Lemme burn down your fandom pedestals for you
So, I was boredly poking around the internet and I found A beginner's guide to fandom. So I read it. And came across the following question and the author's answer.
And then I saw red.
OK, seriously, what’s with all the interest in making straight men gay?
Fandom is subversive. If a canonical worldview is entirely straight-white-male, then fans will actively resist it. Freeing homoerotic subtexts from restrictive source canons is a rebellion against heteronormative constraints.
Slash also provides readers the catharsis of a well-developed love story, but with even more obstacles to overcome. Slash deals with sociocultural issues of queerness on its way to romance. Because traditional genre publishers can’t push the envelope to the degree that slash does on a regular basis, slash often attracts highly literary, smart, and genre-savvy writers. When slashfic is good, it’s very good.
This? THIS PRETENTIOUS PIECE OF BULLSHIT? THIS is everything I fucking hate about boyslash fanfiction writers and readers. NO, YOU ARE NOT SPECIAL SNOWFLAKES OF SPECIALNESS, you assholes. You do not get to pretend you are better than people writing heteronormative (or femslash, because boyslash is never fucking inclusive) narratives. You are not fucking above us, so get off your high horses and stop being assholes about how amazing you are.
Sidenote: This is why I still fucking hate the OTW and AO3, because it is run by these pretentious, holier-than-thou snobs who venerate and worship the penis as a God that makes them above all lesser mortals. (OTW and AO3 seem to have been started by the very boyslashers who go on about how boyslash is so much better than anything else, and while it's amazing that they started it, I still feel unwanted there as I don't write literary m/m slash fanfiction, I write about women and het relationships.) /sidenote
Also, the idea that straight-white-male is something fandom resists is such fucking bullshit. WHITE PENISES are what make a fandom slash fanbase RUN, for fuck's sake (find me the mountain of movie!Nick Fury boyslash. Don't worry, I'll wait. How about the Psych boyslash fic with Gus? Any POC majority show/movie that gets a billion fics? No? Can't find them? That's because fandom reveres white men. But only if they can make them have sex/buy curtains)
If fandom resisted straight-white-male, there'd be a billion fics about men and women of color, instead of the tiny tiny scrapings that you occasionally see (usually an afterthought or backround pairing in some white cock pairing fic).
There'd be whole archives dedicated to the mountains of Midnighter/Apollo fic.
Not to mention all the hundreds of female characters (none of whom are male) that get constantly ignored in favor of pairing up all white dudes including the two white dudes who had three minutes' total screentime (Atlantis fandom, I am still bitter).
So, no, boyslash fandom, you are not any more special or intelligent than the rest of us. And claiming and believing that you are (and that boyslash fandom is the 'normal' part of fandom)? Just makes me want to punch you in the face.
And then I saw red.
OK, seriously, what’s with all the interest in making straight men gay?
Fandom is subversive. If a canonical worldview is entirely straight-white-male, then fans will actively resist it. Freeing homoerotic subtexts from restrictive source canons is a rebellion against heteronormative constraints.
Slash also provides readers the catharsis of a well-developed love story, but with even more obstacles to overcome. Slash deals with sociocultural issues of queerness on its way to romance. Because traditional genre publishers can’t push the envelope to the degree that slash does on a regular basis, slash often attracts highly literary, smart, and genre-savvy writers. When slashfic is good, it’s very good.
This? THIS PRETENTIOUS PIECE OF BULLSHIT? THIS is everything I fucking hate about boyslash fanfiction writers and readers. NO, YOU ARE NOT SPECIAL SNOWFLAKES OF SPECIALNESS, you assholes. You do not get to pretend you are better than people writing heteronormative (or femslash, because boyslash is never fucking inclusive) narratives. You are not fucking above us, so get off your high horses and stop being assholes about how amazing you are.
Sidenote: This is why I still fucking hate the OTW and AO3, because it is run by these pretentious, holier-than-thou snobs who venerate and worship the penis as a God that makes them above all lesser mortals. (OTW and AO3 seem to have been started by the very boyslashers who go on about how boyslash is so much better than anything else, and while it's amazing that they started it, I still feel unwanted there as I don't write literary m/m slash fanfiction, I write about women and het relationships.) /sidenote
Also, the idea that straight-white-male is something fandom resists is such fucking bullshit. WHITE PENISES are what make a fandom slash fanbase RUN, for fuck's sake (find me the mountain of movie!Nick Fury boyslash. Don't worry, I'll wait. How about the Psych boyslash fic with Gus? Any POC majority show/movie that gets a billion fics? No? Can't find them? That's because fandom reveres white men. But only if they can make them have sex/buy curtains)
If fandom resisted straight-white-male, there'd be a billion fics about men and women of color, instead of the tiny tiny scrapings that you occasionally see (usually an afterthought or backround pairing in some white cock pairing fic).
There'd be whole archives dedicated to the mountains of Midnighter/Apollo fic.
Not to mention all the hundreds of female characters (none of whom are male) that get constantly ignored in favor of pairing up all white dudes including the two white dudes who had three minutes' total screentime (Atlantis fandom, I am still bitter).
So, no, boyslash fandom, you are not any more special or intelligent than the rest of us. And claiming and believing that you are (and that boyslash fandom is the 'normal' part of fandom)? Just makes me want to punch you in the face.