The Slash Genre - Comments

  • AaronBergnaum

    AaronBergnaum (100)

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    This is a fantastic, motivational article. Overall, I am quite happy with your excellent geometry dash bloodbath work. You provided some pretty wise advice.
    September 22nd, 2023 at 10:13am
  • Wiffor

    Wiffor (100)

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    Thanks for this great article! Play basket random with your friends for more experience and improve your pitching skills.
    August 4th, 2023 at 12:17pm
  • ClarkGable

    ClarkGable (100)

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    If men are dominant in playing roller baller games, women are the most prominent subjects of compelling stories. Regardless of the type of story, we can easily see the rise of women.
    April 24th, 2023 at 03:26am
  • astro velvet.

    astro velvet. (100)

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    When I started reading and writing fan fiction, it was slash. I first read it on accident while I was looking up this band member, and as I was reading it, I was surprised that I had enjoyed it since it was something unheard of for me and very new. And a month or so after that day, I started writing it myself. I don't have my fics anymore since they've been deleted, but the majority of it was slash.

    When I first started writing, I was so into writing slash that I couldn't really write non-slash pairings, lmao. And now, it's sort of the opposite. I don't know if I want to call writing slash a "phase" by any means because I think maybe I'll get back into it again. People gave you reasons why they read/wrote it, but right now, I don't really know why I did lol. Maybe lowkey it was for the same reasons? And oddly enough, I preferred to write slash for bandom for only certain bands. I would write for All Time Low, Of Mice and Men, 5 Seconds of Summer. But for 5SOS, I didn't ship any of the members with each other or other people (Like One Direction, for example in the fandom), but I have a friend who did and it was weird to me, lol. Or like in anime, I'll read fanfiction and I see slash pairings and I can get why, but I just don't want to get behind it lol.
    April 18th, 2021 at 09:21pm
  • Frozen December Moon

    Frozen December Moon (105)

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    The only bad thing, and maybe it's because I'm not picking the right author, is that a lot of them are smutty. I have no problem with sex in a story but when it's in 15 chapters of a 30 chapter story, it kind of takes the enjoyment out of it. But maybe that's just my experience, and you don't know it's so dirty unless you read it or the author states that it is.
    August 17th, 2012 at 02:17am
  • GGGG.

    GGGG. (150)

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    I've seen plenty of Mary Sues in slash-- most of them are because girls are fulfilling a fantasy instead of actually writing a story.
    August 16th, 2012 at 06:01pm
  • ptvjaime

    ptvjaime (1600)

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    I agree, slash is a beautiful thing.

    I just wish you had taken this article so much further. It's not just that people read it: You've ignored the entire area of the writers who pen these stories. Why not ask us why we do it, why we choose to write about two men being in love when most of us are women and don't have a clear view on what it is to feel the way they do? There's an entire thread on slash fiction in the forums, you could have pulled from that. The article feels rushed and kind of bare.
    August 9th, 2012 at 07:47pm
  • irizarry_muse

    irizarry_muse (100)

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    I like slash very much
    August 9th, 2012 at 12:37am
  • Careless Whisper.

    Careless Whisper. (310)

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    I feel like I'm one of the only people who can't get into slash. Lol.

    I find the whole "Mary Sue" argument ridiculous, because a character's personality flaws have nothing to do with their genitalia. If a character is unrealistic or annoying, it's because the author wrote them that way, not because they don't have a penis.

    I wrote an article about this years ago (I think 2008), about the whole anti-het thing. My feelings haven't changed.

    I respect that people have their own opinions and likes/dislikes. I just find some of the reasons silly and unfounded. XD

    On the article itself though, it's well written, but rather short. Articles such as this work best with a lot of flesh, since it's such a broad subject. (:
    August 8th, 2012 at 05:36pm
  • pulling teeth

    pulling teeth (100)

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    I feel like most slash nowadays is so much alike that it isn't worth reading any longer. If the stories were to vary, it would be much more interesting.
    August 8th, 2012 at 05:12pm
  • precursors

    precursors (105)

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    I like, read and write slash because, as a bisexual male, I crave the sorts of relationships that are depicted in slash fiction.
    August 8th, 2012 at 11:42am
  • november rain;

    november rain; (315)

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    I'm a hugeee fan of slash. And apart from the conflict making things interesting, like drama and suspense, I've always felt that slash relationships often seem more genuine somehow. Like, it's often a lot harder for a gay couple to get and stay together - their families and public may not approve, they might be in denial of their own sexuality as well - so it shows how strong their feelings for each other are.

    And even the way they have sex (lol, tmi) requires a lot of trust since it requires tons of lubrication (the vagina self-lubricates) and may hurt a lot (for girls it only hurts the first time), and one of them may have to lower their pride to do so, too...

    Often slash seems more meaningful and realistic, partially because of all of the above, whereas in hetero stories it might just be like oh they get together, oh they're happy together. Lol.

    I also feel that hetero stories tend to have more Mary Sues somehow... And I think in hetero stories it's more common for the author to have their main character based on themselves (I mean you can't really do that in slash stories since you'd obviously more than likely be writing in the perspective of a guy, lol), which adds to the probability of the occurrence of Mary Sues.

    And yeah, I like reading stories from a guy's perspective too - but I'll admit that sometimes, especially because majority of the authors are female, it doesn't sound very realistic. But I think it's even cooler when a girl challenges herself to write in a guy's POV and pulls it off well.

    I also think the idea of two guys together just gets to me. I tend to get annoyed by girls in hetero stories because they're overly sensitive and naive sometimes. But in slash stories, it doesn't seem to happen as often, and when it does yeah I may find it annoyingly unrealistic sometimes too, but a good amount makes the character seem really cute. Especially when you throw in the idea of a guy throwing away his pride for love and things like that. :3

    The fact that the majority of slash and shounen-ai/yaoi (boy-on-boy love in Japanese anime/manga) readers/fans are women may seem surprising at first, but I think it actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Plus, in a way, it's kind of like how guys enjoy watching lesbian porn. Lol.

    ***

    But anyway, I think that was a good article, but it was too short in my opinion. I would've appreciated it if you'd included more information, such as more different perspectives about why slash readers like slash, because I'm sure there are tons of reasons that weren't mentioned in the article. :)
    August 8th, 2012 at 09:50am
  • Invader Spiffy

    Invader Spiffy (140)

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    @ xxoxcourtney That's spot on with how I feel!
    August 8th, 2012 at 08:56am
  • Invader Spiffy

    Invader Spiffy (140)

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    I feel like with Slash stories, there can be more conflict to make it more interesting. For example, if it was a het fic, a young couple can be sitting in a restaurant and and old couple will probably be like "Oh, how sweet". How is that interesting to read? If it were a gay couple, the elderly would probably be like, "That's disgusting." That would create much more tension and much more captivating plot points. Maybe even a fist fight!
    August 8th, 2012 at 06:32am
  • onlyembersleft

    onlyembersleft (100)

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    lmao
    i like slash because deep down i believe i was destined to be a perverted old man
    that's it, that's the reasoning.
    August 7th, 2012 at 06:20am
  • raroman

    raroman (100)

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    None of those reasons sound familiar as to my reasons to like slash...
    August 7th, 2012 at 01:56am
  • Sonshine.

    Sonshine. (100)

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    Unicorn Jesus:
    ....I feel that the main character's reactions and behavior isn't realistic.
    ^I really tend to agree with that sentence because I've heard it many times.

    On a different note, my first slash stories were definitely mediocre, at best, and I will admit that. The characters were jokes, and the plots? The plots were beaten to death with a stick. I'm not sure if my newer slash stories have progressed at all from that point. I really hope they have.

    I feel that if an author (be it male, or female, gay, straight, lesbian, so-on-and-so-forth) really wants to capture the audience, they should get to know plenty of people with different orientations. I don't mean you absolutely have to become best friends or anything, but asking people questions can really make the stories more realistic. I started asking my drag queen, gay cousin questions about how he feels as a young gay man in this society, and I feel like now that I know him a bit better, I can imagine reactions a bit better. I just found out that there is a group of students at my high school that are all open with their orientation. I started talking to them about it as well, and it has made a bit of difference. They're all very nice about the questions, so I'm thankful for that! ^.^

    But there are also many, many differences in the environment. Nature, or nurture. I don't know if I'm saying that right.

    My cousin is openly gay because he is accepted by his family, at school, and in our community. Sure, he hit a few bumps in the road. But I feel that because our town is so small, he was accepted easily, and I'm not sure if that's the same with other gay men in other cities, towns, states, even countries. So even if I get to know one gay man, it doesn't mean I know the entire community.

    And the group of high school teens open about their orientation all said that their family is all that mattered to them. When their family accepted their orientation, they didn't care what anybody else thought of it. And that was true for them, but it may not be true for another person.

    Summing it up, I mean, I may write a realistic reaction for the person/people I got to know (my cousin, the group of high school students, etc.), but it may seem unrealistic to another person. Sometimes we just have to accept that because we can't please everybody (but boy, do we try to).
    August 7th, 2012 at 01:40am
  • atlas -

    atlas - (855)

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    I don't like most slash stories, mainly because girls write about a guy, from his perspective, and by reading the one's written by women, I feel that the main character's reactions and behavior isn't realistic.
    August 6th, 2012 at 08:38pm
  • Bleeding-Black333

    Bleeding-Black333 (100)

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    I enjoyed this article although I do feel that it was rushed and could have contained more depth and detail. A while back I notices this rage of slash as a genre and didn't quite understand it. Curious, I started writing a slash and found it really is just like any other genre. You can connect with characters, create plot that will draw the readers in and discover a society worth examining. There are a lot of aspects to the development of a slash just as there are to all other genres.
    From your article I did enjoy reading what others had to say about their perspective into this genre.
    August 6th, 2012 at 08:22pm
  • Aris.

    Aris. (375)

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    I think you could have covered more aspects of slash as a genre. If you were writing about any other genre, you have inevitably write about cliches found in these and slash is no different. For instance, and abundance of writers seem to assume gay is equivalent to 'emo' or characters of a unrealistic hyperactive tendency.

    Though harsh, it's true that a common thought is that slash's are badly written and unfortunately for the most part this is true. Most writers of slash are quite young (as slash is frequently entered through fandoms) and are prone to underdeveloped plots and frequent spelling and punctuation mistakes. This does not mean that all slashes are bad, indeed, well known ones like The Heart Rate Of A Mouse (panic! fandom) excel in both plot and grammar.

    For the article, it wouldn't hurt to add a little more flesh. It felt quite bare and you see to cover a lot of ground. Good use of quotes, however.
    August 6th, 2012 at 08:16pm