Female Eyes on Gay Guys : A study of female fans and their relation to slash fan fiction

Abstract: This paper takes a look at the phenomenon slash fan fiction. Slash is a genre which often focuses on romantic and sexual relationships between same-sex characters, most of whom are men. It is not unusual that these characters are not homosexual in their original stories. The objective of this paper is to study why some women read and write slash fan fiction, with the focus on slash as a source of pleasure and as a source of identification. While the methodology employed is empirical, the theoretical framework consists of Henry Jenkins and Shoshanna Green as the main researchers on fandom and slash, and queer theory with Judith Butler as the main source. This is a rather small study, consisting of interviews with only four women. The findings suggest that the participants at times do identify with the different characters in slash stories, however they do more frequently take pleasure in just being a bystander and being able to experiment with the gender stereotypes regarding men.