on slash and sexism, and why the two are not necessarily connected
fandomsecrets posted a secret that denounced slash because it disregards or diminishes a female perspective. I couldn't possibly disagree more with that statement. Feminism IS about advocating equality between men and women, but it is not about pushing women in every single sphere of life. There are allowed to be spaces that are specifically women-only in fandom: "ie: femmeslash," so why is it so terrible if a writer chooses to focus on the relationship between men or boys? If focusing entirely on the relationship between women is not sexist, then why is focusing on the other gender such a breach of feminist sensibilities?
The secret-poster seems to be operating on the assumption that the driving force behind writing slash is a desire to erase or disregard the female, and that this motivation is the only reason a person could have for shipping or writing slash. I won't pretend that there are some slashers that claim to write slash because there are no interesting females in their fandom (sometimes true) or that they write slash because they don't want to deal with a woman in the relationship.
Writing slash for that reason is sexist. I agree, that is against feminism entirely. However, many people write slash for various reasons. I, for instance, have written slash because I love the characters in question, I love how they interact in canon, and I was interested in seeing how their relationship would change and develop if it turned romantic. I've written slash because of canonical reasons, I've written incestuous slash for the taboo aspect and to explore the realism of incest and the psychological toll it takes on the people involved. In these stories, I made sure to include female characters if possible, since the male characters knew and had relationships with women and it would be unrealistic and unfair to the female characters to not include them (Just as it would be unrealistic to not include their father figure, their male friend, and any other character with whom they spend a good portion of their life.) The focus on these characters did not have to do with their sex, but rather my love of the characters as individuals and the way their interactions affected each other. Their masculinity was taken as a part of their characters and as key to their personalities as their culture, but not as a reason to push the female characters aside, and not as a reason to worship or center on them.
Other people write slash to explore an area of humanity besides the heterosexual perspective. Yes, they could do so with a lesbian couple or a genderqueer couple, but are women only allowed to write and focus on their own gender now? That would be like telling a member of a religion that writing a story focused on another religion somehow compromised their own spiritual leanings. A woman who writes slash explores the masculine perspective on her own terms, re-writes the masculine on her own terms, her own experience, and makes a difference in the way masculinity is portrayed and pictured in fiction. Men cease to be enigmas and become people, and the opposite gender is something to be studied and experimented with and eventually accepted. Men cease to be written as strutting Alpha He-Men, and are written with emotion and 'feminine' characteristics of their own. This is something I consider to be healthy for women, and not damaging. Of course, the focus on masculinity shouldn't compromise the feminine, but it is not inherently against women to focus on one gender for writing purposes.
Not to mention the plain and simple aspect of slash: it's a kink. People get off on it. Lots of people read slash smut to get off. If a woman gets off on writing two men fucking like rabbits, then who are you to tell them that their fetish is wrong? Who are you to intrude on that space and tell them to stop writing and reading their porn and to insert a meaningful not into it by sticking women in there like some token female characters to make feminists happy? It's porn. PWP is PWP- short, sweet, and to the point. If those women don't get off one having other women in the sex scene, then that doesn't necessarily say anything about their views on feminism. They're not sexist, they're just horny and they like men.
Basically, feminism is about equality between men and women. It is the idea that both genders are created equal, that neither one outshines the other. It is against that very ideal to say that focusing on one gender is damaging, but focusing on the other is worthy of praise. If both genders are equal, then slash is no more anti-feminist than femmeslash is misandrist.
Edit: Misread secret, rant still stands as I have heard this argument before.
The secret-poster seems to be operating on the assumption that the driving force behind writing slash is a desire to erase or disregard the female, and that this motivation is the only reason a person could have for shipping or writing slash. I won't pretend that there are some slashers that claim to write slash because there are no interesting females in their fandom (sometimes true) or that they write slash because they don't want to deal with a woman in the relationship.
Writing slash for that reason is sexist. I agree, that is against feminism entirely. However, many people write slash for various reasons. I, for instance, have written slash because I love the characters in question, I love how they interact in canon, and I was interested in seeing how their relationship would change and develop if it turned romantic. I've written slash because of canonical reasons, I've written incestuous slash for the taboo aspect and to explore the realism of incest and the psychological toll it takes on the people involved. In these stories, I made sure to include female characters if possible, since the male characters knew and had relationships with women and it would be unrealistic and unfair to the female characters to not include them (Just as it would be unrealistic to not include their father figure, their male friend, and any other character with whom they spend a good portion of their life.) The focus on these characters did not have to do with their sex, but rather my love of the characters as individuals and the way their interactions affected each other. Their masculinity was taken as a part of their characters and as key to their personalities as their culture, but not as a reason to push the female characters aside, and not as a reason to worship or center on them.
Other people write slash to explore an area of humanity besides the heterosexual perspective. Yes, they could do so with a lesbian couple or a genderqueer couple, but are women only allowed to write and focus on their own gender now? That would be like telling a member of a religion that writing a story focused on another religion somehow compromised their own spiritual leanings. A woman who writes slash explores the masculine perspective on her own terms, re-writes the masculine on her own terms, her own experience, and makes a difference in the way masculinity is portrayed and pictured in fiction. Men cease to be enigmas and become people, and the opposite gender is something to be studied and experimented with and eventually accepted. Men cease to be written as strutting Alpha He-Men, and are written with emotion and 'feminine' characteristics of their own. This is something I consider to be healthy for women, and not damaging. Of course, the focus on masculinity shouldn't compromise the feminine, but it is not inherently against women to focus on one gender for writing purposes.
Not to mention the plain and simple aspect of slash: it's a kink. People get off on it. Lots of people read slash smut to get off. If a woman gets off on writing two men fucking like rabbits, then who are you to tell them that their fetish is wrong? Who are you to intrude on that space and tell them to stop writing and reading their porn and to insert a meaningful not into it by sticking women in there like some token female characters to make feminists happy? It's porn. PWP is PWP- short, sweet, and to the point. If those women don't get off one having other women in the sex scene, then that doesn't necessarily say anything about their views on feminism. They're not sexist, they're just horny and they like men.
Basically, feminism is about equality between men and women. It is the idea that both genders are created equal, that neither one outshines the other. It is against that very ideal to say that focusing on one gender is damaging, but focusing on the other is worthy of praise. If both genders are equal, then slash is no more anti-feminist than femmeslash is misandrist.
Edit: Misread secret, rant still stands as I have heard this argument before.