What's Love Got to Do With It? A semi-sane analysis of 'slash' fanfiction

What's Love Got to Do With It? A semi-sane analysis of 'slash' fanfiction is an essay by Louann Qualls. 
It was printed in Tarriel Cell v.4 n.6, and is online here: .
For additional context, see Timeline of Slash Meta and Slash Meta.
==Some Introductory Points==
* "slash is becoming a common category in fan fiction"
* ads in a recent issue of GAZ suggest that "there are now more slash (or "/") fanzines on the market than zines of straightforward heterosexual smut. Blake's 7 is no exception to this trend."
* while K/S was "one of the first widespread slash categories, ... people have been spreading nasty rumors about Holmes and Watson or Batman and Robin for decades."
* the author writes that she "obviously enjoys slash, or I wouldn't have read enough of it to write this essay. The more I've read in the genre, however, the more it puzzles me. Slash fiction has a number of traits (besides the obvious) setting it apart from regular fan fiction."
==Criticisms: Excerpts==
Slash fiction is written mostly by women who don't know much about m/m sex and is inaccurate: "Straight males usually detest the stuff. Gay males presented with slash fiction usually react with disinterest or great amusement. Since a woman has few firsthand opportunities to witness gay male sex, and since many writers are sexually inexperienced overall, the sex described in these stories is often inaccurate. Incidentally, all men in slash stories are well-endowed."
Slash fiction is not "in-character": "These characters virtually never had any homosexual tendencies in the original series or movie. One extreme example is Lethal Weapon slash (don't kill me, I didn't write it.) This scenario pairs up two incredibly unlikely lovers: a happily married man with four children, and a widower who nearly went insane from grief when his wife died. No amount of heterosexual behavior onscreen can save a character from the slash treatment if a fan writer decides he "must" be gay."
There is rarely a slash equivalent of Mary Sue: "The protagonists in slash stories are almost always two existing characters who are best friends."
Slash fans don't value originality: "Whatever motivates slash readers to buy these zines, it isn't originality. Slash readers want the same story over and over again."
Slash fiction is of lower quality than other fiction: "Although there are a few pleasant exceptions, the average level of writing in slash zines is wretched even by fanzine standards. Part of this may come from the fact that "slash" is largely separated from the rest of fan writing. Ordinary zines usually want no part of slash stories, and slash zines usually do not print other types of fiction. Slash zine editors may feel obligated to print any stories they get, since slash writers have so few markets. Also, since most characters must be deliberatly distorted to make them gay, good characterization is just not in the cards."
Several fans conflated the characters with the actors themselves, and they did not make clear distinctions between RPF and slash fanworks between characters. See Actors vs. Characters for more on this topic.
==Observations: Excerpts==
 
 
==Reactions and Reviews==
==References==
 
Category:Slash Meta
Category:1991 Meta
Category:Meta in Print