Femslash February

Femslash February is an open challenge started on tumblr calling on all members of fandom to create at least two fanworks of any sort (fanfic, fanart, fan vids, graphics, podfics, fanmixes, cosplay, etc.) featuring a F/F ship in the month of February.
==Original Challenge Post==
==Black History Month Challenge==
Several people immediately commented that February is Black History Month in both the U.S.A. and Canada; eshusplayground issued an additional challenge that participants of Femslash February feature Black women.
Works meeting this challenge were tagged with #femslash february celebrates black women.
==Genderswap discussion==
There was some discussion when Femslash February first started in 2013 on whether genderswap pairings should be included. As the original challenge post did not explicitly prohibit genderswapping some thought it should be fine to include them. However, others noted that genderswapping went against the spirit of the challenge, which was to celebrate and produce more fanworks for femslash pairings as they are often gain less attention than het or slash.
==Fanworks Produced==
As a tumblr-based challenge, the most complete collections of fanworks produced are in the #femslash february and the #femslash february celebrates black women tags. There is also:
* a Femslash February Collection on AO3, maintained by soaringrachel
* a Femslash February Trope Bingo Card
* a Femslash February Prompt Repository on Dreamwidth
* a Multifandom Commentathon for Femslash February on LiveJournal—2013 only
==Femslash February works==
===2013===
The first Femslash February, though mostly confined to tumblr, did gain some traction among other blogging platforms. On LiveJournal, the Faith Slash and Veronica Mars Femslash communities promoted the Multifandom Commentathon for Femslash February and Teen Wolf Ladies ran its own Teen Wolf Femslash February Comment Fest.
Femslash February was also covered in an article by Velociriot!, a blog post on Lady Geek Girl, and a blog post on What If Books Etc.
On Archive of Our Own, 196 works were posted to the Femslash February Collection in the month of February, and a few dozen other works were posted later in the year. An additional 183 works were posted in the Femslash February tag in the month of February, though there may be some overlap between works posted in the tag and works posted in the collection. The most posted in fandoms were Sherlock (TV series), Teen Wolf, and The Avengers. The most posted pairings were Sally Donovan/Molly Hooper, Allison Argent/Lydia Martin, and Pepper Potts/Natasha Romanov.
People who did not want to contribute new works to the challenge nonetheless got involved in other ways. Wrangle Tangle posted a series "highlighting female character-centric and femslash-centric tags on AO3" under her femslash february tag.
===2014===
On Archive of Our Own, 233 works were posted to the Femslash February Collection in the month of February, and 312 works were posted in the Femslash February tag, though again, there is likely some overlap between the collection and the tag.
The most posted in fandoms were Fullmetal Alchemist, MCU, Teen Wolf, and Percy Jackson and the Olympians. The most posted pairings were Paninya/Winry Rockbell and May Chang/Lan Fan.
===2015===
On Archive of Our Own, 409 works were posted in the Femslash February tag in the month of February.
The most posted in fandoms were Agent Carter, The 100, Teen Wolf, and MCU. The most posted pairings were Peggy Carter/Angie Martinelli, Sansa Stark/Margaery Tyrell, Korra/Asami, and Abby Griffin/Raven Reyes.
===2016===
On Archive of Our Own, 691 works were posted in the Femslash February tag in the month of February.
The most posted in fandoms were Teen Wolf, MCU, and Star Wars. The most posted pairings were Maria Hill/Natasha Romanov, Sansa Stark/Margaery Tyrell, and Rey/Jessika Pava.
To celebrate Femslash February, Destination: Toast! compiled some femslash statistics from Archive of Our Own. These indicated that both the number of femslash fanworks created and the percentage of the archive that they took up were on the rise. The most active femslash ships in the previous year were Swan Queen (Once Upon a Time), Laura Hollis/Carmilla Karnstein (Carmilla), Clexa (The 100), Korrasami (The Legend of Korra), Peggy Carter/Angie Martinelli (Agent Carter), Root/Shaw (Person of Interest), Historia Reiss/Ymir (Shingeki no Kyojin), Rose Lalonde/Kanaya Maryam (Homestuck), Chloe Beale/Beca Mitchell (Pitch Perfect) and Maxine Caulfield/Chloe Price (Life is Strange). Of those top ten femslash pairings, six of them were the most popular pairing in their fandom overall.
The fandoms with the most femslash overall were Once Upon a Time, Glee, Homestuck, Harry Potter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Teen Wolf, Carmilla, Supernatural, Warehouse 13 and Orphan Black.Stats Femslash February 2016
===2017===
On Archive of Our Own, 728 works were posted in the Femslash February tag in the month of February.
The most posted in fandoms were Star Wars, A Song of Ice and Fire, and Miraculous Ladybug. The most posted pairings were Sansa Stark/Margaery Tyrell, Jemma Simmons/Skye, and Chloé Bourgeois/Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
===2018===
On Archive of Our Own, 597 works were posted in the Femslash February tag in the month of February.
The most posted in fandoms were Legends of Tomorrow, Harry Potter, and Star Wars. The most posted pairings were Luna Lovegood/Ginny Weasley, Sara Lance/Ava Sharpe, and Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor.
===2019===
On Archive of Our Own, 948 works were posted in the Femslash February tag in the month of February.
The most posted in fandoms were Harry Potter, MCU, and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. The most posted pairings were Adora/Catra, Hermione/Pansy, and Pepper Potts/Natasha Romanov.
===2020===
On Archive of Our Own, 857 works were posted in the Femslash February tag in the month of February.
The most posted in fandoms were Dangan Ronpa, MCU, and Fire Emblem: Three Houses. The most posted pairings were Delia Busby/Patsy Mount, Original Female Character pairing, and Clary Fray/Isabelle Lightwood.
===2021===
On Archive of Our Own, 821 works were posted in the Femslash February tag in the month of February.
The most posted in fandoms were Dangan Ronpa, Harry Potter, and Ace Attorney. The most posted pairings were Adriana Clios/Sophie Lombardi, Christine Chapel/Nyota Uhura, Korra/Asami, and Asahina x Oogami.
=== 2022 ===
On Archive of Our Own, 1124 works were posted in the Femslash February tag in the month of February.
The most posted in fandoms were MCU, Star Trek: Voyager, and Genshin Impact. The most posted pairings were Kathryn Janeway/Seven of Nine, Yelena Belova/Kate Bishop, Ikusaba Mukuro/Maizono Sayaka, and Thirteenth Doctor/Yasmin Khan.
=== 2023 ===
On Archive of Our Own, 1383 works were posted in the Femslash February tag in the month of February.
The most posted in fandoms were Harry Potter, Doctor Who, and MCU. The most posted pairings were Wednesday Addams/Enid Sinclair, Fiona Friend/Sabina Pleasure, and Kathryn Janeway/Seven of Nine.
=== 2024 ===
On Archive of Our Own, 1326 works were posted in the Femslash February tag in the month of February.
The most posted in fandoms were Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Miraculous Ladybug, and The Owl House. The most posted pairings were Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Number One/La'an Noonien-Singh, and Original Female Character/Original Female Character.
==References==
Category:Femslash Challenges
Category:Social Media Feature