Queering Popular Culture - Female Spectators and the Appeal of Writing - Issue 2002

Aug 26, 2026

Uploaded by Maeve

The paper examines slash fan fiction as a queer writing practice enabled and amplified by the internet, where women writers address a predominantly female audience through same-sex relationships between (mostly) male TV characters. It argues that slash fan fiction functions as a communal, grassroots critique of popular culture and of heterosexual hegemonic ideas about gender and sexuality. Using a personal “first time” slash narrative, it combines creative and critical analysis to explain how writing practices challenge consumer/producer entertainment economics.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages20

Reading Time50 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Internet, visibility, and alternative writing practices

Slash fan fiction as critique

Community, grassroots resistance, and gender/sexuality

Historical background and definitions

Origins, term “slash,” and academic perspectives

Method and case study

Creative-critical approach using the author’s own story

Reactions and dominant culture

Why dominant culture is troubled by women writing gay male sexuality

Queering Popular Culture: Female Spectators and the Appeal of Writing Slash Fan Fiction1 By Susanne Jung, University ofTübingen, Germany Abstract: The advent of the internet has provided a larger forum for and brought increased visibility to a number of alternative writing practices. One of the more curious ones is slash fan fiction, a particular type of queer fan fiction which is written almost exclusively by women of all sexual orientations for a predominantly female audience, featuring same-sex relationships between (mostly) male TV characters. In my essay I argue that this particular type of fan fiction is a communal and grass roots critique not only of popular culture but also of heterosexual hegemonic notions of gender and sexuality. 1 The advent of the internet has provided a larger forum for and brought increased visibility to a number of alternative writing practices. One of the more curious ones is slash fan fiction, a particular type of queer fan fiction which is written almost exclusively by women of all sexual orientations for a predominantly female audience, featuring same-sex relationships between (mostly) male TV characters. Often sexually explicit, it has been celebrated by science fiction novelist Joanna Russ as early as the 1980s as "pornography by women for women, with love." 2 Fan fiction itself is not an altogether recent phenomenon. A number of nineteenth and early twentieth-century writers wrote stories based on the characters of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, contributing to the popularity of Carroll's tales.Today's fan writers explore the adventures of characters from Star Trek, The X-Files or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Writing about media characters can itself be seen as a subversive move, challenging the economy of consumer/producer capitalist entertainment. Fan fiction writers refuse to be mere consumers, producing their own "poached" versions of texts. 3 Slash fan fiction, which posits same-sex relationships between the (mostly) male series protagonists, originated with Kirk/Spock fan fiction in the 1970s; the term slash derives from the "/" employed to denote a specific romantic pairing (Jenkins, Textual Poachers 186- 7) . Slash fan fiction has been discussed by a number of academic writers (cf. the work of Henry Jenkins, Constance Penley, Camille Bacon-Smith, Patricia Frazer Lamb and Diana L. Veith) . It has been described as "romantic pornography," as a critique of traditional 1 I would like to thank Ingrid Hotz-Davies for providing me with the opportunity to write this essay and for constructive suggestions on several of its drafts. I would also like to thank the various people with whom I had the chance to discuss slash fan fiction over the last few years. The present essay would not have been possible without you. masculinities, because quite often traditionally "feminine" traits such as nurturing and the open declaration of feelings are extended onto the male characters, or as a utopian vision of a continuum of male homosocial and homoerotic desires, because the most popular formula of slash writing sees two men who were formerly best friends suddenly discover their physical attraction to each other. 4 My essay combines a creative with a critical approach to slash fan fiction. It was inspired by a story I myself had written using the characters of another American science fiction series, Stargate SG-1. In this story, which was in turn inspired by queer theory and which is available online,2 I sent a set of late twentieth-century characters to an alternate reality, confronting them with a utopian society which had overcome our current straight/gay divide, a society beyond heterosexual hegemony. In my discussion of slash fan fiction, I draw on my own story as an example of a popular slash narrative, the "first time" story. My story follows certain tropes established by the slash writing community, which allows me to analyse both the story and the genre of writing it r

FAQs

What is slash fan fiction, and why is it considered queer writing?

Slash fan fiction is a form of queer fan fiction that is written almost exclusively by women for a predominantly female audience, featuring same-sex relationships between (mostly) male TV characters. The paper frames it as a challenge to heterosexual hegemonic notions of gender and sexuality.

How does the internet affect slash fan fiction according to the essay?

The essay states that the internet provides a larger forum and increases visibility for alternative writing practices. This supports the spread and recognition of slash fan fiction as a writing practice.

What role does the author’s own story play in the analysis?

The author combines a creative and critical approach by using her own “first time” slash narrative as an example. The analysis treats the story and its genre tropes simultaneously to study how the writing community shapes meaning.

Aug 26, 2026

Uploaded by Maeve