Warning: This blog contains profanity and sex and isn’t about politics in SF. Kind of. So please, please don’t read it if you are easily offended, are under eighteen, think that sex between men is better left behind closed doors, and generally support the aims and ideals of Western Civilization.

Undermining the Aims and Ideals of Western Civilization or Are Young Straight Women Becoming Queer?

Those who know and love me well know that I’m a geek. So it wouldn’t come as a surprise to them that I knew nothing about fan literature. I was so oblivious that a friend of ours from New York came and stayed with us, went to a fan convention, and I totally missed it. Damn. My only excuse was that it was right before the election and not much else was penetrating my brain. Last week though, while I was visiting New York, Bex, a friend of mine, educated me about a whole phenomenon that I have somehow missed that some call fan literature. I’m mostly interested in/fascinated with a subset of this literature that is sometimes called “slash” literature. Slash is homoerotica between male fictional characters, like Kirk and Spock. We all knew about Robin and Batman, but Harry Potter and Snape? Superman and Joey? And yes. Luke Skywalker is gay. But who knew about John Kerry and John Edwards. Oh. My. God. All that touching and hugging. I should have known. I have good gaydar. How come I didn’t figure it out?

Oh God! I’m fucking Superman.
So Bex writes about John Kerry and John Edwards. I haven’t had a chance to read about them yet, but I did read about a story about Superman. Wow. This shit is hot. Where and when is the next convention? And who will I dress up as? Do I want to be Snape because I want to do Harry or do I want to be Harry because I love Harry? But it is more than just sex which is why it is so hot. Lots of angst and passion, porn with feelings…

The part that really knocked my socks off is that 80% of this male on male fan erotica is written by heterosexual women. Yep. The Christian Right is right. The homosexual agenda is undermining heterosexuality and Western Civilization. Queer culture is expanding right before our eyes on the internet. Now as a Female to Male Transgender guy, I can’t pretend to say I have any idea why these young women find homoerotica hot. I can only speculate a couple of things based on what Bex told me and what I have observed in general. Bex, a heterosexual woman, argues that since she is attracted to men, this is like a bonanza. Sort of like how heterosexual men like watching lesbian sex porn. Two women is better than one. Well, to her, two men is better than one.

Maybe, and I’m just speculating here, it is empowering for women to write about men and their emotions for a change, instead of just being the subject of men’s writings. Maybe women enjoy bringing emotional intensity to their male character’s relationships. I have read erotica written by gay men, but I have to say that it lacked some of the emotional passion that I have found in the slash literature that I have read so far. Not to be rude but women writers spend easily ten times as much time leading up the sex. There seems to be lots of talking about their friendship. Yes. I know. And usually the protagonist, typically the Robin to the Batman, breaks down and finally tearfully confesses his attraction after months of repression. Sort of an emotional explosion. And gasp. There is even romance.

There is another theory that this is the modern folk story. Instead of the story being recounted at a tribal gathering, it is retold and changed, and retold again at an urban tribal gathering on the internet. As one who spends way too much time on the internet reading and writing, I like this theory.

I dunno. It still feels like queer culture is infiltrating in a way that undermines Western Civilization, a project that I have been working on for decades. Grin. Are young straight women becoming queer? Well, maybe. I define queer as an umbrella term for sexual dissidents, or people who explore transgressive forms of sexuality and gender. I like to use the word queer as a verb as well. To queer something is to replace normative heterosexual values and make non-normative values the norm.

Michel Foucault

And while I have disagreed with some of Michel Foucault’s writings, I agree with his thesis that while the construction of sexual identity, concepts like homosexual and heterosexual, are useful for regulation by police and the medical establishment, these same concepts of identity are also useful as a starting point for resistance and subversion.

If one assumes that I am correct that heterosexual women are becoming queer or are queering our culture through slash literature, then one can also assume that they are resisting and subverting normative definitions of their own sexual and gender identity. Whew. Western Civilization watch out. Maybe I’m just fantasizing here but I think it is possible. Or maybe I just read too much Judith Butler.

Judith Butler

I’m still mulling over what I think of slash literature and there is a lot more to read. Fortunately.

But sadly and perhaps most importantly, I will never get to see Harry and Snape kiss on the big screen. But I can on the internet. Try this on for size. Read it. Or go here for the mother lode.
And celebrate that gender and identity are both fascinating and joyful in their complexity and incoherence.