![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Feminist slash hunt!
Apr. 5th, 2008 04:22 pmSo, a little while ago, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
teenybuffalo posted the following link. It leads to an essay arguing that slash is anti-feminist. I disliked the essay in general-- I found the author, Dissenter's, sarcasm obnoxious, and I was very unimpressed with her disabling all comments except from people with whom she agreed.* But I think that it did make a number of interesting arguments. ( cut for (relatively old) theory. )More importantly, I think that any generalization about slash and why people write it is just that-- a generalization. So exceptions can be found to it, because we're talking about human creativity, and that's all about exceptions. What Dissenter has pointed out, I feel, is not the flaws in slash, but the flaws inbad slash. She's right that, in badly-written slash, you do find a fair number of things like weepy "feminized" non-consenting bottoms, bitchy or nonexistant female characters, etc, and she's right that these things are problematic. But I think her mistake is in assuming that these are features of all slash.
So... I've come up with a rating system, based loosely on her essay, of "how feminist your slash is." Because I believe that we can find a whole lot of stories which subvert the patriarchy in all kinds of fun ways.****
So: The Feminist Slash-Rating Scale
Give the story one point each if:
*the pairing do not fall into easily-visible "top/bottom=masculine/feminine" roles. Especially if they don't have a clear top and bottom.
*the female characters are fully-developed, admirable and three-dimensional, not "vapid, stupid, cold, calculating, grasping, unfairly demanding, physically disgusting, and generally lacking in any desire at all except for an overwhelming need to get married and have children."
*the female characters have sex drives, and are in no way condemned for this
*the sex is chosen and enjoyed by both/all parties, not forced on the bottom by the top.
*the characters actually deal with homophobia or the other social consequences of homosexuality in their context
*the characters think deeply about what this relationship means for their sexual and/or gender identities.
*the primary pairing is femmeslash (and is about the characters as people, not just for lezbeyun pr0n).
*the characters are actually canonically gay.
*the original source was written by a woman.
*the author plays with the characters' gender(s) in an interesting way (i.e., doing something other than simply recreating a heterosexual relationship).
*the characters raise a child together (without one of them simply being rewritten to take on the traditional feminine/mother role).****
Two points if the author is consciously addressing and playing with any of the issues raised by the above.
My own fic, Mercy of the Fallen, only scores a 5 or 6, depending on your interpretation of cannon. I thinkaskerian's Teamworkverse gets a 6. The Sith Academygets 10 points, muchly because it gets a number of two-pointers because of its parodic playing with genre. E.E. Beck's extremely brilliant Vorkosigan fics, A Deeper Season and What Passing Bells****** together score 8 without any playing with genre at all, just because it's that good.
...but I'm actually surprised to realize that the fics I like aren't scoring higher. Hm. Can anyone find something that scores a perfect 11, or better? Does such a fic exist? If not, can people find other fics that score high (or, conversely, explain to me ways that the scale's no good)?
Yay, feminism.
--R
* because, in her words, "Clearly I am not in agreement with those who think slash is radical/progressive/feminist. Clearly, those who do think slash is radical/progressive/feminist are not in agreement with me. Going around in endless circles about whether it is or it isn’t does not, in my book, constitute a constructive or informative discussion." I find her dismissal of the idea that anyone (including her) might have logical or persuasive arguments, and might have something to teach each other... problematic.
** New Battlestar Galactica this week! YAAAYYY!!! Starbuck and President Roslin and SQUEE!!!
***I cannot overemphasize how strongly I disagree with the idea that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is not feminist.
****And besides, I'm almost done with my dissertation, and I want recs! Now!
****I'm not including two of Dissenter's criteria-- a slash pairing breaking up to marry women, and authors who defensively insist on their own heterosexuality and get very upset if anyone mistakes them for a lesbian-- because I've never seen them. I'm sure they exist, but not in the slash I read. Have other people seen these things?
*****I'd been planning to rec these anyway, because they are SO GOOD. Seriously, it felt like getting a new Vorkosigan book, and I've really been missing those. It's Miles/Gregor slash, but it works.
teenybuffalo posted the following link. It leads to an essay arguing that slash is anti-feminist. I disliked the essay in general-- I found the author, Dissenter's, sarcasm obnoxious, and I was very unimpressed with her disabling all comments except from people with whom she agreed.* But I think that it did make a number of interesting arguments. ( cut for (relatively old) theory. )More importantly, I think that any generalization about slash and why people write it is just that-- a generalization. So exceptions can be found to it, because we're talking about human creativity, and that's all about exceptions. What Dissenter has pointed out, I feel, is not the flaws in slash, but the flaws inbad slash. She's right that, in badly-written slash, you do find a fair number of things like weepy "feminized" non-consenting bottoms, bitchy or nonexistant female characters, etc, and she's right that these things are problematic. But I think her mistake is in assuming that these are features of all slash.So... I've come up with a rating system, based loosely on her essay, of "how feminist your slash is." Because I believe that we can find a whole lot of stories which subvert the patriarchy in all kinds of fun ways.****
So: The Feminist Slash-Rating Scale
Give the story one point each if:
*the pairing do not fall into easily-visible "top/bottom=masculine/feminine" roles. Especially if they don't have a clear top and bottom.
*the female characters are fully-developed, admirable and three-dimensional, not "vapid, stupid, cold, calculating, grasping, unfairly demanding, physically disgusting, and generally lacking in any desire at all except for an overwhelming need to get married and have children."
*the female characters have sex drives, and are in no way condemned for this
*the sex is chosen and enjoyed by both/all parties, not forced on the bottom by the top.
*the characters actually deal with homophobia or the other social consequences of homosexuality in their context
*the characters think deeply about what this relationship means for their sexual and/or gender identities.
*the primary pairing is femmeslash (and is about the characters as people, not just for lezbeyun pr0n).
*the characters are actually canonically gay.
*the original source was written by a woman.
*the author plays with the characters' gender(s) in an interesting way (i.e., doing something other than simply recreating a heterosexual relationship).
*the characters raise a child together (without one of them simply being rewritten to take on the traditional feminine/mother role).****
Two points if the author is consciously addressing and playing with any of the issues raised by the above.
My own fic, Mercy of the Fallen, only scores a 5 or 6, depending on your interpretation of cannon. I think
askerian's Teamworkverse gets a 6. The Sith Academygets 10 points, muchly because it gets a number of two-pointers because of its parodic playing with genre. E.E. Beck's extremely brilliant Vorkosigan fics, A Deeper Season and What Passing Bells****** together score 8 without any playing with genre at all, just because it's that good....but I'm actually surprised to realize that the fics I like aren't scoring higher. Hm. Can anyone find something that scores a perfect 11, or better? Does such a fic exist? If not, can people find other fics that score high (or, conversely, explain to me ways that the scale's no good)?
Yay, feminism.
--R
* because, in her words, "Clearly I am not in agreement with those who think slash is radical/progressive/feminist. Clearly, those who do think slash is radical/progressive/feminist are not in agreement with me. Going around in endless circles about whether it is or it isn’t does not, in my book, constitute a constructive or informative discussion." I find her dismissal of the idea that anyone (including her) might have logical or persuasive arguments, and might have something to teach each other... problematic.
** New Battlestar Galactica this week! YAAAYYY!!! Starbuck and President Roslin and SQUEE!!!
***I cannot overemphasize how strongly I disagree with the idea that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is not feminist.
****And besides, I'm almost done with my dissertation, and I want recs! Now!
****I'm not including two of Dissenter's criteria-- a slash pairing breaking up to marry women, and authors who defensively insist on their own heterosexuality and get very upset if anyone mistakes them for a lesbian-- because I've never seen them. I'm sure they exist, but not in the slash I read. Have other people seen these things?
*****I'd been planning to rec these anyway, because they are SO GOOD. Seriously, it felt like getting a new Vorkosigan book, and I've really been missing those. It's Miles/Gregor slash, but it works.
