Folk are not (in my humble opinion) slashy despite focusing on same-sex relationships, I think there has to be some sort of audience participation. Cultural theorist Stuart Hall (1973) has stipulated three ways in which an audience observe a certain text:
* Dominant reading – The audience accepts the message that was transmitted.
* Negotiated Reading – Accepts what the transmitted message is but filters it through their own values and beliefs.
* Oppositional – Where slash lives. The audience deconstructs the transmitted message to rebuild it in their own agenda.
Slash is not a new thing, it used to be printed on typewriters and sold under chairs at fan conventions with the most popular type of fiction regarding Kirk/Spock (the ‘/’ between the characters is where the phenomenon gets its name). Now, however, with the internet and lots of fans in the same place it is easier to seek out new life…I mean, fans with similar interests and go boldly (HA, the correct grammatical structure and yet, not as emphatic) into areas they have been ashamed to go prior to the dawn of message boards.
I’ll have more to say on this throughout the blog but these are my garbled thoughts on the subject thusfar.
Hall, S (1973) Encoding, Decoding in During, S (1973) Cultural Studies Reader Routledge, London
I am very interested in the culture of “fandom” and have some links to internet resources on my blog if you are interested.
I take no responsibility for the outcome should you choose to research squick fiction.
Also: Tamagotchi Slash?!
http://community.livejournal.com/tamagotchislash
I am interested and will add your Blog in my Blogroll. Also, I have just completed my honours dissertation on the very subject of Internet Fandom, specifically that of Stargate SG-1 and would be more than happy to send it along to yourself for a look if you’d like?
that would be wonderful! if you are going to make it generally available to the web or link to it from your site, i would recommend using http://www.scribd.com
thank you so much!!!
Thanks for the tip, never knew about scribd.com but now I can link my dissertation to the site for all to read, very cool. I’m putting it on my blogroll under ‘Barbarian at the ‘Gate’ when it’s finished converting.
I’m getting more and more interested in online fandom the deeper I get into it to be honest. It’s great to see the fans get involved and become part of the culture rather than just observing it.
The times they are a-changin’
Two new studies show why some people are more attractive for members of the opposite sex than others.
The University of Florida, Florida State University found that physically attractive people almost instantly attract the attention of the interlocutor, sobesednitsy with them, literally, it is difficult to make eye. This conclusion was reached by a series of psychological experiments, which were determined by the people who believe in sending the first seconds after the acquaintance. Here, a curious feature: single, unmarried experimental preferred to look at the guys, beauty opposite sex, and family, people most often by representatives of their sex.
The authors believe that this feature developed a behavior as a result of the evolution: a man trying to find a decent pair to acquire offspring. If this is resolved, he wondered potential rivals. Detailed information about this magazine will be published Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
In turn, a joint study of the Rockefeller University, Rockefeller University and Duke University, Duke University in North Carolina revealed that women are perceived differently by men smell. During experiments studied the perception of women one of the ingredients of male pheromone-androstenona smell, which is contained in urine or sweat.
The results were startling: women are part of this repugnant odor, and the other part is very attractive, resembling the smell of vanilla, and the third group have not felt any smell. The authors argue that the reason is that the differences in the receptor responsible for the olfactory system, from different people are different.
It has long been proven that mammals (including human) odor is one way of attracting the attention of representatives of the opposite sex. A detailed article about the journal Nature will publish.
Idetrorce, it might help if you told me what, specifically , you don’t agree with. For all I know you’re disagreeing with my liberal use of the comma (I feel it makes writing seem a bit more conversational, forget Iambic Pentameter).
I enjoy a debate as much as the next so give me something to work with.