I Don't Get it

[kriadydragon]

I'm just going to come out and say it as this has been a long time in coming...

I do not understand the appeal of making a favorite character or characters gay. It seems an odd fantasy to me because, seriously, if it were possible for your favorite hot male character to exist, would you really want them gay? To me, it's kind of like whipping up your all time favorite meal only to hand it over to someone else.

Now, if it's all about kink... I don't want to know.

This isn't a slam to anyone who writes slash. It's just that, ever since I discovered what the slash genre was, its popularity has boggled me. I mean, sometimes I get it in terms of the emotions involved with such a pairing. I'm well aware some like it for kink purposes only. Other times... I don't know. Some authors act like its impossible to have their two favorite characters of the same gender in the same room without them falling in love.

I'm sure everyone has their own reasons for liking the genre and I'm curious to hear them out (or why you don't like the genre, whatever your position.) I tend to be a very hard core "if this is the way it is, then this is the way it should be" kind of person. If you like the character and they're straight on the show, why make them gay in your stories? So when I say it boggles me, I mean it really, really boggles me.

There, I finally asked it. I didn't want to as I was afraid people might get offended (a lot of touchy people in fandoms, or so I hear) or think this some kind of anti-slash meme. But I've held off asking long enough. I'm not trying to start a debate, I just want to hear what people have to say on the matter (so no arguing, insulting, etc.) I'm just really freakin' curious, dang it!

Comments

[a-pilgrim-soul.livejournal.com]

I'm not into slash personally but my friend Rosie is and I asked her this exact same question once and she said she she simply liked the idea of two hots guys together in the same way that guys get hot and bothered over the idea of girl on girl action.

If you don't want to hear it's all about "kink" then you might just be disappointed.

I think slash, like het ship, is defined into two categories: Romantic and Porn.

The first is about seeing the characters in a more vulnerable light, and the writer/reader living out a "perfect" romantisised relationship vicariously. Often it involves the character that the fan finds most attractive combined with the character they, the fan, most relate to. Also it's a case of wanting your favorite character to hook up with the show hottie because that in some way makes the character more important.

The second is just sexual fantasy pure and simple.

I think slash often comes about in sci-fi because the majority of sci-fi screenwriters are male and therefore they write better for male characters and male friendships. Think back through the sci-fi shows of the last few years and most of them will feature a strong male/male friendship that could easily be interpreted as slash if you so wished.

Okay, this post got pretty rambling and I'm not sure it makes much sense but there you go.

At the end of the day it's all down to personal taste I'm sure there are lots of people who are equally boggled by the idea of whump and I know many find it deeply disturbing.

[bratfarrar]

I've almost completely given up on slash stuff - mainly because there was no plausibility in how it was done. Most writers seem to have no problem with taking what's on the screen, writing about that for a bit, and saying "boom! and then they realized they were in love and had some sex". There are a few authors that I still read, but only because they either show me how the characters might reach the point of falling in love, or because the story around that is really interesting.

But as you might guess, there are very few of either.

That's one reason why I started writing fanfic in the first place - a dearth of interesting, well-written gen fiction. (w/out whump, that is, because I can only read so much h/c before it all starts sounding the same)

[wildcat88.livejournal.com]

Glad you asked the question. I've wondered the same thing myself. I'm interested in reading the responses you get. I tend to see characters from a canon point of view so changing who they are makes them out of character to me.

Men express affection for their friends so differently than women do. That's one reason I love buddy action flicks. A brotherhood bond is much more interesting to me than a romantic one.

[reen212000.livejournal.com]

You know... I can't really understand it myself. I do read it on occasion, and I have like a list of rules. Defiinitely h/c, angsty, emotional, no romance, no porn, (or pron... that's what I call something that's so drrrty... you get the point.) and it really, really depends on the creativeness of the writer. Most of the slash I read is based on a strong friendship. I think the popularity of McKay/Sheppard is all about chemistry. Some writers get it, some don't.

I have read some fics that curled my hair, and fics that had me running. The pairings... There is some kink that I am waay too prudish for, and I've seen a lot of things. Having guys for roommates can teach a girl a lot. Having said guys take you to a strip club for a laugh, and me turning the tables on them has taught me many things. (Whew! Long story... but they lost a lot of money!)

Why it's ok for girl on girl action, and not okay for boy on boy is beyond me. You will not see me anywhere near fem slash, trust me. Familiar with the equipment, thanks. I have a friend that is so deep into slash that the tamer things I read do not interest her at all. She likes RPS too, which I cannot get behind. (No pun. Seriously.)

Okay, I'm rambling. I've tried to explain my standards for slash to my friend, but I can't. I will tell you, the minute one of them says 'I love you', I'm outta there. I'm all for the very strong friendships, but turn it into a bawdy romance, or BDSM, or marriage, I'm gone.

Wow. This is long. But I will tell you this: If you don't want to read it, please don't start. That's how I got sucked in! I refused to read it, but then I read something that changed my mind. And do not go to Area 52. Vortex of sin.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

True, a lot of sci-fi shows are male dominated (not that I mind one bit.) Sometimes (to me in my opinion with some slash stories) slash comes about because it's a female writing a male but not knowing how, because I've read gen that might as well be slash with how girly the writer makes the men - emotion-wise that is.

What you say makes sense.I'm ever so slightly more tolerable toward the romantic since, in many cases, it can be interpreted as a deep friendship so long as it doesn't escalate to them kissing (once I reach that part, I'm done reading.)

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

That's my biggest problem with the genre - not because there's so much slash out there, but because so much of it just isn't plausible. Some do make it work, but I've found that's it's the ones who handle it more subtlely, either having the relatinship build (which allows me to interperet as friendship) or the relationship is there but not cluttered by porn (still, even established relationships made plausible are still hard for me to swallow.)

I agree with you on the whump. You can only take so much "bullet in the chest and bleeding out" for so long. I'm more for the comfort anyways (I find myself wanting to rush through the whump in my own fics just to get to the comfort part.)

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I'll get a lot of response from the slash side. I may have scared them off. I intended this question in all sincerity but was worried some might see it as a subtle attack, which it wasn't. I'd really like to see what slash fans have to say.

Sometimes I think that's why some authors (maybe the less experienced or younger ones) get into slash, because in terms of emotion it is hard to write men, so they make them gay in order to deepen the emotional bond into something they can write.

I hate romance in general no matter the pairing. I don't like all that excess of emotion that, to me, tends to get out of hand. Plus the whole "holding back your feelings" thing is just annoying. Brither bonds are more natural, cuter, funnier, and less frustrating. Plus there's none of that holding back since most of the time the two guys don't realize the bond has formed until later.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I've run into slash thinking it was gen, but it has yet to suck me in. I hate sexual involvement of any kind in any kind of story, period, and since the characters on the show aren't gay, I can't accept them as such in a fic.

[giusytriso.livejournal.com]

I like slash but not ALL kind of slash. I'm more into Romantic-slash and usually I love the "first time" stories because you can see how a friendship turns into something deeper.

I think I love the romantic and vulnerable aspect of these kind of stories, but sometimes I too notice that the characters are TOO out of character (sorry for the pun)
Some of you said that the writer make them "girly" and I agree with that, completely. I CAN'T stand that!!
I love slash in a manly way. I know this may sound weird but, slash relationship apart, I prefer if the characters mantain a sort of credibility of the main aspects that we know as canon.

However, I may be a bit out of the usual slash standards as I LOVE whump too (even more than slash actually) LOL!!

[reen212000.livejournal.com]

Curiousity killed this cat a long time ago. I'm a voyeur at heart, and I love observing people. Which is why I do read certain types of slash. But good for you! 'Ships between characters kinda bothers me sometimes, especially het for some reason. Proclivities are a hot spot for me, though. And for a 36-year-old spinster like myself, I usually just feel like a dirty old woman.

[reen212000.livejournal.com]

I LOVE whump too (even more than slash actually)

I totally hear you. The squick gets to me, so I avoid it at all costs. But give me emotional hurt/comfort slash (Blue Sunset, Foreign Territory, Eating of the Minds), I am putty.

And a lot of writers make Sheppard either a needy, clingy type, or jealous and vindictive. Those that manage to keep him balanced, without losing too much of his character (Here There Be Fractals, The Ratio of Burning, The Retrograde 'verse), I will read and rec.

But I also find that in most McShep, Rodney is the one who makes the first move. (Except in A Whole World of Trouble, and Visions of Orange Fleece, which had me rolling!) Rodney is the dominant one is almost all of them, which is interesting. Maybe it's because he's so impulsive.

Slash is a touchy subject for some, and I'm glad kriadydragon brought it up...

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I've run into slash where it actually kind of works. I said this before but it's usually when the writer goes about it in a subtle way, building up to it rather than shoving it in the readers faces. And, like you said, when the writer manages to keep the males men and in character instead of having them resort to girly emotional behavior.

What I cannot stand (and this goes with het, too) is when there's a pairing simply for the sake of a pairing. The story doesn't center around the pairing, the emotion, etc. but the writer thinks "they're such a cute couple, I can't help myself" resulting in what some might call unecessary slash or het, which tends to ruin a fic. I run into these a lot because they start out as gen, end up as slash, and teh writer doesn't think to change the genre title.

Thanks for your input, I've been wanting to here from the slash side of things.

And there's a lot of that out there.

[kontiki.livejournal.com]

How I was drawn into slash was ...
I was AVOIDING slash (major squick) but I was seeing there was a *lot* of it and some of the recs looked okay, some times better than okay. Now this was a while back and I was reading Voyager stories. So, I one night I decided to see what it was like...
It was a story by
Sue Love and the pairing was Chakotay/Paris, the premise was that there were not enough women on board Voyager when people started pairing off and the choices were see if a relationship with another man could work, or, be alone. The story slowly built a relationship across time, gradually adding elements to it as they "tested" their way into a committed romantic relationship. The story still stands out as one of the sweetest, most romantic stories I have ever read, and it turned me *on*. I love friendship and buddy stories! I don't care for gratuitous sex whether it is het or slash. I adore team stories. Fem slash stories leave me cold (ho hum, moving on now). What hooks me is if the *relationship* is well written and the author has been convincing in building an affectionate relationship, then I don't really have too much trouble with a romantic relationship as long as the characters stay *in* character. Because it turns *me* on...and I don't know why. Stories that have sex without the relationship stuff do not appeal to me, and I'm perfectly happy with a buddy or a team relationship. I am just as picky about the quality of the story for h/c or team or buddy as I am for romantic. I think the bottom line is that where ever we rank individually on the Kinsey scale and what appeals to us emotionally *is* highly *individual*. One persons romance is another persons squick. h/c makes me feel tender and nurturing, team fics feel *safe*, buddy fics make me feel connected, romantic fics make me feel romantic.

[giusytriso.livejournal.com]

What hooks me is if the *relationship* is well written and the author has been convincing in building an affectionate relationship, then I don't really have too much trouble with a romantic relationship as long as the characters stay *in* character. Because it turns *me* on...and I don't know why. Stories that have sex without the relationship stuff do not appeal to me

h/c makes me feel tender and nurturing, team fics feel *safe*, buddy fics make me feel connected, romantic fics make me feel romantic.

Well said!! You captured EXACTLY what I feel about that.

I would have quoted ALL your post, but I thought it could be a bit redundant. ;)

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

I've been in fandom for eons, back to the Kirk/Spock days, and never have really gotten a good answer for why people write slash. I've heard "it's fun!" "it's canon!" (well, maybe with Ren & Stimpy but sure not Simon & Simon or the brothers from Supernatural! I mean, they're *Brothers*).

Anyway, I'm not anti-slash. It just doens't interest me in the same way that NC-17 het stories don't. Sex of any kind drags down the story, slows things up. I'd much rather read action/adventure, drama, angst, hurt/comfort, something which can tug at the emotions (and perhaps spill some blood in the process)

I think some writers write slash cuz if you write a female romantic lead, you're accused of writing a Mary Sue. Not sure, but I prefer my characters to be as close to the canon I see on screen.

Good topic, by the way :)

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Romance, okay. I get that. But is there a more appealing difference between slash romance and het romance? Or is it simply a matter of having two fav characters getting together, no matter the gender? (Which also makes sense if you absolutely hate all the female characters.)

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I've been wanting to ask this question for so long but was a little too chicken too until now. I'm the kind of person that if there's something that I don't understand, I make an effort to understand it. Doesn't mean I come to get it 100%, but I at least gain a little better insight.

My personal opinion of sex scenes is that they're nothing more than porn moments. And you're right, they do tend to gunk up the works. I've always hated it in movies or books where you have intense situations yet the characters always manage to find time to have sex - even if it's in a cellar because they'd been kidnapped and are about to be executed in ten minutes. So they do it rather than try to find a way to escape.

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, the folks in those bad flicks who decide to have sex instead of escaping the psychotic killer. Boggles the mind (but I guess it rakes in the box office dough).

Graphic sex scenes basically are porn. I mean, the old way of 'they went through and shut the door' is fine by me. I still remember I was at one convention and my roomie, who buys EVERYTHING, had zines spread out all over the bed. I'd gone through all her gen stuff and grabbed one and she went 'oh, that's slash,' knowing I'm not into it, but I was curious if there was a plot (not in this one), but I read out a few passages aloud and she screamed "no no, I did not just pay good money for THAT!" as it was the most purple prose I'd ever seen in my life. Not to say all slash is like that, but that one stuck in my mind as all the sex was 'volcanic eruptions' and stuff like that.

No, I'd rather have a good action scene, some hurt and some comfort.

[kontiki.livejournal.com]

I'm going to take another run at this from a slightly different direction...

I think that there is a lot of over-thinking that goes on. It kinda reminds me of the really old Playboy Magazine joke, "I buy it for the articles". I read fiction for entertainment. A good story touches the reader's mind and emotions. I read h/c because it makes me feel tender and nurturing, *except* I skip stories dealing with brain injuries. My brother-in-law was severely brain-injured in an accident and those stories hit too close to my reality and they do not make me feel tender and nurturing. They make me feel slightly nauseous and I don't like how I *feel* when I read them, so I skip them. I don't like any genre where the characters are too far "Out Of Character". If the author is too far off in the characterization I take a pass. I am het. I don't care for fem-slash because at the least it doesn't create feelings that I'm interested in. Fem-slash feels boring to me. Het romance is more likely to have either the Mary-Sue super-gal problem or the problem of minimizing the female character to make the male character look better (happens on tv and the movies all the time)all though I have read some really great het and enjoyed every minute of it. For any fans of Firefly there is a really great het moment between Wash and Zoe where they are seated by a bonfire and Wash is holding Zoe with *such* tenderness and affection it makes my toes curl and there is nothing overtly sexual in the frame at all. But dang it leaves me feeling ROMANTIC :) in a way that feels good. ...hmm... I keep using the word romantic and I'm not trying to use it as a euphemism. To me lust is a feeling of sexual attraction, which I can feel for someone I'm in a relationship with but not for someone I'm not in a relationship with. The one-night-stand is never going to happen for me because I *need* the relationship part first. The Greeks defined two different terms for love: physical love (lust) as "eros" and emotional love "agape". So when I say I feel romantic I mean feeling both sexual arousal and emotional love. Why do I feel romantic reading a well written story about two men in a loving, nurturing relationship? I can't even begin to tell you, but I do, and I like the feeling. Not every slash pairing does it for me and certainly not every story including slash works for me. Not by a long shot. And some slash really pushes my squick button. I absolutely can not read Supernatural slash featuring Dean/Sam. They are brothers!!! damn it!!! In terms of what I do like, it's not about the characters being gay, its about the *relationship*. ...oh...and the last thing I really, really, really am not too fond of is addition of the "original character" I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times that has worked for me.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Liking slash for the emotion - that I get. Well sort of as I'm not into romance of any kind, as I've said. So romance doesn't have the same affect for me as it does for you. But it has an affect and it's that affect you're after. I'm with you on the H/C thing - being in it for the comfort part, not the hurt. I like H/C because it forces a person to look at a character as another human being rather than an object.

And unless an OC is being used as an outside view for the main characters, without that OC taking over the story, I think it's the dumbest thing a fanfic writer can do. And it's almost shocking how easy it is to spot a Mary Sue, because they always have some crazy, overly-unique name no sane parent would name their child. Once I see an OC with said name, I drop the story (plus get a little gleeful when that story gets very little feedback. I tend to be spiteful that way.)

[sholio]

I think you've got some good answers above, a lot of whom described it better than I could. Especially the distinction between "relationship" slash and "porn" slash -- although most slash stories contain elements of both, and most people who read a lot of slash (I'm guessing here) read for both, most stories and most slash fen do lean in one or the other direction. Actually, the best analogy for THAT that I can think of is to "hurt" vs. "comfort" stories, because most h/c leans in one or the other direction, and most people who read it lean in one or the other direction too -- it was really interesting asking on my LJ, awhile back, whether people prefer the "h" or the "c", because for me it's really all about the "c", but there are a lot of readers who want the hurt and aren't so much into it for the comfort. However, most h/c fen think of the genre as encompassing both, and to some extent enjoy both. Ditto for slash, and the emotional-to-physical-affection continuum.

The extreme popularity of slash is sometimes puzzling to me. What would make sense logically would be for slash to be a small offshoot of fanfic, kind of like AUs are -- a what-if to explore. But it's not, it's huge, so clearly there is something more going on. I do believe that some people are "wired" to enjoy slash just like some people are "wired" to enjoy h/c -- there is no doubt in my mind that my h/c fixation, the warm fuzzy feeling I get from comfort, is a kink that's hard-wired into my brain somehow. I know enough fellow fen who gravitated towards slash-type scenarios, even without knowing such a thing existed, to convince me that there's a similar type of kink wiring for slash, as there is for h/c and -- obviously, given the huge popularity of romance novels and soap operas -- for het romance.

It took me a long time to even TRY slash because I was, and still am, very hung up on the canonicity of the characters. When I write fic, I try (though I'm not sure how often I succeed) to write the characters just as I see them in canon, and when it comes to areas that have not been addressed in canon (e.g. family background, food preferences, etc) I still try to stick to what I see as being the most plausible with regards to canon. Just because something's not completely disallowed by canon, doesn't mean it's likely, and given the choice between the two, I'll usually go for the likelier narrative choice. Or, if I'm going out on a narrative limb, I'll try to explain it in terms of canon -- justify my choice to the audience, as it were.

But, I have to be honest with myself -- 90% of what the characters do in most h/c fanfic, they're not going to do on the show, either. I know that I write some of the characters a little softer/nicer/closer than they are in canon. When I become aware of myself doing that, I try to draw back and get closer to the canon intepretation of the character (as I did with Sheppard and McKay after "Sunday"). But I can't blame slash writers for taking the characters in OOC directions because I often do the same. The way that I write them is not really all that much more "honest" or true to the characters than most of the slash out there. I write and read h/c because it makes me feel good -- warm and fuzzy and happy. I'm pretty sure that's exactly why people write and read slash, too. As the person above me said, we're overthinking it, because what it really comes down to is, "because it feels good."

But I still like to analyze it. *g*

I think that "making the characters gay" is a very loaded interpretation of slash because most slash fen do not think of it that way. I mean, some do -- I've run across slash stories in which sexual orientation was a pivotal part of the story. But generally, I think slash takes place in a kind of alt-world in which the important thing is affection, not so much who it comes from, or how. I don't mean that to sound derogatory towards slash. However, in a lot of the slash I've seen, sexual/romance contact is used as a shorthand for emotional closeness. It's kind of a ... shortcut to the sort of intimacy that friends can only achieve in the most extreme circumstances, and sometimes not at all.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Excellent point. I was actually hoping that someone would bring up H/C, because it is a lot alike. I like to think of it all - H/C, slash, romance - as plot-device fetishes. We all have our preferences.

And there can never be a story that's one-hundred percent canon (although I read this one that I like to joke as being very canon, because everyone got whumped except Sheppard.) But there are some who stick as close as they can to canon (even when writing AUs or slash) and those who take things way, way, waaaaay beyond the actual show and characterization. But that's a whole other discussion.

I went with "gay" because it was the real question I was posing. I've encountered a lot of slash stories and pre-slash stories that can be seen as gen. Yes, I get a little frustrated by the label since I generally try to avoid the genre (due to past 'accidental readings' of stuff I would rather not read.) But in those stories where the focus is the emotions and not sex, I get it. I got where the writer was going and what they were trying to accomplish, and understand that they were trying to achieve a certain level of emotion not reached otherwise. But there are a lot of stories I have come across where the author seems to make the character or characters gay for the mere sake of it. Not for kink, not for emotions, but as though simply to have a gay character, and 'that' I didn't get (unless it was a form of character bashing. That had been my suspicion with many such stories at the time.)

And stuff like this is fun to analyze. I know for a fact that I, personally, will never get into slash. I like emotions and affections just as much as the next gal, but once it reaches romantic proportions of any kind I'm gone. If our brains are hard-wired toward particular likes, then I honestly believe we are hard-wired the same way for dislikes. But I now have a better understanding toward people's interest in slash, which is also what I had set out to do. My curiosity has been satisfied.

why slash?

[splurph.livejournal.com]

I am an avid SF & fantasy reader and watcher and nearly all of the commercial work out there is het and very rarely has any homo content at all.
As a gay man slash appeals to me because it reflects upon my actual life and interests in so many ways.
I've only discovered the whole fanfic world on-line very recently and have been continually amazed at what I've found out there be it bad or good.
The bad I can just pass over. It hasn't cost me anything out of pocket save for a little bit of time and electricity.
The good can send me off on paths of discovery that go on for days. Discovering an new author who's work I can explore. Connecting with a community that I never knew existed. Taking ideas about a mediocre plot line or a tired old cliche and twisting & turning it into something that really works.
And if it happens to involve two men instead of a man and a woman romancing/loving/kissing/screwing so much the better.

Something I don't understand is that so much of the slash is written by women. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me but I'm not complaining one bit.

Re: why slash?

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Something I don't understand is that so much of the slash is written by women.

That's also part (well, a big part, actually) in why I posed this question on slash. It seems such an odd fantasy scenario for women to write (when not being used for kink purposes, of course). But a lot of people have made some good points concerning the use of slash for achieving certain emotional levels not achieved otherwise, and I get that.

I think Friendshipper made the best point. There are things that appeal to us and things that don't. For some, like you, slash appeals on a personal level. For others an emotional level, and so on. Just like with hurt/comfort - some like the hurt, some the comfort. Though I've been known to get pretty vicious with the hurt aspect of a fic, I do it for the comfort and angst afterward, so I also don't understand the appeal of hurt without the comfort (and kind of don't want to know *shudders*).

key to peace?

[carwright-m.livejournal.com]

K firstly I have to say...YAY!!!! I finally found you! I've been following your Stealth Dragon account over at fanfic.net ever since i discovered fanfiction a year ago. You're one of my favorite authors and I've reread many of your atlantis fics many times. I probably never reviewed enough ever but I seriously need to say; your writing is awesome. Also, I recced a few of your fics over at fanworks finder. Hope you don't mind.
Lol, I totally get where you're coming from here and seriously three months ago I was completely oblivious to the workings and popularity of slash. I was highly sceptical of the whole scenario but really once I got used to the idea, I realized that my first foray into slash actually managed to open my eyes and drown my misconceptions that made topics like this uncomfortable for me. It's awesome that I can say this without feeling abashed about it but slash made me a better person(lol it sounds odd but in all honesty it's true). I was a person who prided myself in being nonjudgemental and fine with different sexual bents but I never understood it and so I never supported it. People who read or write slash are accepting something that has been frowned upon in our society for generations. It's elliminating the taboo and making people curious enough to throw their misconceptions out the window. These are some of the reasons I have a very healthy respect for slash.
I'm a gen fanfic reader, always will be. Yet I don't mind reading a well writen slash story every now and then, besides the fact that gay relationships are often more intimately centered around actual LOVE not so much sex, it is very HOT in it's intimacy(ok yes kinky).
Why make characters that are not gay gay? In my opinion it's all part of the concept really. Do you know anyone who is openly gay? I don't but it doesn't mean no one is, it just means I don't know about it. Plus if you're into fanfic then the number of actually gay characters in mainstream TV etc is rather slim. In a way, it's almost comforting to know that anyone can be made to be gay, it gives the rest of society hope that maybe one day we can come to understand that all people are fundamentally the same. And if we can somehow come to accept that, then perhaps there is hope for humanity after all.
Lol, whether that made any sence or not I'm done. I was going to rec a good slash fanfic but frankly I can't get my brain into gear and remember what it was called so whatever.
...hope that helped?

Re: key to peace?

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

*Blushes* Thank you.

I posed this question out of curiosity because I'm generally a curious person and wanted to know what attracted people to slash (the answers have been quite interesting).

But I'm personally no fan of slash or romance of any kind. It just doesn't appeal to me. I like friendship stories, Hurt/comfort stories, but if it starts heading into any kind of romance then I'm gone. And (as dicusssed in one of my responses) I find slash - when not being used for kink purposes - an odd fantasy for a female writer to write out.

The responses given have shed a lot of light on the matter. However, I still have no desire to read slash.