The Shipping News (November 5, 2012)
Hello fellow shippers, my name’s Yvonne but you can call me Undiegirl. I’ll be your guide this week, helping you negotiate the rough waters of the slash world. So strap on your life jacket and we’ll begin.
Slash Dictionary: Canon
“Ready, aim, fire,” said the powers-that-be as half of your OTP shoots effortlessly into bed with a member of the opposite sex.
“Nooooooo” cried the slash fan as they desperately try to plug the giant gaping hole in the side of their ship.
‘Canon.’ You’ve probably heard the term tossed back and forth throughout fandom, but what does it really mean? Well canon is what matters within the text in terms of continuity. It is what actually happened, like if you sat down and watched your favorite show and wrote down everything the characters actually said or did – that would be canon. I’m not talking about subtext, or things that actors hint at in interview’s, or innuendo or even random dreams you had after you ate too many corn chips. I’m talking about what is actually shown or heard on the show. There are arguments over whether or not supporting texts are canon or not, but you get the gist.
WARNING - The term is thrown around in fandom a lot, especially the slash fandom. You might see someone say, “it’s so canon” when really they mean, “it’s so subtext” or “it’s not really canon at all, but I want it to be”. Be aware that ‘canon’ is a sore subject for slash fans – because after all, canon is what sinks ships.
Slash News Round-up
• Well the Slash v Femslash Face-Off has finally come to an end and unfortunately the broody sourwolf and his hyperactive human just couldn’t take the ladyloving songstresses. Congrats Faberry and well done Sterek fans, you fought the good fight and even if you didn’t win the battle you definitely got what you wanted because EVERYONE is talking about Sterek.
Final vote tally:
Faberry: 49965 - Sterek: 47467
• Ship Wars ahoy within the Supernatural fandom after known troublemaker Misha Collins suggested (at a convention) that the connection between Dean and Castiel wasn’t something the fans just dreamed up – it’s there. This set off another round of “it’s so canon” vs. “it’s so not”… I’m not going to weigh in on this - I’ll just ask you to refer back to the above discussion of ‘canon’.
• TV Guide wrote a list of “The Pros and Cons of Shipping” where they told us “Some loves will never happen” – unfortunately, they chose to use our beloved Sterek as an example of this. Ouch – that hurt. Why do they always pick on the slash fans?
• Hypable’s Battleships tournament is into the second round and slash couples – Dean/Castiel, Sherlock/Watson, Stiles/Derek and of course our M/M pairing of the week Merlin/Arthur – are all in the running for the championship title.
M/M Pairing of the Week: Merlin/Arthur (BBC Merlin)
If you have been dismissing Merlin as a children’s show then you have been missing out, because while it can be seen as family fun, it’s also an exciting fantasy story with a fantastic friendship at the heart of it… well I say friendship when really the relationship between Merlin and Arthur is so much more. Some might say that they are actually in love with each other, and those people would be Merthur shippers.
Seriously though, the whole show is built around the relationship between Arthur and Merlin… their love is literally legendary. No joke, it’s destiny, the dragon said so. Of course they start off hating each other, but in the tradition of The Taming of the Shrew (or 10 Things I Hate About You) isn’t that how the best romances begin? Soon enough they are willing to die for each other, and they have had many chances to prove it. Also, Arthur frequently wakes up shouting Merlin’s name… I mean what are we supposed to think?
Accidently Shipped: Casey/Severide (Chicago Fire)
Okay so this one isn’t so much accidently shipped… it’s more like I chartered a luxury liner but it’s new so it counts. Has everyone been watching Chicago Fire? Because you should be, it’s a show about ridiculously attractive firemen that save people from burning buildings and wear awesome hats and stuff. What’s not to like? Please tell me someone is writing fan fic for this… let us know if you have any recs.
Anyway, at this particular firehouse there are two men, Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer) and Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) that have a serious amount of hoyay happening. Casey is Truck and Severide is Squad, which appears to be the equivalent of being Sharks and Jets. They just lost a friend, which has resulted in lots of man pain, but instead of hugging it out and giving each other the much needed affection they so desperately crave they insist of pulling on each other's ponytails. Yup, I ship it. I ship it good.
Featured Fan Fic:
Fanfiction is full of epic novel length sagas, with angst and violence and lots of smut (with kinks I have never even heard of). These are the fics that keep you up all night and have you forgetting that the couple is not actually together in canon. Don’t get me wrong, I love those fics, but they aren’t the easiest way to get into the genre when you’re not used to it. So for my pic I have chosen something that’s a little bit simpler (and maybe a tad silly), but still a lot of fun.
Rating: General Audiences
Relationship: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
When I asked people what fic they would recommend for someone new to slash fandom, this was the one that stood out. This is what’s known as a note!fic – it’s written as if it was written on notes. In this case, it’s Stiles’ notebook, where he writes all about his crazy crush on sourwolf Derek (there’s a sequel that includes Derek’s response). It’s adorable, and I deny you to come out of the end of it without saying awww…. also it’s hilarious as well, much giggling was happening – I was in the library, I thought someone was going to call an ambulance. The things I do for you.
(source)
Read the whole thing here.
Artist of the Week: Andlatitude
(source)
Meet Stephanie (a.k.a. andlatitude). This lovely girl loves Richard Speight Jr in an endearingly obsessive way, and she also makes some awesome fan art. She mainly posts Supernatural and Band of Brothers, but there are all kinds of gems in her collection. Her main slash ship is Sam/Gabriel (Sabriel) from Supernatural but that’s not all she draws. Her art is a good way to get started because it’s pretty fluffy (sweet) and there isn’t a lot of scary porn, which you might encounter if you just start searching diviantART randomly. (I’m not against the porn – in fact I’m all for the porn – it’s just best to ease into this kind of thing). Seriously, her art is great and she makes T-shirts too.
Tumblr: http://andlatitude.tumblr.com
Tumblr Q&A:
Could you possibly discuss the problem of racism within the slash culture. (It's not everywhere of course but in some parts). If you don't know exactly what I'm referring to google should be of some help. I would love to hear your thoughts! – Anonymous
Thanks for the question Anon, you have actually raised an important issue… an important issue that I really don’t feel qualified to comment on. Seriously, I’m good for a sarcastic comment or a sexual innuendo but anything more than that and you’re probably going to be sorely disappointed. That said, I’ll give it a go because racism is a big issue within slash fandom and even if I get everything wrong it’s definitely something we should be talking about.
Right so you might have head the phrase – “slash is the sound of white dudes fucking” – well that’s unfortunately pretty accurate. Slash fans almost exclusively pair cis white men together; I mean all of the pairings we have featured on The Shipping News so far have fit this description. It’s a fact of the fandom, but the real problem is that so many people either ignore or dismiss it.
There are other factors of course, like the underrepresentation of POC in general but I think it would be naïve to assume that simply by creating more dynamic characters for POC that it would prevent this exclusion entirely. There are also issues with the connotations of race and sexuality that cause people to read certain characters and relationships in a particular way. Then there is the power imbalance that creates problems with some slash conventions.
All these things have an effect on the kind of couples found in the slash fandom but that doesn’t excuse the fact that fans ignore the inherent imbalances… and then get upset when someone points it out to them. Look it’s okay to be a fan of problematic things, it’s just important to acknowledge these problems exist because the more we talk about it the more likely we are to unearth the real issues and enact some actual change. So keep asking your question Anon because I am going to do some research and hopefully I will have a better answer for you next time.
Head over to the Tumblr to find your other slash experts responses to this question (they are all much better at this kind of thing than me) and don’t forget you can send your questions or queries to us here.
Parting Gif
Because I feel like Sterek fans could maybe use some cheering up this week… I found you something adorably fluffy to turn that frown upside down which is I’m sure what Derek actually wants to do in this gif, but he’s got to maintain his sourwolf persona so…
Artist: JasonDriskill (source)
