GAFF slash wank
Cassandra West begins a topic called "Is any justification for slash enough?"

I've lost count of the number of times that I have read people screaming that just because two men are close friends it doesn't make them gay. I've lost count of the number of times I have seen people complain that two members of a slash pairing barely even know each other. So where does that leave slash writers? On my cynical days, I feel like telling people to just admit they hate slash and GET OVER IT. Most of the time though, it makes me wonder if there is any slash pairing that certain people will approve of.

What is so wrong about Remus/Sirius slash? Given that there is no overt homosexuality in the HP universe, those two men seem to be the most likely slash pairing in that universe. I respect fully that not all people see them that way, and I would never say they must be lovers. However, is it really so awful that some people do see them that way?

She then goes on to write about how exactly she sees Cyclops, Gambit, Wolverine, Iceman, Beast, Chamber, Northstar, Xavier, Magneto, Rictor, and Shatterstar as homosexuals "under the right circumstances".

Chainsawmidget says:

... Here's a question, and I don't mean to sound rude or anything, but have you actully tried to write a real deep and meaningful freindship without romance? To a lot of guys, those kinds of freindships actually are more important to them than who they sleep with, expecially when it comes to professions where they have to look out for each others lives.

On my average days, I'm willing to tell people that they often look for the tiniest bit of induendo that they can call a justification when they're really nothing there. Sometimes the things you want to write just won't fit into the characters and fandom you like.

Now it sounds to me that in this case you're just searching for the chracters you can write slash for instead of actually thinking about the characters themselves. That's a problem a lot of us slash haters have with what people like you write.

Wel, as long as you're talking about X-men, why not write some X-men type stories, you know, the stuff with mutant hate groups, super villians, fights, alternate futuresw, and the like? Why does everything have to be romance in the first place?

Cassandra West:

Excuse me, could you not assume, please? I don't write Sirius/Remus, I barely even read HP fic, but I'm aware of the way some slash writers see those characters. Personally, I feel that poor Remus needs a friend who isn't willing to make him a murderer for a prank and that he deserves much better than James and Sirius' definition of friendship. However, given what has occurred canonically, is it so terrible that slash writers pair those two?

... I've explained why I think slash works for [Cyclops], and yes, the relationship he has will be with a man. Hell, it's actually not unreasonable for him to leave in part because of a bad relationship. Relationships do happen, and are significant in people's lives. He does have other reasons for leaving, but that is a factor. I like to think that I have treated his character better than Marvel did by making him start indulging in random destruction in a fit of pique that Paige was doing the nasty with Warren.

Chaotic Neutral:
The scene in question is of the two men, who are assassins, trying to kill each other. At the exact point in question, the "good" one has a gun pointed at the other guy, who starts ranting about how the main protagonist could kill them all at any time, and that the aforementioned good assassin is only pretending to be the hero's friend. When the other assassin starts to respond, the bad guy says, "Don't talk to me about morals. We'll both get our lips burned." He then smirks.

Yep. That's proved beyond a shadow of a doubt right there. No way an accusation of hypocrisy can just be that. It has to mean that the characters were in love. That makes perfect sense. Except for the part where it makes no sense at all.

And slashers wonder why we accuse them of reaching.

S/he goes on to refute some of the proof for slash that CW came up with for X-Men.

And it goes on from there. Slash and platonic love! Don't assume! Don't like, don't read!

I weep for the narrowness of your life, or mind, or whatever. You seem to live in a cage and that's quite sad. In an a homophobic society, homosexuals, both male and female, have to present themselves as 'friends' 'flatmates' and a number of other masks that are acceptable to said society. That's why readers are allowed, nay encouraged, to read subtext in published books and other media expressions.

You don't agree that there can be gay people? Your right and privilege. You want to stop everyone else to think there can be gay people? Waaaaay off your limits of freedom. Respect is all about mutual boundaries, and if you prefer your fave characters 'unsullied', well, the definition of 'unsullied' is so relative that really we all must accept others people's definition - as I do yours - without waging wars or feeling diminished by them.

As for the very cluché attack about analysis and good looking actors, please! If movieverse is considered canon, actors' reactions are canon as well. Their problem if they can't act well and let their own personal biases come through, it's still movieverse canon. Can't have it both ways, luv.

Besides canon is a trampolin, not an inflexible dogma, or there'd be no fanfic worth reading ever. And there's a LOT of fanfic that's way better than canon, because, let's face it, canon is not at all Shakespeare most of the time.

So what's your peeve? Homophobic or canon fundie?