Okay, fandom, let's have some words about how you see yourself.
Actually, I admit, we could have a metric fuckton of words about a right shitload of things. But I had something in particular in mind today. Today, what I was thinking about in particular is how you seem to think you are just dominated by slash. When I peruse various fandom areas, it seems to be this narrative I run flat into time and again. Slashers are just overrunning fandom! The exact shape this perception takes varies. A lot of times it's the poor, oppressed het fans whining about how hard it is to find their favorite pairings with so many slash writers out there. Sometimes it's the menz complaining about how girls keep getting their icky fantasies all over their good, pure, sexless shounen (where they would totally bang the female romantic interest, but that's not the same!), and sometimes it's slash and yaoi fans themselves feeling like they've finally come into their own! They are the majority now.
To that, I have one thing to say:
Just stop. Really. Seriously. Quit it. I don't care what part of the "slash is everywhere!" spectrum you're at--if you're in the red-orange rage about having to scroll past all those m/m stories to get to your good, pure het ships, or if you're an indigo yaoi fan in self-righteous gigglefits about how the world has finally come around to your way of thinking, or if you're just a green with envy RPer who's sad you can't get girls to suck your dick even though you think they're fawning over a couple of boys doing the deed. Seriously, all of you people, and everyone who buys into this whole slash dominated narrative, even if it's just to say that most of fandom is slash, yeah, just take a step back and LOOK for a moment.
You know what you'll see if you pay attention?
Some slash, sure. But also? Thriving het fandoms. For all the whining and whinging, het fans, het art and het fic? In an all fandom sense, these aren't exactly an endangered species. You'll also find femme slash. You'll find gen fic. You'll find friendship fic that's so close to slash you can practically taste the mansex, but for all the cuddling and petting and emotional entanglement, they never actually admit to a sexual aspect to the relationship. You'll find stories about boys and their dragons or pokemon or whatever in relationships that seem a lot more unnatural than anything two boys, a hotel room, some improbably lube and a bag of peaches could come up with. In general, you'll find a whole lot of diversity.
Now, I don't know the exact percentage of all the fanwork on the internet that comes out to being m/m. It might be more of it than het. There might not be. But both are quite developed and healthy, thank you, and prying them apart to make it sound like this part of that fandom is all slash, or that tiny, oppressed corner over there is all het is just oversimplifying at best, and disingenuous at worst. Here's a shocker! Some stories? Include both slash and het--or even femmeslash! Some fanartists draw more than one kind of pairing. Sideshipping a different kind of pairing either for convenience's sake or because of an actual affection for both ships is hardly unfucking heard of.
Here's the thing. I know there are some fandoms, particularly fandoms with overwhelmingly male casts, where there's very little het fandom. I know that these exist. But I've never been in a fandom that didn't have a healthy het fandom--and this includes Gundam Wing and Naruto, both fandoms that people act like are all gay all the time. I've never been in HP fandom, but I've heard people who treat it similarly. Like it's all Harry/Draco, or Remus/Sirius (or whatever), but at the same time, I have seen the overwhelming evidence of the fact that Harry/Hermione or Draco/Hermione, or Harry/Ginny or whatever are all quite active! As well as full of froth and argument to support their ships.
So maybe Star Trek TOS is really the sausagefest of slashfic that I've heard. It might be! I wouldn't know. Maybe there's no het Sentinel fic at all! I couldn't argue that. At the same time, I can say that there are many fandoms where both slash and het are flourishing, and others still where slash is very, very uncommon.
And I can say that fandom has the habit of looking at itself, and not seeing the het, and not seeing the femmeslash, or the gen. Of conflating het and genfic. Of making het invisible and expected, and either puffing up in indignation that het either even has to compete with slash, or on the other hand, patting itself on the back for being sooooo~ progressive for having have shaken off heteronormativity so entirely.
Just, don't. Stop. It smacks of the kind of sociological experiment where, if men and women are equally represented, people feel like women dominated a gathering. Where if men and women speak the same amount, people will report that the women talked much more than the men. It reminds me of how Christians can act oppressed in a nation where as many as 80% of people identify as Christian.
Just because there's more of the gay that you're used to, just because that particular flavor of relationship gets a better shake than you're used to, that doesn't mean that it's ZOMG TAKING OVER. And it doesn't mean you've won some sort of competition. There doesn't need to be competition. Thriving fandoms for both doesn't mean anyone's won, or that anyone's lost.
So seriously.
Just stop.
Before the girls who like femmeslash lose their patience and go on some kind of a spree.
To that, I have one thing to say:
Just stop. Really. Seriously. Quit it. I don't care what part of the "slash is everywhere!" spectrum you're at--if you're in the red-orange rage about having to scroll past all those m/m stories to get to your good, pure het ships, or if you're an indigo yaoi fan in self-righteous gigglefits about how the world has finally come around to your way of thinking, or if you're just a green with envy RPer who's sad you can't get girls to suck your dick even though you think they're fawning over a couple of boys doing the deed. Seriously, all of you people, and everyone who buys into this whole slash dominated narrative, even if it's just to say that most of fandom is slash, yeah, just take a step back and LOOK for a moment.
You know what you'll see if you pay attention?
Some slash, sure. But also? Thriving het fandoms. For all the whining and whinging, het fans, het art and het fic? In an all fandom sense, these aren't exactly an endangered species. You'll also find femme slash. You'll find gen fic. You'll find friendship fic that's so close to slash you can practically taste the mansex, but for all the cuddling and petting and emotional entanglement, they never actually admit to a sexual aspect to the relationship. You'll find stories about boys and their dragons or pokemon or whatever in relationships that seem a lot more unnatural than anything two boys, a hotel room, some improbably lube and a bag of peaches could come up with. In general, you'll find a whole lot of diversity.
Now, I don't know the exact percentage of all the fanwork on the internet that comes out to being m/m. It might be more of it than het. There might not be. But both are quite developed and healthy, thank you, and prying them apart to make it sound like this part of that fandom is all slash, or that tiny, oppressed corner over there is all het is just oversimplifying at best, and disingenuous at worst. Here's a shocker! Some stories? Include both slash and het--or even femmeslash! Some fanartists draw more than one kind of pairing. Sideshipping a different kind of pairing either for convenience's sake or because of an actual affection for both ships is hardly unfucking heard of.
Here's the thing. I know there are some fandoms, particularly fandoms with overwhelmingly male casts, where there's very little het fandom. I know that these exist. But I've never been in a fandom that didn't have a healthy het fandom--and this includes Gundam Wing and Naruto, both fandoms that people act like are all gay all the time. I've never been in HP fandom, but I've heard people who treat it similarly. Like it's all Harry/Draco, or Remus/Sirius (or whatever), but at the same time, I have seen the overwhelming evidence of the fact that Harry/Hermione or Draco/Hermione, or Harry/Ginny or whatever are all quite active! As well as full of froth and argument to support their ships.
So maybe Star Trek TOS is really the sausagefest of slashfic that I've heard. It might be! I wouldn't know. Maybe there's no het Sentinel fic at all! I couldn't argue that. At the same time, I can say that there are many fandoms where both slash and het are flourishing, and others still where slash is very, very uncommon.
And I can say that fandom has the habit of looking at itself, and not seeing the het, and not seeing the femmeslash, or the gen. Of conflating het and genfic. Of making het invisible and expected, and either puffing up in indignation that het either even has to compete with slash, or on the other hand, patting itself on the back for being sooooo~ progressive for having have shaken off heteronormativity so entirely.
Just, don't. Stop. It smacks of the kind of sociological experiment where, if men and women are equally represented, people feel like women dominated a gathering. Where if men and women speak the same amount, people will report that the women talked much more than the men. It reminds me of how Christians can act oppressed in a nation where as many as 80% of people identify as Christian.
Just because there's more of the gay that you're used to, just because that particular flavor of relationship gets a better shake than you're used to, that doesn't mean that it's ZOMG TAKING OVER. And it doesn't mean you've won some sort of competition. There doesn't need to be competition. Thriving fandoms for both doesn't mean anyone's won, or that anyone's lost.
So seriously.
Just stop.
Before the girls who like femmeslash lose their patience and go on some kind of a spree.