YOUR FAVORITE LOGO TV SHOWS ARE ON PARAMOUNT+

The Shipping News (October 1, 2012)

null

Editor's Note: We were blown away by the internet explosion that was the Ultimate Slash Madness Tourney, and it occurred to us that a regular weekly column on the subject of slash might be a great fit for AfterElton. The name for such a column was easy: The Shipping News. The only catch was who to write it? We realized the only way a column would appeal to slash fans was if the person writing it really knew what they were talking about. So we put out an informal request for a "slash expert" and we were inundated with great responses and suggestions. We then asked interested folks to submit a sample column, hoping to narrow it down to a single candidate. Fat chance. Even after reluctantly eliminating a dozen impressive submissions, we we're still left with five great people we wanted to work with.

The happy solution we came up with was a weekly column penned by a rotating roster of slash experts. By way of introduction, this first column includes contributions from each of our five new writers, but in future weeks Aja, Adri, Catherine, Hannah or Yvonne will individually pen the column and share their unique perspectives.

First up is Shipping News columnist Aja Romano

Aja is a queer feminist and longtime member of a zillion fandoms, including Harry Potter,Asian pop, andInception.She's a fandom journalist for the Daily Dot and would love to hear from you! Find heron Twitter or Tumblr and tell herwhat's happening in your fandoms!

Hi, AE! I'm happy to kick off The Shipping News. In this column we'll share a bit of slash fan culture—our history, quirks, and, of course, yes, where to find the good porn. (If you're into that sort of thing.) We'll also take a look at what's happening around slash fandom: what's trendy, what's controversial, and what fics, fanworks, and hot new ships are too good to miss.

Newbies may be wondering: what is slash? Basically, it’s fanwork about “ships”—romantic relationships you root for—between two people of the same gender. Normally slash refers to characters from popular fictional stories who aren’t romantically paired up in the story itself. Slash is inherently subversive. It can also be extremely hot, incredibly well written, and lots and lots of fun. While "slash" can refer to male and female genders, often “slash” is assumed as male/male and "femslash" is fem/fem. For this column, slash is assumed to be male/male.

Slash Dictionary: What exactly is RPS anyway?

A popular recent RPS pairing is Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps

(via Buzzfeed)

RPS is short for "Real Person Slash." It basically means slash about real people, usually (but not always) celebrities.

RPS is the slash variant of RPF, Real Person Fiction. This may sound paradoxical, but in the past, some fans who wrote about real people relied on the disclaimer that everything they write is fiction to keep from getting sued for slander, a la tabloids. RPF used to be something of a shocking subject for fandom; but times have changed, and now RPF is so common that the Archive of Our Own has thousands of RPF fics, most of them RPS. Hundreds of stories exist in the historical category alone, dating from the 10th century on up. (The 11th century is, tragically, unficced.)

Lest you think it's weird that people write fic about real people, think back to the last ep you saw of The Tudors or The Kennedys. How many times did the writers give us a glimpse of some behind-the-scenes moment, totally off the historical record? This is just like that... but with more sex.

A few of my favorite film versions of RPS: Gods and Monsters, Milk, and Before Night Falls.

What are yours?

Slash News Roundup

  • Can we just take a moment to appreciate how many celebrities pimped their show's fave pairings in the AfterElton Ultimate Slash Madness Tourney? In addition to Misha Collins, Colton Haynes and the rest, we had John Barrowman and David Hewlett urging their fanbases to vote. Gone are the days when fans were on one side of canon and creators, producers, and actors were on the other. I think it's great.
  • The popular Teahouse Web Comic is hosting a BOYS LOVE TOUR IN JAPAN. ("Boys Love" refers to BL manga, a staple of Japanese comics focusing on gay male relationships and targeted towards women.) I don't think I need to tell you guys why this is awesome.
  • Fandom bookworm Mark Oshiro, of Mark Reads Twilight and Mark Reads Harry Potter fame, has been doing live readings on his YouTube channel lately. He's currently reading one of Harry Potter fandom's most legendary fics, The Shoebox Project. If you've never experienced Shoebox, a beautiful Remus/Sirius fanfic, you're in for a major treat. Check out the eps here!
  • Mark Oshiro reads from "The Shoebox Project"

  • Yuletide, the largest rare fandom challenge on the Internet, is gearing up for its 10th year! Nominations for rare fandoms are open now through Weds 9pm Eastern. (Must sign up for an Archive of Our Own account-- to bypass the waiting list check here.) Now's the chance to nominate that hot pairing you think no one else ships but you! Trust me, with Yuletide, you're always surprised.
  • The Sterek Campaign is gearing up for their second month! This month's theme is "Howls for Sterek," where fans record themselves telling Jeff Davis exactly how they feel about Sterek, and why they think their ship should become canon.
  • Like any fan, I get testy when an outsider talks cluelessly about fandom, so the recent articles by Jezebel and Wonkette about Hail to the Slash really irked me. For one thing, the blog has nothing to do with political fandom; it's just a guy, Josh Fruhlinger, who heard about fanfic and thought it would be fun to use it to mock politics. For another thing, neither Fruhlinger nor Jezebel seem to realize or acknowledge that political fanfic, actual political fanfic, not the satirical parodies you always see in media outlets around election time, has existed for years. "AT LAST, THERE IS A WEBSITE FOR YOUR HOMOEROTIC PRESIDENTIAL FAN FICTION," Fruhlinger declares on Wonkette. It's called political RPS, a.k.a. politislash, and you can find it at a fan archive near you. "Tell your pervert friends about it," Fruhlinger encourages. No thanks. My pervert friends and I already have communities where we can write politislash sincerely.
  • source logicallypositive

    From Shipping News columnist Catherine Bertrand...

    Computation Arts student by day, slash blogger by night. Cath has a thing (understatement) for sci-fi and comic books. She is mostly active in the Supernatural, Teen Wolf and Star Trek fandoms, but will watch and analyze virtually anything recommended to her in less time than it takes to say "complete series box set".

    Artist to Watch

    This week I'd like to spotlight Indonesian artist Brilcrist [deviantArt, Tumblr] who left the Supernatural fandom a year ago despite the ever-growing popularity of her Destiel fanart. However, Marvel slash enthusiasts were in luck: she focused her incredible artistic talent on X-Men and Avengers pairings, with a current preference for the cinematographic incarnation of Tony Stark (Iron Man) and Bruce Banner (The Hulk). She is best known for her distinctive style and imaginative alternate settings. Oh, and perhaps for the Dean and Castiel body pillows she once made.

    source

    From Shipping News columnist Hannah...

    Hannah is a writer, feminist, and aspiring cat lady. She watches quite a lot of television and her tastes are eclectic, ranging from Suits to Battlestar Galactica and nearly everything in between. She's been known to devour new books, fanfiction, movies, and TV shows in the blink of an eye. Give her avocados, cheese, and a working internet connection and she will be happy for hours!

    Slash Dictionary: What exactly is PWP?

    Before you go gallivanting into the wide world of fanfiction, there are a few basic terms and phrases that it helps to understand. Knowing the lingo can be helpful for finding what you want to read - and avoiding what you'd rather not. Today I'd like to offer up a definition of an important fanfic label that you'll probably see a lot: PWP.

    PWP stands for either "Plot? What Plot?" or, put more clearly, "Porn Without Plot." To label your fanfiction a PWP work is to announce to potential readers that the focus is on the sex, not the plot, and there probably isn't a plot point in sight. So if anyone's looking for a quick, steamy read rather than a heart-wrenching epic, they know where to click. Non-PWP works can definitely have sexual content, but they’ll generally also be longer and/or the sex won’t be the fanfic’s raison d'être.

    From The Shipping News columnist Adri M...

    Adri is a Psych student and a professional fangirl. She covers a LOT of slash ships like Klaine, Sterek, Johnlock, and everyone else you've been hearing so much about these days. She loves to spend time thinking about how fans affect the shows they watch and how slash has come to be such an phenomenon. She really hopes you enjoy this space!

    Featured FanFic

    My first recommendation is going to be a tear-jerker, and I’m not even the slightest bit sorry. In every fandom there is at least one fanfic that everyone knows, the one that can be mentioned by name and cause all surrounding slashers to go “Oh I know, dude, I know.”

    In the BBC Sherlock fandom, that fanfic is "Alone on the Water" by Mad_Lori. It’s a masterpiece of pain, my friends; it’s an emotional rollercoaster that only goes down.

    Excerpt...

    At some point over the past two years he and I have become a hybrid. Sherlock-and-John. The graft has been so complete that even when we’re separated, for days or weeks as has occasionally occurred, I still feel the invisible seam that joins me to him. For a moment, I’m angry. Because he won’t be the one who’ll have to cut away half of himself and go back to being a singular entity. John-and-[redacted]. The seam will remain, though. I will bear the scar down my center to remind me of what I’ve lost.

    Beautifully crafted and filled with sweet Johnlock angst, "Alone on the Water" is a must read for Sherlock fans.

    From The Shipping News columnist Yvonne Popplewell...

    Yvonne (a.k.a. UndieGirl) is a part time superhero, full time fangirl but according to official paperwork she's also an academic/writer. Yvonne is currently building an armada of ships to take over the world and could always do with more. (Find out more about her plans for world domination at the blog Pop Culture is Not Art).

    M/M Pairing of the Week: Kirk/Spock

    This being the first of AterElton's Shipping News columns, it seemed appropriate to present you with the slash couple that arguably started it all – Kirk/Spock. Fans of the original series Star Trek (although it works for the reboot too) began to notice that the lovably slutty Captain Kirk was only ever really intimate with his first officer Spock. And the Vulcan was finally able to get emotional only when it came to his Captain. Basically they love each other.

    Truth is I could spend hours describing moments and looks that suggest these two were more than just friends, but the thing about slash is that you really have to discover it for yourself. It’s kind of like a treasure hunt. Just have another look at the way that Kirk and Spock interact, and if you notice something a little bit deeper than friendship, check out some of these links:

    The Kirk/Spock Fanfiction Archive

    kirkspock.livejournal.com

    Tumblr's fuckyeahspacehusbands

    Accidentally Shipped: Matthew/Tom (Downton Abbey)

    The thing is, when you’re a slash fan, sometimes it just happens accidentally. While the “Pairing of the Week” is all about those big ships that lots and lots of people are going to go down with, this section is about the momentary slips that happen when you’re so used to looking for homoerotic subtext that you can’t help yourself. Sometimes you see two characters together and just for a moment you think, I wonder.... It happens, and it happened to me when I was watching the Season premiere of Downton Abbey. (The third season is now airing in the U.K.)

    Basically, soon-to-be brothers-in-law Matthew Crawley and Tom Branson have a couple of really sweet bonding moments in the first episode of the British period drama's third season. While they are both happy with their respective partners (and I don’t want them to break up), they share a few deep conversations and lingering looks that causes slash bells to go off inside my head… it’s all about the looks darling. In all probability I will have forgotten about this couple in a few weeks, but in the meantime I’m going in search of some fan fiction! If you know of any, let us know in the comments.

    Parting GIF

    There any number of hilariously witty gifs to be found on Tumblr at the moment, but honestly after the Ultimate Slash Madness Tourney what we really need is a bit of mush – I mean can’t we all just get along? Things might have been said, in the heat of battle, that were regrettable and everyone needs to remember what brought us here in the first place. Slash brought us together, so let’s keep it together. Hug it out.

    source

    That’s it for now! Thanks for reading and see you next week when the first of our five slash experts, Aja Romano takes the reigns for The Shipping News!

    Latest News