you know, that sneaker slogan

[jlh]

The folks who worry about the whole "slash is the sound of white men fucking" are talking about a fandom-wide trend, not the personal preferences of one person. I've certainly written plenty of white boy slash. I've spent the past few years writing Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell rpf, and in the last year have become active in the Kirk/McCoy part of Trek fandom. And I read it--those three ships and lately Puck/Kurt of Glee. So this isn't a "if you write slash about white boys you're a bad person and should feel bad" post.

But there are also a lot of other people in the world, in the canons, to be written about. My first and main slash ship is Seamus/Dean from Harry Potter, and Dean? Not so much with the white. And there's the het, the Harry/Hermione and the Draco/Ginny and the Ron/Padma, and the Parvati femslash. And in Idol fandom I've also written femslash--Carly/Amanda mostly, but also Gina/Haley as a secondary ship. And there's the Kimberley/Anwar, het about black folks (during WWII). And in my planned writing there's a lot of femslash coming, and some girl friendships, and plenty of characters of color. (By the way, femslash fandom: you guys could be a little less lily white, too.)

So basically what I have to say about the entire "woe, for even though I say I want to write and read about ladies and nonwhite characters I actually never do" is, well, just do it. I honestly cannot understand what is so damn complicated about it. You watch some canons that aren't just about white guys, like Undercovers. You pay attention to some of the secondary characters, like Diana on White Collar (black gay lady, trifecta!) or Troy and Abed on Community or Chin Ho on Hawaii 5-0 or Esposito and Lanie on Castle or Mercedes and Tina on Glee. You become intrigued. You write. You know, just like any other fanfic.

Sure, if the way you operate in fandom is driven by always being in the white-hot center of the media slash fandom of the moment, if you discover new canons through the fic of your favorite writer, if you only really want to watch shows about boys driving cars or spaceships and shooting things, then doing the above is going to be more difficult. You might be writing a ship that only 100 people pay attention to instead of 2000. You might not see your fandom mentioned on metafandom. You might not be able to ride in on the coattails of a BNF along with a bunch of other fangirls and feel like a cohesive gang who all love the same things. And if that's true for you, then what I'm about to say will probably come off a little harsh.

But honestly? Maybe you should start looking outside that incredibly narrow definition not only of fandom but also of slash and see how enormous and varied fandom really is. It's easy, when you're in the middle of something pretty big, to think it's the whole of the fandom world, or at least the only part that counts. Well, Harry Potter fandom wasn't, and neither is media slash fandom. So if you really want to read and write about ladies and characters of color, then you might need to take a few chances and sometimes part ways with the fandom hoardes.

But, you know, your choice! Do it or don't, no one's holding you accountable here. But talking about how you're going to do it (or lecturing other people about how they should be doing it) and then later talking about how you didn't do it but really you're going to do it this time doesn't really push the conversation forward all that much.

Comments

[edithmorningstar]

Word.

Now that I've gone and become part of a smaller fandom than I've ever been in before (Vorkosigan), I'm really seeing how much people appreciate when things are written about the characters less written about (even when they still are white men). How much more of a sense of community might there be, to be found and nurtured and enjoyed, in the too-much-ignored ships in more popular canons? I mean, I posted a fic that was likely only going to interest a couple hundred people, but knowing that a good chunk of them read it, and that some of those responded, was just as fulfilling as posting something widely beloved like harry/draco in 2002. Now I wonder what I missed in not being part of the smaller ships, like seamus/dean, back then.

I guess what I mean is, it doesn't have to be a *sacrifice* of audience. You may have a smaller audience, but it's no less of a quality one, and has a little something extra for being niche. Plus, I'm finding it's incredibly freeing to be writing in a ship where there isn't that much fic out there yet. I don't have to worry about trodding well-worn tropes for that pairing. I don't have to worry that a BNF has already done it better than I ever will. It's mine to explore. It's made me much more interested in exploring less-fan-written characters in other canons, now, too, including those who happen to be of color.

I guess what I mean is, people frame this as if it's eating their broccoli; they *ought* to write these characters, out of social justice, whether or not they feel compelled to. And in reality, it's more like trying that weirdly-shaped fruit at the farmers' market and discovering it's the tastiest thing ever.

[jlh]

I think we both know the entries I'm responding to here, and yeah, very much about eating your broccoli. But also, an approach to fandom that's so the opposite of my own that it's hard for me to comprehend. A friend of mine had said once something about it being hers--she wrote an entry on her LJ wondering why anyone would ship a pairing that wasn't the #1 super popular one, to which I and some other said, "um, because we really like it?" I think some folks are here for the love of a character, a pairing, a canon, a universe, while others are here mostly to be in the white hot center of something, to be where the action is. And if you're the latter, then it's unsurprising that you find this process difficult, since the reason you were writing McShep or Merlin/Arthur or whateverthehell was entirely because of the attention and social capital and to be in the middle of the big thing. Het ships require interaction with canon shippers and that can be really tricky when you've come out of slash. (Which, honestly, I probably should say something about.) Writing characters of color can make a writer vulnerable to criticism that they generally don't get for writing perhaps unrealistic gay men due to the politics of slash (and one is insulated from a lot of critique of slash when one is in that white hot center). So I can see how it seems like a lot of risk for not a lot of payoff, if that's the payoff you're looking for.

But as you say, small ships pay you in so many other ways. Everyone gets really excited about things, and you don't take anything for granted basically ever, and it feels really chummy and fun. (Which is probably an entirely other entry, haha!)

And small fandoms are fun, too, because you're less likely to get lost. It's kind of nice!