Senior Seminar Spring 2007

2007-04-20T08:36:00.000-05:00

Below you'll find my final project. After running around yesterday tying up loose ends (getting the project bound, turning it in, and presenting it at Student Research Day) I forgot to post it to my blog, but here it is today. I posted each section seperately but started at the end so it should be in order if you just read straight down from here. Enjoy!

2007-04-20T08:35:00.000-05:00

Straight Girls?/Queer Sex

Samantha N. Moretz

Senior Seminar
Dr. Derek Stanovsky
Interdisciplinary Studies Department
Appalachian State University
April 2007

2007-04-20T08:34:00.000-05:00

I. Introduction

II. Body

A. History

B. Identifying the Readers and Writers

C. Two Major Types of Slash Narratives

D. Slash as Romance or Porn

E. Slash Controversy- Oppressive or Subversive

III. Conclusion

IV. Self-Authored Fan Fiction

V. Glossary of Terms

VI. Bibliography

2007-04-20T08:28:00.000-05:00

I. Introduction

In this paper I will present the history of a fan-driven creative endeavor called fan fiction. I will focus my gaze to narrow in on a sub-genre called slash fan fiction. I will move into authorship/readership, types of slash fan fiction, ideas on its function in society, and finally end with a discussion of the controversies surrounding this creation from fandom. All of this will be done in hopes of bringing a better understanding to an aspect of female sexuality.

II. A. History

The writing of fan fiction began in the science fiction community. It started as a way for science fiction fans to fulfill an emerging need in their community. Fans began to write their own stories, fan fictions, featuring characters from a favorite science fiction novel in order to fill in the lulls that occurred in between new science fiction novels being published. This also happened with the television shows that they watched. Stories not only flourished around science fiction novels and television series but around movies as well.

The writing of fan fiction has grown and changed over time. One of the more interesting developments occurred in the early 1970s and was started by several different women in various places in the United States, Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Canada, all writing independently of one another (Salmon 71). This development was the creation of slash fan fiction. Slash fan fiction is a certain type of fan fiction, written mostly by women and for women. The distinguishing characteristic of this type of fan fiction is that the romantic and/or sexual pairing in the stories takes place between two characters of the same gender, usually male. The first slash fan fictions were written by female Star Trek fans in response to a discussion that was circulating among Star Trek fan circles; could Captain Kirk and Spock be lovers? The term ‘slash’ is “derived from the “/” placed between the characters’ initials to designate fan productions of a homoerotic nature,” for example Kirk/Spock, or K/S (Woledge, Decoding 235-236). These stories were first published in fanzines, or fan produced magazines, and sold at conventions. All fans, according to Coppa, did not embrace slash; slash fanzines that sold at conventions were purchased literally from a box under the table. Slash also caught on among the fans of buddy shows like Starsky and Hutch and The Professionals. Because of the new ways that television shows were being filmed, slash fans easily adopted these shows for their own uses.

“When actors are shot in sufficient close up for the viewer to read facial expressions clearly, they cannot maneuver appropriate social distances and still look at each other while they are speaking… so actors portraying friends consistently break into each other’s spheres of intimate space” (Bacon-Smith 233).

The invention of the Internet was another major catalyst in the growth of both reading and writing fan fiction. Writers were able to use this technology to cheaply and easily publish and widely distribute their work. This pushed the different slash fandoms out into the mainstream and allowed fans to set up lists, sites, and archives dedicated specifically to slash pairings and stories, allowed easy access to fans who wanted to read this fiction, and made it easy for other “non-slash” fans to avoid. Slash has officially moved out of the box and onto the screen. Today slash stories have ventured beyond the science fiction world of Star Trek and are taking place in the fantasy worlds of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and in the more realistic worlds of television show dramas like Scrubs and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Some are set in the real world and feature not the characters of a television series or movies, but instead are fan-constructed romances that take place between the actors who portray these characters. The stories featuring the actors and not the characters are known as real person slash or RPS.

B. Identifying the Readers and Writers

The recent book, Cyberspaces of Their Own: Female Fandoms Online, published in 2005 and written by Rhiannon Bury, speaks out against this traditional view of the producers and consumers of this genre. Bury finds that those who have analyzed slash in the past, “presumed a heterosexual female reader and writer. Shoshanna Green, Cynthia Jenkins and Henry Jenkins were the first to recognize that ‘lesbian and bisexual women have always participated alongside straight women.’ Boyd indicates that 52 percent of the respondents to her study identified as bisexual, lesbian or gay” (Bury 81). Bury herself refers to her own study subjects who self-identified as heterosexual (seven subjects) and bisexual (six subjects), but she states that “most refused such fixed classifications” (Bury 81). Another area in which Bury finds fault in Bacon-Smith’s conclusions is in the conclusion that the women are single. At least two of Bury’s respondents identified themselves as being part of a couple. One makes reference to a husband who does not understand his wife’s desire to read and write slash fan fiction and the other admits that her female life partner actually introduced her to the genre. While a majority of participants in the slash fan community might be both straight and single that does not mean that the queer and coupled members should be overlooked. Seeing the production and consumption of slash as an expression of all women’s sexuality is important in making an analysis.

C. Two Major Types of Slash Narratives

Two types of slash fan fictions dominate the genre. These two types are the “first-time” stories and the “hurt/comfort” stories. “First-time” stories highlight the first sexual encounter that occurs between the main pairing in the story. These stories follow a formula that showcase three distinct features. The first of these features is that the sexual encounter is the first homosexual encounter for both, or at the very least one of the characters. This feature provides the women readers and writers with two important elements of sexual fantasy. The two elements revolve around the ability of the woman to identify as the characters and/or as the objects of the characters’ sexual desires. This “first-time” story feature gives women the opportunity to identify as a male by taking on the point of view of one of the characters, but at the same time they are able to still maintain a position of being an object of sexual desire for these men who are normally heterosexual and therefore remain available to women.

The second feature of the “first-time” narrative is the journey these men take in recognizing and admitting their emotional needs, especially their feelings towards each other. This element is appealing to women as it provides them with “ideal” men who openly deal with their feelings. This is a desire of women that is expressed in the romance narrative (Cicioni 160-161).

The third and final feature that signifies a “first-time” story is that the sexual encounter is always preceded by the existing friendship/partnership. This element provides women with a sexual encounter that moves beyond sex for sex sake and enters into a deeper intimacy between the partners (Cicioni 160-161). The following excerpts from a Star Wars slash fan fiction by the fan authors Mama Deb & Saraid and titled “Rival the Stars” features a pairing between the characters Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi and showcases the three features of a “first-time” fiction that are discussed above.

At first, Obi-Wan rejects Qui-Gon's love:
"'I love you,['] Qui-Gon repeated. The he lowered his head and brushed
his cold lips over Obi-Wan's mouth, and the younger man pulled back,
bumping his head against the rock, speechless."

But after a while Obi-Wan realizes that he's attracted to Qui-Gon:

"The first kiss was sweetness embodied, which slid quickly into aching hunger."

"Roughly-but-gently [Obi-Wan] was manhandled to the big bed, which was dressed with fluffy blankets and linens in several shades of green and
blue, softly streaked color and thick comfort.

Once he had Obi-Wan flat on his back he lowered himself over the
younger man, on his elbows to prevent squashing him, and they resumed
kissing.

After several minutes Obi-Wan was gasping, but enjoying the
lightheaded feeling, and the weight of his Master above him, and the
hot rod of flesh that was pressing so suggestively into his belly.

'Clothes,' He said firmly when they broke to breathe, and Qui-Gon
seemed to agree, using both of his hands and the Force to strip
himself while Obi-Wan did the same. Then they were naked, their bare
skin pressed together, and he moaned helplessly, hands traveling
eagerly, wantonly, wanting to touch and feel all of Qui-Gon, thrilled
and excited by what he found.

Their cocks pressed together when his Master shifted higher to hold
his head for plundering, and he bucked up, wanting more, hands
scrabbling over broad, muscular shoulders."

The second major type of slash fiction that is written is known as “hurt/comfort” stories. These stories, according to Cicioni, provide women with a female sexual fantasy of the “eroticisation of nurturance.” This type of story hinges on intimacy growing through the nurturing of one partner by the other. Typically in these stories one of the characters endures illness, rape, major wounds, mental trauma, or etc and then has these physical and emotional wounds nursed by the other male. The typical hurt/comfort story can be seen in the following selected text from Kaitlyn Carson’s Harry Potter slash, “Field of Green.”

At the beginning of the fic:

“He [Harry] walks over to the bed and he lets out a horrified gasp when he recognizes the painfully thin figure that’s shackled there, unconscious but still breathing.

Malfoy?

‘Remus,’ Harry calls out, finally snapping back to his senses and finding his voice. ‘Remus, there’s a prisoner in here!’”

Later, as these selected quotes illustrate, Harry finds ways to comfort and help Draco heal:

“‘You'll be fine’, he says softy to the pale boy on the bed. ‘Just fine.’”

Later:

“He almost jumps up from his chair when he suddenly senses a hand on his knee. It belongs to Potter, who’s sitting next to him.

Draco wonders what the prat’s up to this time, and why he’s even touching him, but he grabs and squeezes Potter’s hand anyway.

Right now, he's grateful for any reassurance he can get.”

D. Slash as Romance or Porn

The romance novel and traditional porn have been studied to see which aspects of female sexuality and desire they are capable of addressing. The goal of the romance novel is the creation of intimacy, closeness, and connection between the two characters, in essence the achievement of true love. Pornography’s goal is focused on the achievement of sexual release or gratification through the depiction of sexual acts. Given these definitions it seems that the romance novel and pornography each strive to keep separate the desire of women for both love and sex. In the past, slash has been interpreted as being either a romance narrative or as porn written by women for women. Newer essays claim slash has the unique ability to exist in an area that sits comfortably between the genres of romance and porn. Driscoll elaborates on this, stating that “Porn and romance are not so separable in fan fiction… all fan fiction is implicitly both (90).

Driscoll, in her essay “One True Pairing: The Romance of Pornography and the Pornography of Romance,” breaks slash fan fiction sex scenes down into two categories that speak to the romantic and porn aspects of slash. The first category that she separates the sex scenes into is what she calls “plot sex.” Plot sex follows the traditional narrative of romance and is a result of an ever-building intimacy and closeness between the paired characters. This sexual encounter between the characters is a result of the plot’s development, the relationship’s development, and centers on romantic themes.

The second kind of slash sex that Driscoll identifies, she coins as “porn sex.” These sex scenes are not written to further the plot but merely function as sex for the sake of sex. “Plot sex” and “porn sex” are not exclusive of each other. Driscoll notes that most slash fan fictions will contain both kinds of sex in a single chapter, scene, or story (Driscoll 85-86). Even categories of slash fiction, like PWP (“Plot? What Plot? Or Porn Without Plot) cannot be viewed merely as porn. These stories which focus on a single or several strictly sexual encounters without any plot leading up to the sex act are still tied to ideals of the romance. The author will often in a PWP story include a line or two that makes reference to an established relationship between the two men or that suggests the intimacy that they share. These few lines thus play a role in seeing that porn and romance and therefore love and sex remain connected for slash producers and slash audiences. Even if the author does not include these romance-referencing sentences in the “porn sex” sequences of a PWP, the story still cannot be strictly classified as porn. Slash fan fiction is necessarily situated within a certain framework. Slash fictions establish for the readers a context of intimacy and closeness of the paired characters. Fans who regularly read slash enter into reading new slash stories with a preconceived notion as to what the exact relationship is between the paired male characters. This notion of the romantic relationship remains in the readers thoughts as they surf through and read fan fictions that are supposedly strictly sexual vignettes. The very nature of fandom and especially that of slash fandom makes the separation of sex and porn a nearly impossible task.

E. Slash Controversy- Oppressive or Subversive

Slash has been met with tough criticisms from both the feminist and queer perspectives. Feminist critiques of slash writings center around the claim that by necessity slash is a misogynist form of fan creativity since slash fan fiction finds its inspiration in movies, television series, and books that center around casts of characters that are almost entirely male. After finding inspiration from these sources, slash writers then proceed to craft their own stories that typically have few if any female characters.

There is another way of looking at this particular fan writing that positions it as a very real act of feminist resistance. In order to see the writing of slash as a feminist act, one must be willing not to dwell on the sex of the characters. Slash is an act of feminism because it can “depict a love between equals that does not fall prey to notions of hierarchical gender roles and that explores both the male and female sides of the characters” (Busse 17). Slash writers create a world that resists typical gender roles and gives the reader a glimpse of what true equality looks like. I would also like to argue that slash writing is feminist because it provides women with an outlet to express facets of their heterosexuality that are usually kept hidden or that are discouraged. The sex scenes featured in slash stories are very detailed and appreciative of male genitalia as well as bodily fluids like sweat and semen. These slash stories therefore allow women to express and experience feelings that are outside of the “feminine norm [that finds] bodily odors and fluids ‘icky’”(Bury 87).

Slash fan fiction also serves as a tool of feminism since it places the bodies of men into the hands of women. The women authors, in crafting these stories, are placed in a position of power over men. The authors have total control over the words used by men, the physical movements of men, the sexuality of men, the desires of men, and the reproductive capacities of men in these stories. They can cause men to become aroused and then use this arousal first and foremost for their own [the author’s] pleasure and not for the pleasure of men. This act of controlling those in power is a very strong statement to the feminist implications of slash fan fiction.

Another criticism of slash wages that despite the same-sex relationships that the stories boast, the practice of writing slash is quite homophobic. The main characters featured in slash writings come from show canons where they are heterosexuals. Slash writers in turn keep the straight sexuality of the characters in their fan stories and instead imply that they are two men who happened to fall in love. This seems at face value to be a very homophobic practice in that it seems to strongly reject homosexuality as a valid identity for the characters.

According to Woledge, however, there are three reasons slash writers reject the gay label, none of which points toward homophobia. The first reason that slash writers reject characterizing their stories and the characters as gay is to distance itself from existing gay fiction. This distance is necessary since the goals of gay fiction and the goals of slash fan fiction are not the same. Slash writers feel that, “existing self-consciously gay fiction does not represent intimacy at all; instead, it denies intimacy through its depiction of casual gay sex” (Woledge 102-103). The second reason is because slash writers want to, “liberate sexual love from homosexual love” (Woledge 102-103). This means that the authors feel that by keeping their characters from being labeled gay they can escape the confines of modern stereotypes and that way their stories can have more than one meaning for the audience. And lastly, slash writers reject homosexual as a label in order to make it clear to the audience that while the stories may contain affection and closeness between men, they are not stories about the modern homosexual. Woledge concludes, “It is not homophobic so much as homoindifferent”(Woledge 102-103).

Even though Woledge does not wager this argument against slash being referred to as homophobic, I find that there is an additional reason that slash is actually a queer practice. It has been established that women write the majority of these stories and then consume the majority as well. This brings to light an obvious queer connection. Women are writing these stories for their own sexual pleasure but also for the purpose of titillating other women. Since women are writing these stories to sexually gratify other individuals of the same sex it seems natural to view slash writing as anything but homophobic. The act of reading and writing the stories is actually a very queer friendly activity.

III. Conclusion

Slash fan fiction is a thriving online community that allows women to more fully explore their own sexualities. Slash also gives women the opportunity to express otherwise inexpressible desires. It hands control over to the oppressed group. Slash also operates in a framework that allows it to function as an act of queering straight society. Heterosexual women are writing stories to sexually gratify other women and they are

making heterosexual males perform acts of same-sex love. They are also using slash to explore the realms of intimacy, love, and sex in a way that is not possible using the usual homosexual and heterosexual binaries that are usually used in this exploration. Slash goes beyond the straight girl/queer sex pairing.

2007-04-20T08:27:00.000-05:00

IV. Self-Authored Fan Fiction

Seeking Adventure by SM54942

Summary: Harry returns from summer vacation to his favorite activity.

Characters: Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy

Genre: Drabble, Romance, Fluff

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: Slash, m/m, HP/DM pairing

A/N: This is my first fan fic so all feedback is welcome and appreciated. No flames as they will be ignored. Thanks to my beta beablu!

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters used, they are property of J.K. Rowling. I meant no harm in writing this piece, nor am I making a profit.

An entire miserable summer with the Dursley’s erased in a second.

After a much too long break from this Harry can’t help but smile as he sees bright sunlight reflecting gold.

He races forward reliving that familiar rush.

Adrenaline pumping, heart racing, pure excitement flowing through his veins, weaving in and out of the obstacles in his path, nearly there and his palms begin to sweat as he reaches for his prize.

Harry’s fingers slowly close, capturing the slight shoulder of his lover and spinning him around.

“Potter.”

“Malfoy.”

Stoic expressions break into warm smiles.

Lips meet in fervent passion.

2007-04-20T08:23:00.000-05:00

V. Glossary of Terms Useful in Decoding Slash Fan Fiction

Alternate Reality (AR): A story which transplants familiar characters into situations that are entirely different from canon. For example; an alternate reality fic might place Snape, a character from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, in a hospital as a surgeon and have Harry as his patient.

Alternate Universe (AU): Refers to stories that take place in a world that is different from the one in which the original story happens.

Angst: A piece that deals with raw emotions, anxiety, fear, and worry.

Archive: A collection of fan fiction saved and available on a website.

Author’s Notes (A/N): A section of the fan fiction usually located within the header. This section may include the inspiration for the story, a request for feedback, or a thank you to the author’s beta.

Badfic: One of two types of stories:

1) Fiction that is intentionally bad. It is often written to entertain, amuse, and educate the reader by pointing out common errors made by inexperienced writers.
2) Fiction that is unintentionally bad; the author thinks it's good.

BDSM: Stands for bondage, domination, and sado-masochism. This is helpful to know when reading the rating of a story.

Beta/Beta Reader: Someone other than the author of the fan fiction story who edits and comments on the story before it is published in any public form. A beta/beta reader checks the story for mechanical problems (grammar, spelling, punctuation) as well as for things like plot holes, characterization, etc.

Bottom: The more “passive” player in a sexual relationship between males; the individual on the receiving end of anal sex. A common term used among gay males but important in understanding slash.

Canon: A character, event, plotline, or etc that is found in the original text from which a fan fiction is based.

Challenge Fic: A story that is written in response to a challenge set forth by a member of the fan community.

Character Codes (letter/letter): Used by writers to inform a reader which canonical characters they have paired romantically in the story (i.e. K/S for a Kirk and Spock pairing from Star Trek or Q/O for a Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi pairing from Star Wars).

Character Death: A warning for readers that is placed in the header of a story in which one or more major characters die.

Crackfic: A fan fiction in which the concept is so out there, one wonders what the author was snorting when he/she wrote the story.

Cross-over, Crossover (CO): A piece that involves characters and or locations from more than one fandom (i.e. a story that features both Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings).

Curtainfic: Used to identify stories where the characters are in a very domestic “curtain buying” type of relationship.

Deathfic: A fic where one or more characters die or have just died, usually written to focus on how the remaining characters cope with the loss.

Disclaimer: Legal disclaimers which usually include the following information.

3.) The name of the original author of the idea, place, or character whose work it is

2.) That the fan fic author does not have any malicious intent, did not set out to slander the author or work, or some statement that declares that the author means no harm

3.) The statement that the fan writer is not making any profit from his/her story.

Double Drabble: A self-contained vignette of exactly 200 words.

Drabble: A self-contained vignette of exactly 100 words.

Episode Fix: Fan fictions that are written by a fan in order to fix something that happened in the original work that the fan does not like.

Episode Tag/Missing Scene: Stories that are written as a missing scene from the original work or as a continuation of the original work.

F/f: Used to inform a reader that the story contains slash pairings where both characters are female (female/female).

Fandom: Combination of the words fan and kingdom. A collective term used to describe all fans and their activities.

Fanfic, Fan Fic, Fanfiction, Fan Fiction: Any fiction story written by a fan about an existing TV show, book, movie, comic, etc. without permission from the original creators or intention of profit.

Fanon: Any information not contained within the canon that has been generally accepted as true by the fans.

Fanzine/‘zine: A magazine produced by fans that features both fan fiction and fan art. These publications were produced and paid for by the fans who created them. The money that was made from the sales were slightly less than or exactly enough to cover the cost of producing the ‘zines. This medium for reading and writing fan fiction still exists but has been nearly replaced by online communities and archives.

Feedback: Comments left by a reader of a story for the author. There are generally four types of feedback: praise, constructive feedback, constructive criticism, and flames.

Flame: To “flame” someone is to viciously insult them or their work in a manner that has little or no redeeming value. Also an insulting and rude comment often containing unnecessary comments aimed at a story or author. For example – ‘you suck’.

Fluff: Cute, sweet, light-hearted, and short fan fiction.

Gen: Abbreviation of the word “general.” Used to categorize any fan fiction that is suitable for all ages; a fiction that does not include sexual situations.

Half-drabble: A self-contained vignette of exactly 50 words.

Header: Information located at the top of any given fan fiction. This information can include the disclaimer, plot summary, author’s notes, dedications, and/or rating.

Het: Abbreviation of heterosexual. Used to label stories in which the romantic/sexual pairing takes place between characters of the opposite sex.

Hurt/Comfort (H/C): A fan-written story in which one character is harmed (physically or emotionally) and another must save that character, make him or her feel better, or both.

Kink: Informs the reader that a story’s sex scenes involve “non-normative” sexual practices (i.e. BDSM, urine play/golden showers).

Lurker: A member of a fan forum or community who rarely if ever posts or leaves comments. Generally lurkers are not looked kindly upon as they don’t pull any weight in the community by participating.

Mary Sue/Marty Stu: The generic name for any new character (usually female) who's an ego-stroke for the writer: she's beautiful, has amazing skills/powers, gets into a love affair with an existing character, or (usually) all of the above. Mary Sues often convince characters to hook up romantically, especially in slash. These characters are generally not considered to be well-written characters in the fan fiction communities. Mary Sue/Marty Stu can also be used to describe the author who put themselves into the story.

m/m: Used to inform a reader that the story contains slash pairings where both characters are male (male/male).

Mpreg: Used to denote stories that feature instances of male pregnancy.

Newbies: A newcomer (fan fiction writer or user) to any online group/place/genre.

Original Character (OC, OMC, OFC): A character that was created by the fan fic writer and is not found in the canon work. OMC is the abbreviation for these new characters that are male and OFC is used to denote female characters.

OTP: Written out as One True Pairing. The belief that a given fandom only contains one "real" couple and that any other pairing is preposterous

Out of Character (OOC): A fictional character acting in a manner not consistent with his/her personality as it is established in canon.

Plot Bunny: An idea or concept for a story.

Point of View (POV): In fanfic, a type of story told first-person from a character's point of view.

PWP: Stands for either “Plot? What Plot?” or “Porn Without Plot.” PWP is a story that is little more than a sexual encounter.

Ratings: Common in most fan fiction communities, ratings give the reader some ideas on the content of the story before they read the actually fic. Most common rating system used is based on the American Movie Guidelines.

· G: Good clean fun for all ages.

· PG: Mild implied sexual innuendo, mild bad words, violence, or serious (though not quite mature) topics.

· PG-13: Some violence, bad language, obvious sexual innuendo, implied sexual relations. Also may include some mature topics such as suicide, homosexuality,

drug/alcohol advocacy, rape aftermath, details of childbirth, etc. depending on the mores

of the fandom involved.

· R: Just-short-of-explicit sex, graphic torture or violence, rape. Not recommended for minors.

· NC-17: Explicit erotica, excessively gory violence. Often illegal for underage readers.

Real Life (RL): Usually will be found abbreviated and is often the reason given for a long break in between updates to a fan fiction series when an author finally returns to his/her normal activity level in the online fan community.

Real Person Slash (RPS): Slash stories in which the pairings are between the actors and not the characters of the original work.

Relationshipper/Shipper: This term originated in X-Files fan fic and is used to describe a fan who holds the relationship between two characters of their choosing to be better than other pairings.

Rim/Rimming: To perform foreplay on the anus with one’s tongue.

Schmoop: Term used to describe a story that is overrun with romanticism (i.e. flowers, pet names, chocolates, candles, etc).

Slash: A type of fan fiction, often written by women, involving romantic or sexual involvement between two characters of the same gender. The term originates from early Star Trek fandom, namely "Kirk/Spock" stories. The term "slash" comes from the slash (/) placed between the names of the characters involved.

Songfic: A fan fiction story that is based around or inspired by the lyrics of a song.

Spoiler/Spoiler Warning: Warning found at the beginning of a fic that informs the reader that the author mentions/references some portion of original movie, show, or book’s plot that the reader may not yet know.

Squeeing: A squeal of delight at reading a particularly wonderful fan fic.

Squicked: To have been disturbed at a personal gut level, often but not always in regards to sex, by the content of a fan’s story.

Top: The more “active” player in a sexual relationship between males; the individual on the giving end of anal sex. A common term used among gay males but important in understanding slash.

Vignette: A very short story dealing with a single brief period of time, a single subject (an event, an emotion, a relationship, etc.), and often only a single character.

Work in Progress (WIP): A story that has not yet been finished and that is still being worked on.

2007-04-20T08:20:00.000-05:00

VI. Works Cited

Bacon-Smith, Camille. Enterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of

Popular Myth. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992.

Bury, Rhiannon. Cyberspaces of Their Own: Female Fandoms Online. New York: Peter

Lang Publishing, Inc, 2005.

Busse, Kristina, and Karen Hellekson. “Introduction: Work in Progress.” Fan Fiction and

Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet. Ed. Kristina Busse and Karen Hellekson. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co, Inc, 2006. 5-32.

Carson, Kaitlyn. “Field of Green.” The Silver Snitch: All Slash, All the Time. 13 April

2007 .

Cicioni, Mirna. “Male Pair-Bonds and Female Desire in Fan Slash Writing.” Theorizing

Fandom: Fans, Subculture, and Identity. Ed. Cheryl Harris and Alison Alexander. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, Inc., 1998. 153-177.

Coppa, Francesca. “A Brief History of Media Fandom.” Fan Fiction and

Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet. Ed. Kristina Busse and Karen Hellekson. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co, Inc, 2006. 41-59.

Driscoll, Catherine. “One True Pairing: The Romance of Pornography and the

Pornography of Romance.” Fan Fiction and

Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet. Ed. Kristina Busse and Karen Hellekson. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co, Inc, 2006. 79-95.

“Fan Fiction Glossary.” Lexington Herald-Leader 15 Sept. 2006. LexisNexis.

Appalachian State U Lib., Boone, NC. 4 Feb 2007.

“Fanfic/dom Terms.” The Fan Fiction Glossary. 1 April 2007

Jenkins, Henry. Textual Poachers: Television Fans & Participatory Culture. New York:

Routledge, 1992.

Keikonkin. “Slash Terms.” The Silver Snitch: All Slash, All the Time. 1 April 2007

Kustritz, Anne. “Slashing the Romance Narrative.” The Journal of American Culture

Sept. 2003: 371-384. Academic Search Premier. EBSCOHost. Appalachian State U Lib., Boone, NC. 1 Feb. 2007.

MacDonald, Marianne. “Harry Potter and the Fan Fiction Phenom.” Gay & Lesbian

Review Worldwide 13 (2006): 28-30.

Mama Deb and Saraid. “Rival the Stars.” Jedi Masters and Apprentices Archive. 14

April 2007 .

Salmon, Catherine and Donald Symons. Warrior Lovers: Erotic Fiction, Evolution, and

Female Sexuality. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003.

Woledge, Elizabeth. “Decoding Desire: From Kirk and Spock to K/S1.” Social Semiotics

Aug 2005: 235-250. Academic Search Premier. EBSCOHost. Appalachian State U Lib., Boone, NC. 1 Feb. 2007.

Woledge, Elizabeth. “Intimatopia: Genre Intersections Between Slash and the

Mainstream.” Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet. Ed. Kristina Busse and Karen Hellekson. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co, Inc, 2006. 97-112.

Young, Cathy. “The Fan Fiction Phenomena.” Reason Feb. 2007: 14-15. Academic

Search Premier. EBSCOHost. Appalachian State U Lib., Boone, NC. 1 Feb. 2007.

Draft- Who

2007-04-18T18:38:00.000-05:00

According to Camille Bacon-Smith’s research done in the 1980s, slash writers/readers fit into one particular profile. This profile is as white, middle-class, highly educated (hold college degrees), single, heterosexual women. Bacon-Smith’s conclusions on who writes and reads slash have been, until recently unchallenged and supported by academics who study this phenomenon. Now newer ideas concerning who write and reads slash are being published and the slash writers and readers themselves are speaking up and labeling themselves. The recent book, Cyberspaces of Their Own: Female Fandoms Online, published in 2005 and written by Rhiannon Bury speaks out against this traditional view of the producers and consumers of this genre. Bury finds that those who analyzed slash, “presumed a heterosexual female reader and writer. Shoshanna Green, Cynthia Jenkins and Henry Jenkins were the first to recognize that ‘lesbian and bisexual women have always participated alongside straight women.’ Boyd indicates that 52 percent of the respondents to her study identified as bisexual, lesbian or gay.” Bury herself refers to her own study subjects who self-identified as heterosexual (seven subjects), bisexual (six subjects), but she states that “most refused such fixed classifications” (Bury 81). Another area in which Bury finds fault in Bacon-Smith’s conclusions is in the conclusion that the women are single. At least two of Bury’s respondents identified themselves are being part of a couple. One makes reference to a husband who does not understand her desire to read and write fan fiction and the other admits that her female life partner actually introduced her to the genre.

Draft-History Section

2007-04-18T09:57:00.000-05:00

The writing of fan fiction began in the science fiction community. It started as a way for science fiction fans to fulfill an emerging need in their community. Fans began to write their own stories featuring characters from a favorite science fiction novel in order to fill in the lulls that occurred in between new science fiction novels being published. This also happened with the television shows that they watched. Stories also flourished not just around science fiction novels and television series but, also around movies.

The writing of fan fiction has grown and changed over time. One of the more interesting developments occurred in the early 1970s and was started by several different women in various places in the United States, Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Canada, all writing independently of one another (Salmon 71). This development was the creation of slash fan fiction. Slash fan fiction is fan fiction, written mostly by women and for women. The distinguishing characteristic of this type of fan fiction is that the romantic and/or sexual pairing in the stories takes place between two characters of the same gender. The term ‘slash’ is, “derived from the “/” placed between the characters’ initials to designate fan productions of a homoerotic nature,” for example Kirk/Spock, or K/S (Woledge, Decoding 235-236). These stories were first published in fanzines, or fan produced magazines, and sold at conventions. Slash was not embraced by all fans, according to Coppa, slash fanzines that sold at conventions were purchased literally from a box under the table. The invention of the internet was a major catalyst in the growth of both reading and writing fan fiction. Writers were able to use this technology to cheaply and easily publish and widely distribute their work. This pushed the different slash fandoms out into the mainstream and allowed fans to set up lists, sites, and archives dedicated specifically to slash pairings and stories, allow easy access to fan who wanted to read this fiction and made it easy for other fans to avoid. Slash had moved out of the box and onto the screen.

Outline

2007-03-05T22:03:00.000-05:00

*Subject to frequent changes

Introduction

Slash

Explanation of what it is
History- K/S
Modern character pairings

Authors

Who writes these stories?

Why?

For whom?

≈ Published and personal Theories

Readers

Who reads these stories?
Why?

≈Published and personal Theories

Impact of Queer community

Impact of the Sexuality of Women

Other?

Conclusion

Glossary of terms (i.e. slash, hurt/comfort, PWP, etc.)

Draft...sort of

2007-03-05T21:17:00.001-05:00

Slash fiction is fan produced, amateur stories that feature non-heteronormative character pairings. These stories first appeared in the 1970s and took place between the well-known Star Trek characters Kirk and Spock. Initially they were available in “zines” or fan magazines. The distribution of these sources of fiction was very limited. Then the internet came into existence. This allowed a wider audience to have access to these writings. It also allowed for a greater range of writers, since it is now possible to self-publish a story by posting it on ones own website or in a fan fiction archive. The term slash comes from the / punctuation used to highlight that stories particular pairings. Kirk and Spock slash fiction, for example is shown like this, K/S or Kirk/Spock.

These fan fiction stories are queer not only in their sexual and romantic pairings, but also in what they are accomplishing. These stories are a complete “queering” of traditional romance novels. The characters are not the typical frail heroine who is rescued by her handsome prince. Unlike traditional romances these stories do not have characters that fall in love with and are subordinate to their lovers. In these fictions they are equals, not just in their physical sex, but also in looks, professions, decision making, and so on. These fan-written fictions also contrast vastly with traditional romances because the love is based out of years of trust and friendship and not simply having a guy sweep you off your feet. Another prominent characteristic is the “real world” quality that the characters have. They are usually flawed in one way or another. This, however, does not stop them from receiving the love of another. “They receive the love of their desired partner not because of their physical and psychological resemblance to the airbrushed Playboy (or Playgirl) centerfold, but because they trust their partners enough to show them all the hidden things and broken places. Slash characters receive love because they share themselves and their lives fully and without reservation” (Kustritz 380). These stories reject these heteronormative ideas on romance and love. They come from an oppressed group of women usually college educated, but in lower level position than their educations dictate. They create stories that express ways in which they desire to live.

Abstract

2007-02-13T01:07:00.000-05:00

I've never written an abstract before, but I think this is what you were looking for.

Straight Girls/Queer Sex

In my senior project I will look in depth at fan fiction, more specifically focusing my concentration on slash fan fiction. Slash fan fiction, like all fan fiction, are stories that have been written by fans of a particular book, movie, or television show that utilizes the already established characters from the original work into new fan written stories. Slash fan fiction, or slash for short, differs in that the romantic pairing in the story takes place between two males not linked romantically in the original work. For example the first and most well known slash pairing is Kirk and Spock from the Star Trek series. I will be looking briefly at the history of the genre and then I will move into modern theory surrounding the phenomenon. These theories include the popular belief that these stories are all written and consumed by heterosexual women, there are now more theories emerging that argue against the belief that the authors are indeed heterosexual. I will also look at theories that try to explain the presence of gay male sex in female sexualities. I will also find any information available that theorizes on the effects of slash fan fiction on gay male sexuality and add my own agreements, disagreements, and original theories into the mix.

Notes on Works Cited

2007-02-06T01:04:00.000-05:00

I can't get the formatting to look right for my works cited on the blog, so sorry about that. Also I do not have any books listed because I'm still waiting to see if they will be sent through interlibrary loan. My list did not make near the assigned 50, but there is not a ton of information out there on the subject for me to wade through. I'm stilling looking for sources which I will add as I find them and have the contact information for the Librarian who did my RAP session so I can contact her if I need help finding more reasources. I guess that's all for this post, that hopefully helped explain my previous post.

Works Cited

2007-02-06T01:00:00.001-05:00

Chaney, Keidra and Raizel Lieber. “ Me, Myself, & I: Fan Fiction and the Art of Self-

Insertion.” Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture. 2006: 52-57.

Colvile, Robert. “Boldly Go Where No One has Gone Before Imagine Harry Potter in a

Clinch with James Bond: Welcome to the World of Fan Fiction.” The Daily Telegraph 27 Jan. 2007. LexisNexis. Appalachian State U Lib., Boone, NC. 4 Feb. 2007.

“Fan Fiction Glossary.” Lexington Herald-Leader 15 Sept. 2006. LexisNexis.

Appalachian State U Lib., Boone, NC. 4 Feb 2007.

“Fan fiction on the Internet.” Lexington Herald-Leader 15 Sept. 2006. LexisNexis.

Appalachian State U Lib., Boone, NC. 4 Feb 2007.

Jurgensen, John. “PURSUITS; Entertainment: Rewriting the Rules of Fiction.”
Wall Street Journal 16 Sept. 2006. ProQuest Information and Learning Company.

Appalachian State U Lib., Boone, NC. 1 Feb. 2007

Kustritz, Anne. “Slashing the Romance Narrative.” The Journal of American Culture

Sept. 2003: 371-384. Academic Search Premier. EBSCOHost. Appalachian State U Lib., Boone, NC. 1 Feb. 2007.

MacDonald, Marianne. “Harry Potter and the Fan Fiction Phenom.” Gay & Lesbian

Review Worldwide 13 (2006): 28-30.

Russell, Joel. “Entrepreneur Cashes In With Novel Take on 'Fan Fiction.'” Los Angeles

Business Journal 14 Aug. 2006. LexisNexis. Appalachian State U Lib., Boone, NC. 4 Feb 2007.

Sathiyaseelan, Sindu. “Erotic Fan Fiction Finds Admirers in Women

Readers.” University Wire 24 Jan. 2007. LexisNexis. Appalachian State U Lib., Boone, NC. 4 Feb. 2007.

Scodari, Christine. “Resistance Re-Examined: Gender, Fan Practices, and Science Fiction

Television.” Popular Communication 2003: 111-130. Academic Search Premier. EBSCOHost. Appalachian State U Lib., Boone, NC. 1 Feb. 2007.

Thomas, Angela. “Fan Fiction Online: Engagement, Critical Response and Affective Play

through Writing.” Australian Journal of Language & Literacy Oct. 2006: 226-239. Academic Search Premier. EBSCOHost. Appalachian State U Lib., Boone, NC. 1 Feb. 2007.

Truman, Cheryl and Heather Chapman. “Fan-written Stories Proliferate on the Internet.”

Herald News 22 Oct. 2006. LexisNexis. Appalachian State U Lib., Boone, NC. 4 Feb. 2007.

Somogyi, Victoria. “Complexity of Desire: Janeway/Chakotay Fan Fiction.” 2002: 399-

404. Academic Search Premier. EBSCOHost. Appalachian State U Lib., Boone, NC. 1 Feb. 2007.

Woledge, Elizabeth. “Decoding Desire: From Kirk and Spock to K/S1.” Social Semiotics

Aug 2005: 235-250. Academic Search Premier. EBSCOHost. Appalachian State U Lib., Boone, NC. 1 Feb. 2007.

Young, Cathy. “The Fan Fiction Phenomena.” Reason Feb. 2007: 14-15. Academic

Search Premier. EBSCOHost. Appalachian State U Lib., Boone, NC. 1 Feb. 2007.

Research Ethics & Me

2007-01-30T08:16:00.000-05:00

The way I see this most impacting my project is if I decide to create and distribute a survey. I do not see myself really being able to make good use of a survey in the time we have with the specific limitations that my project offers. I would personally like a response of about 50 people and given that I would have to rely on my participants cooperation via the internet I don't really see that panning out. People are more likely to help you out if they can actually see the poor undergraduate standing there with their surveys in hand. If however, anyone can forsee another way this might impact my project please comment to this post.

Project Ideas

2007-01-23T08:15:00.000-05:00

*After presenting in class I have chosen to do my project on the first idea I presented in the following original post. I also decided to narrow my subject. Instead of focusing on the broad subject of queer sex in the entertainment industry and its influence on the sexuality of heterosexual women, I am focusing on one area I mentioned. I am going to focus primarily on slash fanfiction (fanfiction whose primary relationships exist between two male characters).

I have a few ideas for my senior project. All of these ideas will take the form of a research paper since that medium is most familiar to me and it also seems the most practical for my major. There is one topic that I really like and that is a major interest of mine and I will start first with that idea.

I am really interested in examining the relationship that exists between heterosexual women and queer sex. I would like to look at genres of entertainment for women that deal directly with homoerotic themes. These areas of entertainment, which are an ever growing market, include slash fan fiction, boys love/yaoi manga (Japanese comic books),a few novels, and anything else I can find. I want to use these popular genres of entertainment to discuss the importance of specifically gay male sex for an audience of straight women. That idea will hopefully pan out and reach the stage of being a complete and well done research paper.

If I am unable to find enough resources or if I meet an insurmountable obstacle, my backup plan includes a possible paper on genderqueer individuals and the importance of this rising new identity for not only the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community, but for the community of all people trying to overcome the oppressive nature of our current binary gender system. I believe that the identity of genderqueer, while a relatively new development, is as important as intersexuality in helping people recognize the fucked up institution that is the binary gender system. I have not thought as much on this topic so I might do another direction, but the main topic would deal with the deconstruction of gender.

Past Senior Projects in Review

2007-01-16T11:22:00.000-05:00

I found 3 or 4 pretty well put together senior projects that covered some aspect of my gay & lesbian studies major. Some I found were kind of boring(just page upon page of words typed onto white paper), others focused on some area that did not hold my interest, but all were well written. I found one in particular that I really liked. It was from the Spring Semester 2002. The title is, G(ender)-Spot: Masculinity and the Lesbian Erotic by Joanna Sigart.

A summary of the project seems most appropriate about now so here goes. The main focus of the paper was on the 2 major and different perspectives surrounding lesbian eroticism. There was considerable focus on looking at lesbian eroticism through the lens of both a heterocentric masculinity and then a female(lesbian specific) masculinity. Sigart looked at the uses of the lesbian erotic for both of them communities and analyzes these findings

I chose to comment on this particular project for several reasons. I really liked the focus of the paper, I was honestly interested throughout the entire reading. It was nice to not be forced to read and write about a topic that I do not care for. Secondly the layout of the final paper was wonderful. I loved it. She went beyond using straight-up scholarly text for this reseach paper. There was ample and appropriate use of the following: poetry, statistic charts, advertisements, other graphics/pictures, and more that I'm positive I've forgotten. The only critique was that a page was missing from the beginning, due to the binding being no more than one of those black metal clips. It appeared to me, however, that the copy left in the IDS dept was actually a copy of the original properly-bond copy because you could see what looked like an actual binder on the left of some pages, as if it had been copied. I would love to be able to incorporate more than simple text into my own project and this example gave me a way to see that vision properly executed.

How I Got To Where I'm Going

2007-01-15T12:01:00.000-05:00

*Excuse to lateness of this post, my internet was down 1/10/07 and since then I've been house-sitting at a house that lacks internet access.

I began my academic career at ASU back in the Fall semester of 2002. I entered completely convinced that I would become a teacher and declared my major as Elementary Education as soon as it was possible. As I worked toward completing that major I began to find that my heart was not in it. I was sitting in my Math for Elementary School Teachers when I began to realize that I was working toward this goal not for myself, but instead because I had been telling people since I was five years old that I wanted to be a teacher. Everyone I knew was invested in my old dream and I felt that I should accomplish it for them if no longer for myself. I received an A as my final grade in the class, but I knew there was no way I would continue completing the work and being as unhappy as I was fast becoming. I figured that maybe if I tweaked my major by staying with children, but switching to Early Childhood Development that I would be happy and everyone else would be okay with the change as well. I took a required class for the Early Childhood Development major and realized after about a month that I hated that major as much as my Elementary Education.

I then began to really examine what I was passionate about and came to the conclusion that I really wanted to focus my studies on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender issues. I talked it over with my then adviser to see what if anything was offered in that area at ASU. She pointed me in the direction of the IDS department and I have been here ever since. Most of my family and friends are supportive of my decision and are happy to see me so passionate about something again. I began my self-designed concentration of Gay and Lesbian studies in the Spring semester of 2004 with two courses; Queer Theory and Gender, Race, Class, and Sexuality. I was finally excited about my classes and looked forward to doing my work. Over the years I have found more classes to apply towards my major and my understanding of queer issues. These classes include Introduction to Gay and Lesbian Studies, Gender and Society, Women in History, Men in Film, Sexuality and Identity, Human Rights, and most recently Queer Stories: LGBT Lives in Fiction and Film.

Senior Seminar Spring 2007

Contents

Draft- Who

Draft-History Section

Outline

Draft...sort of

Abstract

Notes on Works Cited

Works Cited

Research Ethics & Me

Project Ideas

Past Senior Projects in Review

How I Got To Where I'm Going