Slash wank, take #78,894,569
'cause these are always fun, right?

My favorite obscure fandom (in which I've been slacking abominably for the last ... year ...) is Wild Wild West, dedicated to a t.v. show that ended about 15 years before my birth. It's fun, most of the fans are great, and the series itself is the Gayest Thing EVAR. You Smallville kids think your show's got The Gay? How many undoctored screencaps do YOU have of Lex tied spread-eagle on a big gold-embroidered bed, wearing black leather chaps, while a man holding a riding crop leers at him? How much naked mud wrestling does Clark get up to? And has anybody gone through an entire episode dressed only in a feather skirt and a necklace?

I naively thought it was a practically wank-free fandom. The people I associate with are mostly veteran fans who've learned to chill the fuck out, and the writing quality is very high overall. I'd been told that there were a few psychos out there, but I'd written those off as fandom ghost stories. Til now. Today I heard from someone who read some very good gen stories and wrote the writer to compliment her, only to get a psycho rant in return because the author'd somehow found out the reader was a slash fan. I had to go check out this woman's message board.



http://www.wildwildwest.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=597&SearchTerms=slash

Sadly, it's an old wank, and many of the posts have been edited or deleted. I'm given to understand that it was much larger when it occured, but what's left is still much fun.

Edit: I was just told by an eye-witness that the thread is, in fact, complete. My mistake.

During a discussion of character development in canon, someone posts this link http://www.frii.com/~wanderer/writerguide.html to a very thorough summary of what's known about the characters' lives. Everybody oohs and aahs over the geekery involved.

Enter the mod. This is the one who freaked out over a slash writer sending her positive feedback. She reveals the horrible truth about the summary linked: it was written by a SLASH WRITER. And she publishes slash 'zines with a reputation for high production values and meticulous editing! OMG NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Even though it was only a summary of what's known in canon, with no speculation about slash whatsoever, it is tainted. TAINTED!

Well, that specific page
(http://www.frii.com/~wanderer/writerguide.html) is pretty accurate with what they've gleaned with respect to the basic facts from the series, yes.

However, when you look at what sort of "zines" the author publishes (aka slash), it's clear they have no qualms about completely throwing out the characters we see in the series to solicit such utterly preposterous and, IMMHO, offensive contradictions. Very sad...

I guess since I've brought it up and I went so far as to make an editorial comment about it, I should point out a couple facts about this particular unfortunate fan genre:

1. Slash has nothing whatsoever to do with homosexuality beyond basic, broad setting.

If you thought it did, I suggest you speak candidly with a decent-sized number of self-respecting gentlemen who are homosexual.

2. Slash has everything to do with varying levels of vicimization.




And it just gets better from there. After all, everyone knows that the only legitimate reason to write fanfiction is to Mary Sue yourself into your favorite characters' pants. Everything else is just sick.

I'm going to go back to my non-psychohosebeast-ridden corner now, if it's all the same to you.