TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Ask The Tropers

Go To

Have a question about how the TVTropes wiki works? No one knows this community better than the people in it, so ask away! Ask the Tropers is the page you come to when you have a question burning in your brain and the support pages didn't help. It's not for everything, though. For a list of all the resources for your questions, click here. You can also go to this Directory thread for ongoing cleanup projects.

Ask the Tropers:

Trope Related Question:

Make Private (For security bugs or stuff only for moderators)

FastEddie MOD Since: Apr, 2004
2013-09-21 18:47:39

Zapped all that. It suffered from myopia re gay/not gay, which is immaterial.

Goal: Clear, Concise and Witty
Nocturna Since: May, 2011
2013-09-22 08:52:42

Eddie, you cut the part about slash fic being about same-sex pairings. Can I add that back, as it's an essential part of the definition? (Slash=guy on guy, generally, with femmeslash for girl on girl. Straight pairings are usually referred to as such, or as het fic. Fic about romantic pairings of any gender mix are shipping fic.)

Edited by Nocturna
FastEddie MOD Since: Apr, 2004
2013-09-22 09:09:16

Whatever. Some communities use slash to mean shipping, without regard to genders. Lord knows I don't want to get bogged down in another in-group jargon definition war.

Goal: Clear, Concise and Witty
RoseAndHeather (Edited uphill both ways)
2013-09-22 22:44:02

Ask ten members of fandom about the definition of slash fic, and it's safe to say nine of them will tell you that slash refers specifically to gay pairings, so for all intents and purposes it's an intrinsic part of the definition. For what it's worth.

I serve at the pleasure of President Pritchart.
Knight9910 Since: Jan, 2001
2013-09-22 23:31:49

Urban Dictionary agrees with Rose. Again, for what it's worth.

Humorously, dictionary.com gives the hilariously vague description "a genre of erotic fiction written by women, to appeal to women".

Larkmarn Since: Nov, 2010
2013-09-23 06:57:26

I never got why Slash specifically referred to same-sex pairings. If I recall correctly, the name comes from saying that it's from saying it's a "Bob/Charlie pairing" (in other words, "Bob slash Charlie") which seems just as applicable to heterosexual pairings.

I mean, I accept that it DOES. It's just so arbitrary.

Edited by Larkmarn Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.
desdendelle (Sergeant)
2013-09-23 07:31:51

AFAIK Rose is right and Slash is gay/lesbian pairings. Het pairings are het/romance/whatever.

On empty crossroads, seek the eclipse -- for when Sol and Lua align, the lost shall find their way home.
RoseAndHeather (Edited uphill both ways)
2013-09-23 07:53:10

AFAIK, "slash" refers to same-sex pairings because the slash mark was first used to indicate a romantic pairing of Kirk and Spock, as opposed to the ampersand that indicated a story that focused on their friendship. So, Kirk/Spock (romantic) vs. Kirk&Spock (platonic). It wasn't until later (Mulder/Scully, I believe) that the slash was used for a het romantic pairing, and by that time the word "slash" meant "gay erotic fanfic". There are a few small fan communities where slash does mean any romantic pairing, but thanks to the Internet, the former meaning is predominant in fandom.

...well. Don't I sound like a pretentious twat.

I serve at the pleasure of President Pritchart.
MissMokushiroku Since: Mar, 2010
2013-09-23 08:57:39

Fanlore has an extremely detailed article on slash, including a section on how it's been defined through the years: http://fanlore.org/wiki/Slash#Defining_Slash

However, most of the debate regarding what slash is and isn't mostly surrounds whether slash is necessarily non-canon, whether the participants have to be canonically straight to be slashed, or whether slash works are necessarily fanworks or can also be original works. Most fandoms agree at this point that "slash" refers exclusively to same-sex pairings (and, more specifically, M/M pairings, versus femslash for F/F pairings). Frankly, until this thread, I didn't know that anyone referred to het pairings as slash. They're a tiny, tiny minority in modern fandoms.

shoboni Since: Oct, 2010
2013-09-23 09:45:45

I've never heard it either, AFAIK straight pairings are just called shipfic.

Top