Need A Slash?

In the world of Slash Art and Fiction, characters from classic sci-fi and fantasy genres live very different lives... [we] delve into a hidden world created by predominantly by female fans where classic characters take on new identities and memorable scenes are given a very different twist...

While it took the arrival of the internet for Slash Art and Fiction to truely take off, the art of manipulating classic sci-fi and fantasy characters either through imagery or the written word actually began way back with the mother of all cult genres - Star Trek. Female fans were particularly drawn to Kirk and Spock - and within the pages or Fanzines - special Kirk/Spock stories were written where the Captain and Vulcan explored the more intimate sides of their personalities. And from the 'Kirk/Spock' moniker came the term 'Slash'. A neutral progression from the female-penned stories were accompanying images - and the skill of taking accutate actors likenesses and manipulating them into new, usually half-clothed poses bacame an art-form. The internet has now quickly replaced the published fanzine and it is in the murky world of Cyberspace where Slash Art has flurished. While there are still the hardcore army of Kirk/Spock admirers, the scene has now opened up to accomodate the latest cult favourites. Almost any film or TV show you can imagine has its dedicated followers, but there are a core list that appears to strike a cord with female cult fans that like to mis things up a bit. These being Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, X-files, Highlander and Smallvile. Arguably there is one website which leads the Slash Art movement - The Theband Band - a site formed by a brother and sister team based in Brisbane Australia, that has perfected the art of photo-manipulation - crafting photo-realistic recreations of famous actors and placing them in sometimes compromising situations. And according to co-founder Ned, it is truely a phenomenon created by the girls. "Slash Art appeals to women of all ages and sexuality," Ned tells [us], "The way we got into it was through fan fiction - and it was a natural progression for us to illustrate our stories. We started out with just X-files and moved on when Lord of the Rings came out. Now we do pretty much anything as long as it interests us aesthetically, although we really don't read that much fan-fiction anymore."

Some readers may be puzzled right now as to why heterosexual girls would be interested in seeing Aragorn and Eomer hugging, or Arwen and Eowyn embracing. But infact it mirrors a very similar phenomenon in Japan. Japanese girls are potty for Yaoi (completely the wrong term used there - Jen) - an Anime and Manga genre where doe-eyed boys get closer than usual. Slash takes a similar angle, taking fictional High School boys and replacing them with Hollywood actors. Why girls enjoy seeing same sec couples is a mystery for a psycologist to decipher, but needless to say the slash genre fan is as passionate and empowered as any Trekkie or Buffy enthusiast and at times the output is far more creative.

Theband's Ned explains how the genre is, thanks to the removal of usual barriers, able to explore where others fear to tred. "When it comes to Slash, there are no real rules, or if there are - no one told us about them. Any kind of image could be considered unacceptable to some 'Slashers' even those that read and/or write explicit fan fiction - although not all slash is adult.

"On the other hand, many would prefer that the images were a lot more explicit. But even then there are those who enjoy fan art but are uncomfortable with the use of the actors' faces. That would sometimes worry us as well but we've seen the reactions of several actors to our images and none of them were negative; they were merely amused"

Slash in either visual or written form is a fine example of how creative science fiction and fantasy genres are. And because there are no barriers in the subject matter themselves, i.e. a crew of explorers on a starship, a band of warriors returning a hallowed ring or FBI agents investigating aliens, there are no barriers for its fans. They can take the core subject matter and either create new 'unseen' adventures, alter the universe in which they reside or like Slash Are, take the characters and make them fall in love.

It certainly isn't everyone's cup of tea, but it does reveal that the female fans of cult TV and movies are perhaps even more experimental and creative than their male counterparts. While it may be an obvious choice for Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine relaxing together in a hot-tub, it is most certainly far more subversive, challenging and resque to place Kirk and Spock in the pool. How can Slash be 'illogical' when it is created within iniverses that have always subverted the mundane. Is that not the essence of fantasy?

-Taken from The Forbidden Planet International Magazine, Volume 23.