Slash

Slash refers to romance and/or sex between two characters of the same gender, usually male. Slash gets its name from the way writers denote romantic pairings when advising their readers of them in the story's summary: Person A/Person B. Note the slash ( / ) character.
In the South Park fandom, slash was initially a niche subject and only a small subfandom, but after FanFiction.Net changed it's policies in 2004 and deleted all Scriptfics, it swiftly became the dominant presence and has remained so ever since, expanding in variety of pairings exponentially.
==Synonyms==
Slash is known by many code names. In fact, 'slash' is probably the most covert term used; or at least to non-ficcers, the term 'slash' carries no hint of what it actually means. It is also sometimes called the 'yaoi' fandom (see below) and occasionally it is referred to more neutrally as the 'shipping' fandom. Less popular terms, often used either demeaningly or self-deprecatingly, include 'mansex', 'mansexing', 'gaysex', 'buttsex', 'buttsecks', 'teh gaysecks'.
The term "Femslash", or "Femmeslash", is often used for lesbian pairings specifically.
==Slash Conventions==
===Set-up===
There are several different ways slash stories can be set up.
First, and least imaginative, is when the author assumes that the relationship is longstanding and thus not needful of justification. This approach effectively cuts out any plot tension or conflict from the potentially fruitful source of family and friends, who, depending on continuum, may or may not be particularly happy with their relation/friend being in a homosexual relationship.
Another popular scenario is when mutual attraction is discovered accidentally through a set of circumstances including but not limited to: drunkenness, being in a fight (either on the same side or opposing), being forced into an arranged relationship due to hitherto unheard-of social customs, being imprisoned together, sex-pollen or aphrodisiac fruit, etc.
Sometimes a slash story can be non-consensual, in which one character forces another to engage in actions against their will. Rather improbably, non-consensual stories occasionally end in the forced party realizing they were in love all along.
Generally, the most successful set-up for a slash story is one in which the relationship is shown developing and the consequences of actions are explored; i.e., the requirements are the same as for most other kinds of fiction.
===Yaoi===
Fans of anime and manga will sometimes incorporate Yaoi into fanfiction. Yaoi is a type of slash inspired by Japanese themes, and it is nominally targeted towards girls.
Yaoi has slightly different conventions from 'regular' slash, including casting the two main characters into submissive/dominant roles: uke and seme. Much of the time, in a canon that is not conventionally the home of yaoi, fanon will tend to push one character or another into one of these roles.
It is noteworthy that a particular pattern has arisen: the character with darker hair is usually the seme, while the character with lighter hair is the uke.
Category:Terminology
Category:Fanfic Classifications