[LMB] OT: Slash

[Azalais Aranxta]

First of all, William, if you don't like slash, don't read it.
The fact that you personally dislike it is not going to make
anyone stop writing it.  There is no problem here to be solved.
People write slash because they like it, and those people who
dislike it need to leave it the heck alone.

On Mon, 11 Dec 2006, Elizabeth Holden wrote:

>
> --- WILLIAM A WENRICH <wawenri at msn.com> wrote:
>
> > I find the idea that I cannot have a friend, either
> > male or female, without wanting sex very insulting.

So do I, but you know what?  That's not what slash is about.

Slash is about "what if".  We only know what goes on with
fictional characters in the parts of their lives that we see.
There is no telling what they were getting up to when the writer
wasn't writing them or when they weren't on screen.  There is no
reason some of those friendships couldn't be sexual; there is no
reason why they have to be sexual; slash is just exploring the
possibility that they might be, or under what conditions a
relationship might change.

Surely most of the people you have wanted sex with were friendly
with you before they were your lovers?  Not all friendships
become sexual, but lovers are often friends before they are
lovers.

If you dislike it, don't read it.  There are many forms of
entertainment I find boring, ridiculous, stupid or just plain
bizarre; some of them, like team sports, are very popular.  You
don't see me posting to the list, just because someone mentioned
baseball, that I dislike baseball, and wondering aloud what the
'problem' must be with anyone who does enjoy it.

> Characters in slash stories do have friends.  No insult is
> meant.  Nor is there any desire to claim that any characters
> can't be friends with any other characters.  Rather the
> opposite: the intent is that all types of human relationships
> can conceptually be included, none excluded.
>
> This probably won't make you feel any better about it,
> though.

Nor does anyone need to make him feel better about it.  I walk
every day past advertisements for television shows, books and
movies that bore, irritate, befuddle or even offend me; but other
people have the right to enjoy whatever entertainment they
choose, so long as it does me no harm.

I refuse to justify my right to read, write or enjoy things that
make other people uncomfortable, as if they had some kind of say
over what I ought not to like.

~malfoy

****************************************************************
Azalais Aranxta (~malfoy)
ataniell93 on LiveJournal and Vox
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/malfoymadness

"I know the true world, and you know I do. But we needn't let it
think we all bow down." --Christopher Morley