pondering!

[schmerica]

It just occurred to me that the three biggest boyslash fandoms I've noticed popping up over the last two years or so are all ones where, even when I watch and enjoy the show, I don't see the slash at all. Stargate: Atlantis, House, Supernatural: I get no OTP buzzes AT ALL.

It's not my slash goggles, because a) I still see it in old stuff, even when I'm seeing it for the first time (hi, TS!); b) I see lots of boyslashiness in other new stuff (helllllllooo, Vorenus/Pullo!) and c) certainly the girlslashiness of everything in the world has been pretty off the charts lately.

Conclusion: I am totally out of step with fandom, and that's okay, because I'm perfectly happy with my F/K boys of old and new Grey's every week being femslashy, and other people are perfectly happy with their pairings that don't float my boat.

Comments

[dirty-diana.livejournal.com]

Word. (Except to add to your list of newish boyslash fandoms which make no sense to me: NCIS.) Sometimes I worry that fandom and I must be breaking up. But then fandom does something cute and I forget that I was worrying about that. (Oh, fandom. I wish I knew how to quit you.)

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

I would be really interested to hear, some time, if you can empirically state why you get no McSheppy vibe from canon. I'm curious because there are a number of people on my flist who are normally pretty slashy-eyeballed who don't see the McShep, so I wonder what I'm seeing that you're not, or vise versa.

Though it's true that the only way to miss the slash vibe in TS is to be *dead*. And they probably have a big zombie fanbase, too.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I think the two things I really need to see a pairing is a) a sense that they like each other (which is why antagonistic, enemy stuff usually doesn't do it for me either) and even more importantly, b) that their relationships with each other are the central, most important ones in their lives. I see Rodney and John joking around on the show, but they don't strike me as especially close. Further, I just don't get the same sense of centrality with the two of them. I don't think John is the most important person in Rodney's life, or Rodney in John's; I think Teyla, Ronon, Elizabeth or other scientists could fulfill those roles easily. I can imagine Rodney's life without John and John's life without Rodney without any trouble at all -- when I think Jim & Blair, or Fraser & RayK, or s1 Clark & Lex, I can't do anything like that, because they're too intertwined.

Of course, House/Wilson pretty much fulfills all my requirements, and there are probably slash pairings I like that probably don't quite fills these -- so maybe in the end it just comes down to "They just don't click for me."

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

...I didn't even know NCIS had a fandom, yo.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

...Grey's is femslashy? I missed that, somehow, completely and entirely.

And the funny thing about House? Is that I thought House/Wilson wasa much more obvious when I hadn't watched it for a while. And then after a while I came to the conclusion that what I'd thought was House/Wilson romantic snark was just House and Wilson being House and Wilson, who both socialize by way of snark and are equally good at it. (This also makes sharing an apartment problematic, rather than being romantic.)

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Well, I find it femslashy -- obviously this just points out what I was saying; we all see different stuff.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

But I haven't even seen you post of this! *makes a dismayed face* And I am just one of those people who needs to be convinced that anything that's not canon exists, pretty much.

[ngaio]

even when I watch and enjoy the show, I don't see the slash at all

But does that matter? I mean, yes, from your POV as a writer it matters because you can't write in those fandoms. But from the POV as a viewer? And from the POV as a slash reader? I read slash fic in a scary number of fandoms many of which I see no slash at all in the original (or I don't see the pairing everyone writes, eg NCIS where I don't see Tony/Gibbs slash at all) but as long as the fanfic is well written I just shrug and enjoy the story!

[shayheyred.livejournal.com]

If you're out of step, then so am I. I enjoy SGA but admit it is a stretch to see slash in it (in fact, the only relationship I see with any joy is Zelenka/Weir. The boy is PINING for her!) That's probably why I don't write SGA.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Yeah, see, I find as a reader it does matter to me -- if I don't care about the characters, I'm probably going to get bored and wander off quickly, even if it's a good story. The SGA thing is really sad, because so many of my favorite writers are writing there! And I'm too bored to read their stories! Alas.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I did not see the John/Sheppard when I first saw SGA. You are brave to state so because SGA shippers came down on me like a ton of bricks, going 'how can you not see it???' Heh. Canon has never stopped me!

[dirty-diana.livejournal.com]

It does. Bigger than House on my flist. And it's all Tony/Gibbs, which is crazy, because clearly Tony loves KateZiva and Gibbs is too fucked up to love anyone.