Slash vs. Gay

As long as slash fans have been calling their stories slash, there have been conversations about how slash relates to LGBT literature.
Many of these debates have assumed that slash writers were heterosexual women (and that slash did not include femslash); therefore, the debates started from an assumption that slashers were not writing about their own experience. See Slasher Demographics.Porluciernagus, Why Is There So Much Slash Fic?: Some Analysis of the AO3 Census on Ladygeekgirl, November 12, 2013.
A good deal of the "slash vs. gay" question rests on female fans' perception of who a gay man is and what constitutes a gay identity,The idea of a homosexual identity, let alone outsiders' perceptions of said identity, didn't arise in western culture until the early 20th century. See J. Bryan Lowder, "What Was Gay?" Slate, May 12, 2015. but also on how they depict the characters' perceptions of these things. Male characters who have same-sex relationships are usually straight in canon. Are they men who have sex with men without thinking of themselves as gay or bisexual? Or is the writer deviating from the canon source to depict a "what-if" where the characters are and perceive themselves to be gay? How does the writer handle these issues in fan fiction taking place in former times, e.g., Sherlock Holmes, when these cultural identities and perceptions were very different? How does the writer's own experience as a straight, bisexual or Lesbian woman affect her portrayals of gay male characters? How do male slash authors—gay, straight and bi—perceive these things?
==Are Slashed Characters Gay by Definition?==
One of the earliest variations of this conversation was a question about the very definition of slash: "How can a story be slash if it is about anything other than two heterosexual men?"See also Jane Ward's book Not Gay: Sex Between Straight White Men (NYU Press, July 2015) detailed interview here.. Over time, this part of the conversion has faded, as today it is common to have at least one character with some background bi or gay thoughts, if not experience. The idea that, as Lezlie Shell said in 1995, "slash is the process of getting two heterosexual characters into bed" would seem extreme to most modern fans.See the essay Let's Just Call It All Butter Brickle: What Is Slash? for an in-depth look at these questions.
From the preface of a 2006 zine, A Real Good Life:
The question now, in the on-going conversation about slash is more likely to be: "What is the difference between slash and LGBT fiction?"
This leads into conversations about whether slash is or should be female-centered sexuality appropriating male characters, or whether it is or should be realistic in its portrayal of gay male sexuality.Cintra Wilson, W4M4M?. Out, August 17, 2010.Victoria Brownworth, The Fetishizing of Queer Sexuality: A Response. Lambda Literary, August 19, 2010.
In 1998, Lezlie Shell, wrote: 
Some slash fanzines are now part of the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives.
The second part of the question was whether in writing two male characters in a sexual relationship meant that the characters should be read as having a gay identity—or what a "gay identity" was assumed to be in terms of popular perceptions.For example, some very early slash stories had James Kirk behaving like a stereotypical flaming queen. William Shatner's well-known habit of camping it up for laughs, e.g., while filming "Turnabout Intruder" (described in Star Trek Lives!, may have played into this.See also Clyde Engle's "15 Stereotypes That Limit Our Perceptions Of Gay Men", Elite Daily 2015-12-01. The follow-on question was whether slash writers had an obligation to fit slash into the real-world or literary gay experience. The common counter-argument of slash fandom ("we're not gay, we just love each other") goes back to slash fandom's earliest roots.
In 2007, Natasha Solten, an early K/S writer and fanzine publisher was interviewed as part of the K/S Legacy project. In that interview she discussed how early K/S fans grappled with whether Kirk and Spock were to be read as homosexual: 
While the addition of science fiction elements may have enabled early slash writers to focus on the characters and interpersonal relationships, rather than having the characters examine and redefine their sexual orientation, later fandoms for shows based in the here and now, such as Starsky & Hutch and The Professionals could not. In those fandoms writers often had to make a conscious choice to either ignore the sexual orientation question or to confront the issue head-on (ex. "Shadows Over the Land", a Professionals novel in which one of the main characters discovers he has AIDS). Most fan writers chose to fall somewhere in between, briefly bringing in sexual orientation as a backdrop before moving on to the main story of the growing romantic and sexual relationship. And many simply skipped past the issue altogether feeling that it detracted from the main story.
==Is Slash Appropriation?==
"The K/S stories I've seen are offensive. It's a woman's idea of what gay men are like, and it's way off base. Besides, I like Kirk and Spock the way they are." - A gay male fan, quoted in David Gerrold's second edition of The World of Star Trek.
Some gay men have voiced opposition, or amusement, regarding slash writing. They say it is an inaccurate portrayal of homosexual experience written by straight women. Gay author and Star Trek co-creator David Gerrold is best known in fandom for his ridicule of K/S. 
One fan simply sees slash as inaccurate gay representation:
There is also considerable controversy over whether writing slash means that a writer is simply open-minded and pro-gay, or is fetishizing both homosexuals and men in general.Boom, The Downside of Slash Fangirling. In her blog Loving the Alien, November 2012. Other critics say that slash may have paved the way for cultural acceptance of real homosexuality.Brent Hartinger, Has Slash Made The World Better For Gay Men? In The Backlot, blog devoted to gay portrayals in film and TV, August 11, 2010.
In late 2009, a vigorous discussion arose on Livejournal concerning the tensions between original slash (original amateur stories with homosexual characters) vs gay fiction. Members questioned whether slash should be viewed as an expression of female desires by women to help one another reclaim their erotic power; by women who cannot identify with today's marginalized, hypersexualized female characters; or that it is misappropriation and misuse of the male gay experience.
One blogger summed up her stance:
A fan in 2005 wrote: 
The discussion (appropriation or legitimate expression) continued in person during an 2010 Escapade convention panel.
Writing in her blog Loving the Alien, Alison "Boom" Baumgartner observes:
In a 2015 article for The Mary Sue, Kiri Von Stanten observed that the deafening screams emitted by fans of Welcome To Night Vale whenever Carlos appears or is mentioned in the live performances, and the fandom's heavy focus on his relationship with Cecil, while their romance is a relatively minor plot point in the canon, amounts to fetishizing gay men.
A response from Night Vale fan Vio on Reddit:
==Citing LGBTQ Visibility as a Rationale for Canon Same-Sex Shipping==
In the 2010s, many fans have begun communicating to The Powers That Be via Facebook, Twitter &c., supporting their favorite slash pairings and suggesting storylines in which they could be made canon. They make strong arguments in favor of establishing relationships between male stars in shows with fannish appeal; science fiction and fantasy, magic realism, "buddy cop" shows and action-adventure series. These fans often cite the need for more visible LGBTQ characters on television, making their petitions in terms of a call for visible diversity rather than a personal obsession or kink.
This has particularly been the case with Supernatural. Fans claiming to be LGBTQ, or to be supportive of same, have lobbied heavily for canon relationships between Dean and Sam Winchester, and especially for Dean and the angel Castiel (Misha Collins). Dean has had relationships with women in the past, especially Cassie (Megalyn Echikunwoke), to the chagrin of slash shippers. When Castiel had romance with a woman (April Kelly, played by Shannon Lucio) at the end of season 9, negative fan response pinned the meters. WB executive Chad Kennedy's Twitter account blew up after he said that the producers had not intended for either Dean or Castiel to be bisexual. He clarified that he did not write the show; that no one had pitched him an episode in which the male leads had romance with one another; but that he would not rule it out if such a script did come to him.Regarding Chad Kennedy at The Fandom Debunker, October 23, 2013.
Meanwhile, Misha Collins has done his part to fan the flames by making statements at conventions such as "Destiel is canon and the writers know it."See tenoko1, Per Misha Collins: Destiel is Canon. October 29, 2012. Collins made these statements at the Supernatural convention in Chicago on that date.
Sherlock has received similar attentions from fans, including online petitions, but creator Steven Moffat says he has no intention of allowing the famous pair to consummate their relationship physically.Alyssa Rosenberg, Steven Moffat on Sherlock’s Return, the Holmes-Watson Love Story, and Updating the First Supervillain. May 7, 2012.
Meanwhile, gay fans are also pointing out that for all the slash fanworks out there, Star Trek itself noticeably lacked gay characters, and there are few if any gay continuing characters on other shows.
==Yaoi vs. Gay==
There have been similar arguments over the depiction of gay men in yaoi.
In his landmark study of Japanese comics, Manga! Manga! (Kodansha 1983), Frederik Schodt touched briefly on female fascination with gay men, or at least men having same-sex encounters. 
In Japan, this style dates back to the 1970s. Sex roles in Japan are comparatively rigidly defined and standardized; Schodt spoke of "men's comics" (shonen, written and drawn by men, with a predominantly male readershipNote that this does not match the current accepted definition.) and "women's comics" (shojo, written and drawn by women and with a predominantly female readership) accordingly.Shonen manga and Shojo manga at Wikipedia. Women's stories featured female protagonists exclusively, but often had an underlying theme of bisexuality.Frederik Schodt, Manga! Manga!: The World of Japanese Comics (Kodansha, 1983). In the chapter on shoujo (girls' stories) he cites Osamu Tezuka's Ribon no Kishi (Princess Knight) and Oscar Francois de Jarjayes from Riyoko Ikeda's The Rose of Versailles among others.
In 1970, some shojo writers began to create stories with male leads. By 1976, these stories began to depict erotic love between teenage boys. Middle-school and high-school girls were the main consumers of these stories at first. An editor explains that girls of that age have no sexual experience, but are intensely curious. They find love between males "pretty" and distant enough from their own reality that they are not threatening.Schodt, p. 100-102, 137.
Schodt also discussed the "binanshi" figure, better known today as bishonen. Junè magazine devoted an entire issue to this attractive male figure. "In his advice column, gay counselor Yanagi Kawabata, in answer to a young girl's question about what love between males was really like, told her that it was similar to love between men and women but not always so pretty as the comics implied. Ignore harsh reality, he told her, and continue to fantasize about gay love on the aesthetic level of girls' comics."Schodt, p. 137.
See Akiko Hori's translated essay in a 2013 issue of TWC.Hori, Akiko. 2013. "On the Response (Or Lack Thereof) of Japanese Fans to Criticism that Yaoi Is Antigay Discrimination." In "Transnational Boys' Love Fan Studies," edited by Kazumi Nagaike and Katsuhiko Suganuma, special issue, Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 12. doi:10.3983/twc.2013.0463.
In 2001, fan blogger Tom Hardings and his friend Buki Skylark of Realmangamoon hosted fanwriter Irk's raunchy Mystery Science Theater 3000 parody of "The Top Ten Things I Love About Yaoi", a well-known screed by fanwriter Jeanne Johnson on the yaoi site aestheticism.net.not to be confused with the other "Top 10 Things I Love About Yaoi", which originally appeared at rec.arts.anime.misc and was written by "Saturn" Using characters from the longrunning franchise Slayers, Irk took Jeanne to task for her enervating preoccupation with making yaoi out of every male friendship or acquaintance in anime, manga and games;
==Fan Comments==
===2010===
==Further Reading/Meta==
* The Wave Theory of Slash (1993)
* An Interesting Question, re Slash vs. Gay Fiction, conversation at alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated (1997)
* anti-feminist tripe, conversation at alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated (2000)
* The Cost of the Erection: Slash and Gayness (2003)
* , by natlyn (March 2006)
* gay porn, except not; archive link page 1; archive link page 2 by cereta (October 2006)
* There She is Again...Like a Turd in the Fandom Pool... by slytherincesss (February 2007)
* there is a vast amount of discussion of slash vs. gay by way of Josh Lanyon: Further Reading
* The Slash Debate (2009/10)
* Should (straight/lesbian/etc) women be 'allowed' to write slash? by fan critic xtricks (January 2010)
* Queer as Folk and the trouble with slash by Kyra Hunting (2012)
* Fetishizing Homosexuality... (2014)
* Slash fiction: Critical and queer attention on Wikipedia
* Sheetal Reddy, "The social politics of 'slash shipping' and fanfiction". The Runner, September 10, 2013.
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Discussion
Category:Slash Fandom