Slash

Slash is a fandom term used to refer to a type of fanwork in which two or more characters of the same gender are placed in a sexual or romantic situation or relationship with each other. The term is also used as a verb and an adjective. The verb form of slash, to slash, refers to the creation of a slash fanwork or the interpretation of a relationship between characters in a given canon as homoerotic. The adjective form of slash, slashy, refers to character relationships that may be homoerotic in nature and fanworks that may be described as slash without being explicitly stated as such.
Slash more commonly refers to male/male pairings, with femslash being used more often to refer to female/female scenarios.
== History of the Term ==
See Slash Terminology
Fannish tradition holds that the word "slash" originated with Star Trek: The Original Series fan fiction, when Kirk/Spock was used as the label for a story where the relationship between Kirk and Spock was laced with sexual tension, whether it was acted on or not. This label allowed fans to differentiate those sexual relationship stories from the ones about Kirk and Spock’s friendship, which were sometimes labelled using "&". As fandoms gathered around new films and television series, the / mark became common as an indicator of a sexual relationship between same-sex characters.
Klangley explains:
Not all fans were familiar with the term. This fan in 1992 wrote: 
Terms like gen and het arose to distinguish these types of stories from slash. Although heterosexual narratives can of course be explicit on the level of an R, X or NC17 rating, they were more acceptable than slash at that time. Labeling a story as slash could provide a warning of criminal risk as well. In the early 1970s, any literature depicting homosexuality, even if not explicit, was considered pornography in most states (see Slash Controversies#Illegality of Slash) and illegal to be sent through the U.S. mail.
==History of the Genre ==
Fans certainly wrote and kept private, or shared with only a few friends, homosexual stories about Holmes and Watson, Bruce and Dick,Dr. Fredric Wertham, writing about comic books' contribution to degeneracy and criminal behavior in his book Seduction of the Innocent, wrote that not only did Batman and Robin's adventures contain gay subtext but that their relationship was obviously homosexual even to child readers. He later testified about this before Congress. Cultural reviewer Will Brooker revealed in his book Batman Unmasked that gay men had told Wertham in interviews that they saw Batman as gay; he did not make it up. It's very likely that fan fiction or fan-drawn comics of this nature existed, no doubt kept extremely private, perhaps similar to Charles Crumb's work featuring child actor Bobby Driscoll. Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie, Ilya and Napoleon in The Man From UNCLEConsiderable evidence points to The Man From UNCLE being the first media fandom, embraced by the same science fiction writers and fans who would go on to enshrine Star Trek. See Francesca Coppa, "A Brief History of Media Fandom" in Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays, ed. by Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse (McFarland, 2006), p. 41., James and Artemus, or Buz and Tod,A Senate probe into the role of television in juvenile delinquency focused on Route 66 because of its strong appeal to children and teenagers, questioning the appropriateness of sex and romance in the storylines. A memo from CBS network head James Aubrey, used as evidence in the hearings, specifically asked for more sex on Route 66, saying that neither protagonist had expressed the “normal wants of a young man... to get involved with a girl or even to kiss her”. but it was Star Trek: The Original Series that popularized the slash subgenre. The first such story may have been The Ring of Soshern, written by Jennifer Guttridge in 1967 or 1968 and circulated only privately.
The first slash story to be published in a fanzine was "A Fragment Out of Time" by Diane Marchant, published in Grup in 1974. After this, other Star Trek slash stories appeared in some fanzines, slowly picking up steam through the end of the decade with entire fanzines devoted to slash, and eventually slash conventions.
In the 1980s, more fandoms joined the slash scene, including Starsky & Hutch, The Professionals, and Blake's 7. As more male/male pairs were slashed, fans started to conceptualize slash as a genre unto itself rather than individual phenomena unique to particular characters or shows. A fan in March 1980 wrote: 
The absence of slash in Robin of Sherwood 1980s fandom provides a case study of how insecure slash fandom was about itself and its legitimacyFans respected a polite request from the show's creator Richard Carpenter and refrained from publishing slash stories based on this show's main characters., but in the internet age, slash has become increasingly normalized.
As fans moved online in the late 1990s, some used "slash" in their disclaimers as a warning in a derogatory way, assuring other fans that they were "safe" from slash on their site. An example: "All fics are rated at or below PG-13, and thar be no Slash here, so don't worry about running across something offensive. Make yourself at home!" Hall of HonorH (~2000) 
Today, Rule 34 illustrates the wide variety of slash pairings and combinations, that any conceivable fictional or real people pairing, inanimate object anthropomorphic, or crossover, has probably been written (and if not, there's always Rule 35: if there is no porn of it, it will be made).
== Defining Slash ==
Because the early slash community kept such a low profile (as above), there weren't clearly written definitions of the term that people could refer to as they got on the net and came in contact with the existing community. So a term might experience fannish drift as newcomers used the term according to the way they interpreted it, rather than how the existing community used it. Slash was a term that experienced fannish drift in this manner. It has also evolved over the years in response to canonically gay characters and relationships becoming more common in mainstream television shows and movies.For examples, see Steven Universe, Torchwood, or Welcome to Night Vale. There are many others. The first canonically gay couple on television was Gordon and George in the 1975 sitcom Hot l Baltimore.
During the initial era of K/S and other early slash pairings, and issues of "slashy subtext" and "slash goggles"aside, no one suggested that K/S and other pairings were established deliberately, as a matter of canon.Other than by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath, that is. The story of how they maneuvered Gene Roddenberry into considering Kirk & Spock's friendship in terms of "the Greek ideal" has become legendary. Slash was defined as fanfic containing noncanonical same-sex media character pairings. As is easy to see on countless discussion forums these days, the definition of slash has become more elastic. Many fans consider slash to mean, simply, a same-sex pairing (thus, they refer to Queer as Folk fan fiction as slash, though the characters are gay in canon). Still others look at, say, Stargate: SG-1 fan fiction pairings of Jack/Daniel and Jack/Samantha and consider them both to be slash relationships, because neither is canon and both are designated with a slash mark.
Thus, at different times, fans have tried to define exactly what slash is, and what it is not.
Defining Slash 	Defining Slash
"It's only slash if it's about a same-sex couple." 	In the X-Files, stories of romance between Mulder/Scully would occasionally be labelled as slash; in this sense, slash was being used to mean any non-canon relationship (there were indications that certain fans wanted it to be known as het slash'Must. Not. Comment.', retrieved October 4, 2008.). The focus of the definition slipped, and the heterosexual aspect of the relationship was irrelevant to it being slash. However, in nearly every modern fandom, the definition of slash has settled down to mean same-sex pairings only.
"It's only slash if it contains physical and/or explicit sex." 	"Slash ("/": Sexually explicit fan fiction extrapolating homosexual relationships between characters." -- from the editorial of Gambit #1, see mini-glossary
"It's only slash if it's about a non-canon (or 'unconventional') relationship." 	The same fannish drift that led to the definition of slash as any non-canonical relationship then led to some fans objecting to canonical same-sex relationships being called slash. Generally, in current usage, writings which include pairings of canon same-sex couples (for instance, Christian/Oliver on Verbotene Liebe, Brian/Justin on Queer as Folk US, or Willow/Tara on Buffy the Vampire Slayer) are usually called slash, or femslash if about women.
"It's only slash if it's about the slow evolution of feelings between partners." 	This was one of the first definitions; however, it leaves out enemyslash, as well as a lot of fun crossover pairings.
"It's only slash if they were both straight before they met each other." 	This was apparently a rearguard action to preserve we're not gay, we just love each other or men having sex with men (MSM) without considering themselves homosexuals: by this definition, if either half of the pairing was gay or bi before they met each other, it would be gay fiction, not slash.
"It's only slash if it's part of an established slash fandom." 	This was a reaction against the proliferation of small fandoms, arguing that a necessary component of a slash story is that it is produced by a member of a slash community, as a way of having a conversation about the characters—either building on, or disagreeing with, concepts from previous stories.
"It's only slash if it's written by a slasher." 	This argument is possibly a reaction against the increasing public awareness of slash; these days it is easy to find slightly mocking parodies of slash written by people outside of fandom.Iron Man 2: The Edge Of Reason (Tony Stark/Mr. Darcy), last accessed November 10, 2008 Some would argue "it's not slash if it wasn't written by fans, for fans".
"It's only slash if it's written about characters from an existing source text, not original characters."	As the popularity of this specific type of m/m romance as a genre has grown, some people have begun using the term 'original slash' to refer to original m/m fiction (published or amateur) that feels more like slash than traditional gay porn or what is considered typical of literature portraying gay relationships, e.g. Mary Renault. However, many slash fans feel that slash can only refer to fanworks, never original fiction.Dusk Peterson, What is Original Slash?, retrieved November 21, 2008
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== Controversies Over Slash ==
Slash has been surrounded by controversy since its inception. Some topics:
* early objections to Kirk/Spock sexual stories in the 1970s—often by well-known fans. One fan recollects Bjo Trimble describing K/S slashers as a "bunch of twisted sickos".
* entirely justified fears of legal prosecution: copyright and obscenity laws
* slash as inherently out of character
* disagreement even among slash fans as to "what is slashy" and "what should be slashed"
* present-day objections to Kirk/Spock slash by the Star Trek creators, including David Gerrold
* present-day statement by D.C. Fontana flatly denying that the Star Trek creators intended slash to be implied or subtextual canonIn May 2016, Fontana responded to a question by a Fanlore editor on "canon slash" in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Amok Time": "In answer to your question, NO - there were no homosexual double-entendres in the script - at least none that were deliberate. If some viewers chose to read that into the dialogue, etc. that's their point of view, but certainly not ours. Writer Theodore Sturgeon was trying to reveal Spock's inner human in a struggle with what his culture, his upbringing and his half-human/half-Vulcan heritage had instilled in him about emotion and controlling it in an out-of-control situation. It also was a peek into the Vulcan culture that no one had seen before. That's ALL we were doing."
===Slash and Gay===
As long as slash fans have been calling their stories slash, there have been conversations about how slash relates to LGBT issues. In early years, it was thought that slash was by definition about two heterosexual men. Some gay men see slash as simply being inaccurate gay representation:
Other gay men have voiced opposition to heterosexual women appropriating gay male experience. Literary questions of the differences between slash and published LGBT fiction have also been discussed.
In 1998, a fan, Lezlie Shell, wrote: 
==Slash as a Revitalizing Agent, Slash as Same-Old Same-Old==
===Something New===
Some fans feel that slash offered a new take on an old fandom, bringing new writers, readers and their interests to the table:
In 1984, one famous zine's author said: 
In 1991, another fan writes:
From a fan in 1993: 
===Something Old===
Other fans feel that slash is simply retreads of hetero-normative subjects given a new hat, often by casting one person in the couple as "the girl". [need examples] See Portrayals of Masculinity in Fanworks.
===Somewhere In-Between===
A fan in 2002 wrote: 
A fan in 2003 wrote: 
==Why Slash?==
A question many fans feel compelled to answer. See: Why Slash?
==Evolution of the Subtext==
From a 1998 fan discussion: 
==The Evolution of the Word: Subtext and Text ==
Some comments in 2004:
==Slash and Male Intimacy==
While the majority of Textual Poachers is not about slash, it was one of the first academic books to address it respectfully and thoughtfully. At a 1993 panel at Escapade, the book's author, Henry Jenkins, described his beginning awareness of slash and what he felt were its possibilities:
In 2000, a fan wrote: 
==Outsider Reactions To Slash==
Outsider reactions vary. Fans often do not distinguish between academics or the press writing about slash - both carry the same potential (in fannish minds) for ridicule and mischaracterization.
Fan fiction is often synonymous with slash in the press. Non-fans reading these articles could easily receive the impression that all or most fan fiction is slash.
Slash has also been described in the press as a genre exclusive to straight middle-class women, and even as a kind of "mommy porn" written by housewives in their copious spare time. Many slash authors may have portrayed themselves in this way in order to keep anonymity, since writing and mailing explicit homosexual narrative (fanfic or not) could get you jail time in the '70s. The real slash demographic has always included Lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender women along with trans men and male-identifying gay and straight men. (see the Livejournal community Men Who Slash) -- who, even today, might use female names just to fit in.
==The Future of Slash==
===1993===
===1994===
===1995===
 
==Slash Meta/Further Reading==
* The Slash Tutorial by Krychick (1999) See Timeline of Slash Meta. 
* The Joys of M/M Sex by Thamiris. (2000?) 
* How to Improve Your Slash Fic by Erin (2001?) 
See :Category:Slash Meta.
==External Resources==
* Wikipedia entry on slash fiction, and its talk page offers a somewhat more outside perspective on slash, with lots of discussion
* Usage of the word "slash" and the virgule "/" alone, at Alternate Universes: Fanfiction Studies, accessed 5.10.2011
==Notes==
==References==
 
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