[ad]It may be the simple answer, but it’s true. The thought of two guys, especially two hot guys, being together is one of the biggest female sexual fantasies. It turns us on, gets us horny and you, the husband/boyfriend/significant other, are frequently the lucky recipient of that lust.
But it can go deeper than that. We, as slash writers, like to explore the relationships between the two men we slash. Why they love each other or might come to love each other. Why they might have feelings for someone of the same gender and how they came to those feelings, particularly if they’ve only ever been portrayed as straight in the show’s canon.
There really are very few homosexual (and by this I mean male/male) relationships currently (or recently) portrayed on television. Off the top of my head I can name Six Feet Under, Queer as Folk (both US and UK versions), Will and Grace (to an extent) and Torchwood. If you, the reader, can think of others, please feel free to name them in the comments. Recently, soap opera As The World Turns has developed a relationship between the characters Luke and Noah (even though they have so far only kissed). And Joss Whedon (who loving portrayed lesbian relationships in Buffy the Vampire Slayer) hinted that Angel and Spike may have had a one night stand at some point in their past.
Now, while many people relish these relationships and write them (if we follow the show), a majority of slash writers (including myself and those I know) tend to write relationships that are considered non-canonical.
Now, quite a few of these couples have so much onscreen UST (unrequited or unresolved sexual tension) and subtext that it’s hard to believe their relationship is not canon. As my friend Fia and I are fond of saying, their relationships are practically canon, or to use a phrase from Joss Whedon, the subtext is rapidly becoming text. Jack and Daniel (Stargate SG-1), John and Rodney (Stargate Atlantis), Angel and Wesley (AtS), Spike and Angel (BtVS and pre-season five AtS) and Matt and Mohinder (Heroes season two) all come to mind.
Others are more subtle with vague canon hints that there may be more than friendship or enmity between the two characters. Sometimes this takes a little more digging on the part of the writer to find the spark that is hiding. Even rarer are the relationships where the characters have hardly anything in common, have never met in canon, or even those where the characters come from two different shows.
And therein is the challenge for the writer. How to write the how and why of these two people meeting, falling in love (or lust) and having a relationship. It takes a talented writer to make of these things come together in a believable way. It is even harder to make two different shows mesh. But succeeding in doing so makes the story all that more rewarding.
Of course you’re still going to have those authors who write two guys together for no other reason than “OMG they’re hot together!!!!!!1111!!!!!111!!” That can be fun, but it’s ultimately unsatisfying (at least for me), if there is no background for the two meeting or having sex.
So women like slash for the possibilities, for the romance, for the angst. And yes, for the sex. Slash has been around for a long time (forty years, Kirk/Spock anyone?) and I don’t see it ending anytime soon.
Note From Brad: I would like to welcome Katy as our first regular guest blogger and hope she will become a regular contributor to The Other Blog.
