holmgang | On Slash and Canon (Reply)

Do you ever just think about how much slash (and femslash) fandom has changed the last ~10 years? Expectation of canonicity have changed so immensely. This expectation just plain did not exist before Johnlock and Destiel, not as far as I remember, while nowadays you have certain slash fans harrasing creators over lack of canonicity…

It really is just those 10 years ago or so that people were still putting “m/m yaoi slash don’t like, don’t read!!!” stuff in their summaries, pre-defensive about what they were doing. My oldest slash-ish fic dates back to 2011 and I didn’t write a warning for it, but I think some people were still doing that at the time. I certainly kept seeing it in summaries on ff.net, so even if those fics may have been a bit older, they were still from within that time frame.

I remember being quite reluctant to go into actual Wolfstar at the time, despite primarily writing Marauders fic centered around Remus. I wrote post-Wolfstar (post-slash, as I apparently wrote in the summary at the time) in that 2011 fic I mentioned, but I didn’t write actual slash till some years later.

Aside from that defensiveness, that reluctance to be seen as a “deranged slash fan” that has (seemingly) largely disappeared from international fandom (I’m sure it must still exist in some national ones, see the reaction “fujoshis” garner), there is also the question of expectations when it comes to canon.

As I said, I don’t remember people ever expecting slash ships to become canon back in the day. Queerbaiting was rarer, of course, but it was happening. Subtext had certainly been happening forever, just look at Sherlock Holmes and Star Trek, two of the earliest fandoms. A lot of 90s shows had significant slash fandoms, as well, with, again, no expectation of canonicity (I mean, it was the 90s). Hell, I mean, people didn’t even expect Xena/Gabrielle canonicity, and that basically happened, to the extent that it could at the time!

But getting closer to today, Merthur was a hugely popular queerbaited ship (and actually one I shipped while the show was ongoing, so I have a bit more authority on this than the earlier stuff). It was by far the most popular ship in the fandom, and the show certainly had it’s subtext about their relationship, but no-one was expecting it to go canon at any point during the shows run (2008-2012). Or rather, maybe a few people did, but that was not part of the fannish conversation about the pairing. Similarly, X-Men: First Class made Cherik hugely popular in 2011, but canonicity wasn’t discussed - and certainly not expected!

I do think Johnlock and Destiel is where it changed. The queerbaiting for those ships was unbearingly overt. In think the fact that both those shows make direct references to a romantic relationship between the two shipped characters must have been part of what did it. People were getting convinced that, when so much had gone from subtext to outright text, their actual relationships must do at some point, too.

I believe the fact that these two shows, that were popular to the extent that they were unavoidable within fandom spaces, both had overtly queerbaited ships simoultaneously is what changed the expectations for canonicity. Because, as they kept not going there, the conversation about queerbaiting spread far and wide. People felt insulted - and rightly show!

That other shows were starting to have more canon m/m and f/f relationships probably also affected things. Slash fandom was changing from a shameful, hidden thing to a natural reaction to parts of what a story was putting forth. Of course, LGBTQ rights have come a long way in recent years, too, which has probably set a different scene for slash, as well. Expecting that a show may have a gay or bisexual character in the main cast is not unrealistic today the way it was up until Will and Grace got really popular (with SFF shows still taking a while to get there, lbr).

But the interesting thing to me is perhaps that this big focus on queerbaiting, this new thirst for canonicity (which I share, don’t get me wrong), has affected how fandom regards non-queerbaited slash and femslash ships, too. Certain slash ships with honestly not that much in the way of canoncial subtext have been expected to become canon. Slash fans of recent years have tried to bully creators into making such ships canon, then harrased them when they didn’t. And while I certainly understood it with Johlock and Destiel (as much as harrasment is always wrong), even that would have been an incomprehensible idea 10 years ago. People simply didn’t have those expectations. The fact that it’s been happening with ships that have very little in the way of subtext going on is sort of incomprehensible to me and I’m only 22.

I’m really so very glad that the shame and guilt often associated with creating and consuming slash in the past isn’t really present in modern international fandom, because it’s a sign of homophobia being less prominent and it’s healthier for all involved. And I do think we should speak out when canon tricks us then shits on us. Expecting completely normal non-canonical ships to become canon, though…? That’s weird to me. And the change in atitude is absolutely striking.