femmeslash ramblings

[derien]

Through yonmei I wandered to ide_cyan's compilation of links about feminism and femmeslash.  An interesting read, bouncing around to different slash writers opinions about why femmeslash is underrepresented in the slash community even though the community is mainly women who are bi.  It's one of those issues which I poke at in my own life every now and then, as I'm sure I've mentioned before, and has come up again in the past few weeks.  Various posters brought up the points that it's not that strong female characters are impossible to find, it's more that A) we can't identify with them (either because they're a little too 'normal' or because they often become flawlessly perfect), and B) there's usually only one female character among the overwhelmingly male cast. 



I adored Dana Scully (in the first few seasons of the X-Files - when they tried to turn her into a woobie with the cancer and all I got bored).  When I start to think about it there were quite a few female characters who I adored - Princess Leia, Trinity, Wonder Woman, Uhura, Jadzia Dax... Hermione *cough* okay, waaay to young for me, but...  But who do they get to really interact with?  Males.  And who do I want to see them interact with?  Well... me.  If I was to try to write a femmeslash I'd probably do self-insertion (er, so to speak) with those characters. 

But wait, you may be saying (although you're probably not), wait Derien, you did write one femmeslash.  Yup.  Polly/Maladicta.  I can see that one.  Two unusual, quirky, well-rounded characters who got to interact with each other quite a bit and I could see subtext there.  (All you really need is for at least one of the characters to imply a desire to impress the other in some way, care about the other's opinion.)  But the cast of the book is overwhelmingly female, that was the point. 

So again I come back to the problem of the mostly male cast.  I like my sci-fi / fantasy books, but is it possible that I should read some of the chick lit or some other genre and try to find something with a more female cast?  I could stand to read more Austin, I'm sure.

Comments

[mizzmarvel.livejournal.com]

You need to get into Baby-sitters Club femmeslash, sister. It's all over the place - and generally tremendously well-written. In a situation where there's a series about several different girls, most of whom are pretty, who all interact with each other (unlike, say X-Files, where it's mostly Scully with a bunch of men, and HP, where Hermione interacts almost exclusively with males despite being segregated from them in rooming situations), I guess it works better. And yet, though femmeslash overwhelms the BSC slash pairings list, it still pales in comparison to m/m slash found in just about any relatively large fandom.

[derien.livejournal.com]

And again, it means going outside the genre I'm most interested in - maybe I really need to just bite the bullet and do that, venture outside my safe little pet genre.

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

I'd debate that the slash community is primarily bi women -- it seems like it sometimes, yeah, but it could just as easily be straight women in the majority.

[derien.livejournal.com]

I suppose you're right!

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

It's awfully hard to tell, especially when so many people in slashdom probably fall into "bicurious" or some other random label. Honestly, though, given the lack of femslash, I wouldn't be surprised if straight women are in the majority (but who knows? I know straight women who write femslash and queer women who don't like it).

[derien.livejournal.com]

Well, I am bi, pretty firmly so and always have been, and I haven't liked most femmeslash I've ever read.

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

I've found some I've liked, but for the most part, a) the good femslash is in fandoms I don't like (e.g. Babysitter's Club, Buffy, etc.), b) no one writes the femslash I'd like to see (yay obscure fandoms!), and c) I rarely come across a piece of media I like where there's more than one interesting female character, much less two such who have chemistry. So there are a lot of factors that play into it for me. It's not that I don't like femslash so much as not many people are writing what I'd like to see.

I totally agree on Polly/Maladicta, though. I'd love to see people write more.

[derien.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, ditto on A, B AND C. :)

brain is mush, tonight.