Workshop: "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" by Bradygirl_12

Feb 18, 2008 21:33


Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

By BradyGirl

In The Beginning…

And, lo, back in the Dark Ages of fandom, Slash appeared. And the Slash Gods said, “It is good,” but the people resisted, or at least, some of them did. And the acolytes gathered, women who liked men and decided that two men together would be twice the better.

And the Slash Zines were, literally, sold from under-the-table, and the Fans of Slash had to employ the Secret Handshake and knock on doors and give the speakeasy password (“K/S sent me”). They endured much scorn and hatred and indignation (“How dare they do this to our heroes!”).

But, then, the Slash grew and was no longer just a small subset, and it took over some fandoms within Fandom, and even in the days before the Coming of the Internet, the Slash dominated.

And the straight women still read and wrote it, and lo, others started, too: gay men, lesbians, bi men and women. If a few straight men were reading and writing, they kept it to themselves. 

And that, my dear fen, was the Beginning…

…And Today

Fast forward to Today: Slash does dominate much of fanfiction on-line and in zines.

And femslash? A subset of slash, but growing, too.

Femslash has always been a smaller part of slash than male/male slash. The reasons for that vary: the lack of strong female characters in various movies and TV shows, and the dominance of straight women writing and reading slash.

Slash as we understand it today (fanfic, fanart, using media characters from TV, movies, books) has evolved, just as the audience evolved. While straight women still are a majority of the readers/writers, many lesbians and bi women have increased their numbers, and there is now more femslash out there than ever before.

There are shows with popular femslash pairings, such as Buffy and Gossip Girls, but we are lucky in comics fandom to have so many strong female characters in DC and Marvel fandom. Despite the shabby treatment of female superheroes in the past and still to some extent in the present, the women are capable of overcoming the obstacles put in front of them and give pleasure to the readers and themselves.

There are many pairings available to femslash fans in the DCU, for instance. And who might be the most likely candidate? Why, the woman who lived her entire life on an island of women, and who is woman-centered: Wonder Woman! ;)

Wonder Woman: Amazon Love

Diana has been paired with Dinah Lance (Black Canary) and Shayera (Hawkgirl) in fic and art, and also various Amazons. It makes sense. Any sexual experiences she would have had before coming to Man’s World would have necessarily been f/f. Diana is an icon of feminism, and she would welcome lesbians and bisexual women under that umbrella.

When she debuted in 1941, Steve Trevor was her love interest, and remained so for several decades before her reboot after COIE. I happen to like that pairing (oddly enough, since I almost exclusively read and write slash), but I am more than willing to see the Amazon Princess in female relationships. Her sense of sisterhood leads her to interest in other women as women, and her sensuality plays an important part.

Canon will never give us a female lifepartner for her, but we as fans are good at reading subtext. Like Xena, the Warrior Princess, sometimes the subtext isn’t so sub. ;)

Reading between the lines is an art form cultivated by fans for decades. My interpretation of Amazon philosophy is that lesbian love is the norm on Paradise Island/Themscyira, and not necessarily just two. If Love is the overriding commandment amongst the Amazons, why would they not experiment in all its forms, including threesomes and more if their desires took them that far?

Diana is attracted to warriors. That is why she has been paired with Dinah and Shayera, and she is also attracted to a strong civilian woman such as Lois Lane ( The Girl Who Falls by

jen_in_japan). Amazons are heralds of love, but also are bringers of war. It would fit Diana’s personality to mate with another warrior woman.

How To Write Femslash

What if you’ve never written femslash before? You’re accustomed to writing male/male slash instead. But think about it. Most slash writers are women. Even if you identify as straight exclusively, who better than to write two women enjoying sex than a woman? A woman knows what pleases her, and writing a female giving her pleasure would be even easier than writing male/male slash.

Simply take that tack, my fellow female fans: what makes you feel good? And wouldn’t you know exactly how to give another woman pleasure?

Women like foreplay and the emotional component of sex. You’re already skilled in those areas in male/male slash. Ironically, some critics of m/m slash say that it doesn’t reflect men’s ideas about sex at all. Men are more interested in getting right down to the act, don’t talk about feelings, and certainly don’t cuddle after the deed is done! At least that’s the conventional wisdom.

When you write femslash, it’s a given that the female partners are going to be interested in foreplay and feelings and cuddling. Not every female, of course, because one size does not fit all, but in general. What could be more of a turn-on than two powerful women giving each other pleasure?

Ironically, I find that when I write m/m, I tend to explore feelings and love and commitment.

When I write femslash, there is strong affection between the characters, but most of my femslash are PWP stories! There is no talk of commitment or strings attached. The reversal of the conventional wisdom in this case tickles me no end. :)

Women And Power

Power dynamics are always a concern for women, considering their historical disadvantage in economic, social, and physical power down through the ages. In a male/female pairing, the woman is more likely to be the physically weaker (An interesting reversal of that in past canon was the Diana/Steve relationship). Women have traditionally been forced to resort to guile and persuasion to get what they want. Raw power was rarely in the equation.

But the world of superhero women is different. From Wonder Woman and Supergirl down to the Wasp, women either possess enormous physical power, or powers that give them the upper hand, such as the hex power of the Scarlet Witch or the exceptional martial arts abilities of the Black Canary coupled with her sonic Canary Cry. In canon, women find themselves in relationships with male superheroes on a more equal footing, as civilian relationships have that pesky inbalance of power that most men are not comfortable with (again, an exception being Steve Trevor, who while asking Wonder Woman to marry him frequently in the Silver Age also accepted her superior strength and was damned glad of it when he needed rescue in either the Golden, Silver, or Bronze Ages).

Even male superheroes aren’t always comfortable with female power. And that would give a good opening to femslash, as powerful women would enjoy getting involved with other powerful women.

Other Pairings

On the villains’ side, one of the most popular pairings is Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn. Ivy possesses power over plants and in her sex pollen and mind-control potions. Harley is in love with her ‘Puddin’, the Joker, but is also attracted to the malevolent redhead.

Selina Kyle, the Catwoman, is a woman of extreme sensuality. Her sexual energy crackles with Bruce Wayne/The Batman, but also sizzles with women. She can be portrayed as villain or hero, and one of the pairings I write including her is Catwoman/Black Canary. I’ve seen mention of Catwoman/Poison Ivy, too.

DC also has the luxury of beautiful women on Smallville, with many possible pairings here. Depends on the chemistry you see between them. I like Lana far better with Chloe than I do with Clark or Lex. Chloe is good with Jimmy but I still see possibilities between her and Lana. The friendship has been there from the start, has been strained of late, but could still work.

In the most recent episode of Smallville, “Fracture”, there are scenes with Lois and Kara together. I liked the chemistry here a lot, and how ironic would it be for Lois to end up with Clark’s cousin instead of him? Interesting, at least. :)

Last week in “Siren”, Dinah Lance (Black Canary) was introduced. She has very good chemistry with Oliver Queen (Green Arrow), but it would be interesting to pair her with any of the SV women. It’s the fishnets, I tell you! ;)

For non-DCU women, I’ve found the ladies of the original Battlestar Galactica to intrigue me. You can pair either Athena/Cassiopeia, Athena/Sheba, or Cassiopeia/Sheba, or all three! ;)

For whatever reason, I find threesomes among women to work very well. When I wrote in Due South fandom, I penned a few tales of Frannie/Elaine/Margaret that just seemed to work.

Where To Find Femslash?

I’ve found good femslash at girlslash and the LJ comm that I maintain, wonderwomanlove, is open to f/f pairings involving Diana. The first comm. is for pairings from any fandom, and the second revolves around Wonder Woman. Many femslash comms will encompass more than one show or movie fandom, but there are others that concentrate on a single fandom.

To finish this essay, what are your favorite femslash pairings, and do you have any recommendations as to where to find good sources of this type of fic or art? I can recommend my own The Cat And The Canary Series (Selina/Dinah), The Princess And The Pretty Bird Series (Diana/Dinah), and the Silver Girls Series (Silver Age Supergirl/Batgirl).

So, maybe you’d like to try reading some femslash if you haven’t done so before, or try and write (or draw some pretty art) if you haven’t given it a whirl before this.

Remember, girls just wanna have fun! ;)

workshop, femslash, bradygirl_12

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