[Poll] The Science of Slashiness

[thefourthvine]

Recently, cimness posted a graph of genius, comparing level of canon gay and quality of canon writing across several fandoms.

I, of course, immediately looked at it and thought: this calls for science. Because clearly what we need are definitive numbers for each of these values for many, many fandoms, so that they can be plotted on graphs. This will make me HAPPY. Possibly it will also make you happy - or perhaps you are just interested in increasing overall happiness in the universe! - in which case I direct you behind the cut.

ETA: lolitakun has provided us with some preliminary scientific results here. Go and behold!



A quick note on the selection of the fandoms: I picked ones I thought a lot of people would have opinions on. If I left something critical out, feel free to tell me in the comments.

A quick note on voting: When I say "slashy," I include femslash. Buffy/Faith, Gabrielle/Xena - these are pairings worth considering! Also, if you haven't seen an episode of the show, please don't vote on canon writing quality. (Ideally, you would have seen three! Or even more!) But if you think you can make a fair estimate of slashiness based on vids or YouTube pieces or transcripts, by all means, vote on that.

ETA: For quality, 1 = worse than anything you could find on fanfiction.net, even if you were funded by a grant solely for the purpose of finding the worst writing the world has ever known. 10 = genius unparalleled. For slashiness, 1 = straighter than a ruler. 10 = they could suck cocks or finger each other right there on the screen and it would only reduce the overall slashiness. Thanks for pointing out the ambiguity, lolaraincoat!

And now it's time for...SCIENCE.

[Poll #1352713]

Comments

[hyperfocused.livejournal.com]

Seconding (thirding?) the need for Sports Night, but am also suggesting the addition of The O.C to your addendum poll.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Sports Night and The O.C. both added! (http://thefourthvine.livejournal.com/99145.html)

[hyperfocused.livejournal.com]

Oh yay! The things you do for science will surely make the world a better place;) Certainly our little slashy corner of it.

[strangerian.livejournal.com]

Fandoms to consider for an addendum poll, if you want some historical dimension in your science (and, yes, science huzzah!):

MUNCLE (as mentioned above)
Starsky & Hutch (as mentioned several times above, and it's all, all true)
Star Wars IV,V,VI (control sample -- huge fandom but little slash in spite of tasty potential pairings)
Professionals (invented crack AUs, and kind of invented gay-theme slash; S&H were slashy buddies extraordinaire more often than culturally gay)
Blakes 7 (dystopic slash was never slashier)
X-Files (antagonist slash out of nothing but it suited the theme)
Babylon 5 (not so much slash as gay characters, er, yes that turned out to be like slash)
Star Wars I TPM (slash as product of inspired fannish activity -- without the MA archive early on, it wouldn't have been the same)
Popslash (introduced multiple musical revolving pairings which mysteriously did not explode the fandom in ship wars, and also that RPS thing)

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Ooo, thank you! I didn't use popslash, because you can't really rank the canon writing quality of an RPS fandom, but I put in almost everything else you suggested (http://thefourthvine.livejournal.com/99145.html). Forward, science!

[puckling.livejournal.com]

I'm VERY excited to see the graphs. I have no understanding of how to do statistics, so I always get really happy when other people run the numbers and then show me what's going on.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Graphs are most definitely exciting! *enthuses with you* (And don't miss lolitakun's preliminary results graph (http://lolitakun.livejournal.com/6064.html)!)

[dzurlady.livejournal.com]

Man, Merlin was really hard. Because intellectually I can see that it's very slashy, but watching it I never really notice the slash. It is a little baffling to me.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

I've never actually seen Merlin, though I long to. (Or, more specifically, I long to get my hands on the canon so I can make Best Beloved watch it.) But it sure looks slashy in vids. Perhaps you're blinded by anachronisms?

[dzurlady.livejournal.com]

(Also, hee, I love that icon. It's adorable. Katamari ftw!)
Would you like me to send you Merlin? It would take around a week to get to you, though. I really enjoy it, all questions of slashiness aside. It is fun and adorable, and heavily features people caring about other people, which I enjoy.
As for anachronisms, it happily has *so many* that I'm able to ignore them all, because it's clearly not *meant* to be correct. (Whereas if it was a little better, say, I would be constantly jolted out of my acceptance.) (Although, having said that, I do boggle occasionally at their blith lack of concern about how many knights may or may not die and where they will get new ones. Knights don't just grow on trees!)
Anyway, this is a long way of saying that when I read people say 'oh, that was slashy' or 'wow, moaning Arthur's name while writhing in bed, pretty slashy!' I think, 'yes, totally!' but when I'm watching it I tend to go 'aww, Merlin' or 'oh noes, I hope he gets better and Arthur is ok!' I pick up far far more het subtext (between all four of them, really). This does not seem to be the typical reaction, though. Even mainstream media has been talking about gay subtext, which tends not to feature in, say, SGA reviews.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Would you like me to send you Merlin? It would take around a week to get to you, though.

OMG YES PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! A week is totally no time at all. (They will play here, though, right?) Shall I send you my address? Have you already got it? That would be VERY VERY exciting! I will pay postage and associated costs!

As for anachronisms, it happily has *so many* that I'm able to ignore them all, because it's clearly not *meant* to be correct.

This is pretty much the line I'm planning on taking. It doesn't have to be historically accurate; it's clearly set in never-never time, if that makes sense.

Although, having said that, I do boggle occasionally at their blith lack of concern about how many knights may or may not die and where they will get new ones. Knights don't just grow on trees!

I have heard tell of this wanton misuse of knights! Perhaps they don't expect to ever get to the actual round table, the way Smallville has never really gotten to flights, tights, and superfights.

I'm watching it I tend to go 'aww, Merlin' or 'oh noes, I hope he gets better and Arthur is ok!' I pick up far far more het subtext (between all four of them, really).

I get a strong Merlin/Gwen vibe from the fan fiction, although it's also sometimes a Merlin & Gwen friendship type thing. Just, that can cross the line. (Side note: I'm really amused that, in the SGA:Merlin comparison, John = Arthur, Rodney = Merlin, Teyla = Gwen, and Ronon = Morgana. Ronon would be SUCH AN AWESOME Morgana!)

[dzurlady.livejournal.com]

OMG YES PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! A week is totally no time at all. (They will play here, though, right?) Shall I send you my address? Have you already got it? That would be VERY VERY exciting! I will pay postage and associated costs!
Well, it's just episodes I downloaded from the internet, so I'm like 99% sure it's yes. I would like your address, and don't stress re costs - it'll only be like $4 or something. (Unless you thought I meant offical dvds? In which case, I haven't bought them yet, unfortunately.)

I have heard tell of this wanton misuse of knights! Perhaps they don't expect to ever get to the actual round table, the way Smallville has never really gotten to flights, tights, and superfights.
Hopefully so, given how everything ends. The knights are very much the red shirts of the series, only with cloaks.

I get a strong Merlin/Gwen vibe from the fan fiction, although it's also sometimes a Merlin & Gwen friendship type thing. Just, that can cross the line.
Yes, I get an even stronger vibe from the show (she gives him a flower! He's oblivious!) but there's also Merlin/Morgana (about halfway into the series) which was unexpectedly hot, and hints of Arthur/Morgana (mostly near the start, I think?) (and also some Morgana/Gwen, actually, I forgot about that), and of course there's the ur-canonical Arthur/Gwen. Pretty much everyone could be shipped with everyone else, actually.

Edited to fix my tragic lack of opening bracket. Bracket/bracket OTP!

[penknife.livejournal.com]

I get a strong Merlin/Gwen vibe from the fan fiction, although it's also sometimes a Merlin & Gwen friendship type thing. Just, that can cross the line.

The show is very OT4ish, except in the sense that you feel that if all four of these personalities were involved in one relationship (or several interlocking relationships) something would explode. I tend to lean toward Merlin/Arthur + Morgana/Gwen + Arthur/Gwen, but you can make a good case for Merlin/Gwen (she's pretty clearly canonically attracted, though he seems oblivious), Arthur/Morgana (it's unclear whether their bickering is brother-and-sister or meant to be flirtatious -- I don't think they know), and even Merlin/Morgana just on the strength of ... spoilery things.

And then there is Lancelot. I think the show is very slashy, but less in an OTP way than in a "it feels as if anyone on this show could wind up in bed with anyone else at any minute" sort of way.

[brownbetty]

It suddenly occurs to me that I was voting on LotR the books, which are about as slashy as any given episode of “National Geographic Presents”, while I think everyone else was voting on the movies, which certainly do benefit from a lot of very pretty men in them, and some lingering handclasps and vows of loyalty.

*changes her vote*

[fleurrochard]

...we were supposed to vote on the movies?

(I see the movies as awesome fanvids, but certainly not as LotR canon. I might not exactly be in the majority there.)

[mackiedockie.livejournal.com]

I was surprised the quality of canon writing scored so low on Highlander--I wonder if the score was dragged down by the (hawk, spit) recent movies? The series writing was generally strong, consistent and literate, when compared to the late cinematic forays.

[boogieshoes.livejournal.com]

i answered a bit late perhaps, but better late than never. also, i only answered for shows that i have seen, and assumed that on the spectrum of 'badly written to well-written', each show was rated on the best-written eps.

i note, as a personal issue, that it can be hard to compare something i consider mostly humorous (dueSouth) with something that is supposed to be drama of some sort (House).

-bs

Let's make this really geeky, now.

[language-geek.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I posted this on the graph, and realized it probably should be posted here, as you are the one running this:

I'm going to totally argue the data, as not everyone is familiar with all fandoms, so some fandoms are probably, overall, being either rated harder or easier than the others. Unless you reduce voting to people familiar with all fandoms so as to create a more stable rating system (if someone votes harder, all the fandoms are subject to that, rather than just the few the person knows), the data will still be majorly flawed.

But awesome. Stats and boy porn; can it get any better?

(Sorry for the run-on sentence of death.)

[jasmine-shassie.livejournal.com]

psych is slashy!! u dont even have to look closely