[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

[jadelennox]

I used to be of the school that canonical same-sex relationships and slashy were entirely different. Then I figured that language had changed under me, and over the last few years I have come to move away from that, and started using the term "slashy" to include canon relationships. And then I was confronted with this poll and it was 100% clear to me that I think of them as different, because I didn't think that TW or BTVS either of them counted as 100% slashy just because they have canonical same-sex relationships with major characters. So this poll actually changed my use of language.

(Working that question out also refined for me in exact formula I ended up using at least for 8-10 on the slashiness scale. Namely, 10 is canon slashiness, which is to say same-sex relationships plus a slashy vibe: TW. 9 is tongue-in-cheek in-your-face subtext: Xena (and to a lesser extent, Merlin). And 8 is anything that isn't quite so in-your-face (Joxer saying to Gabrielle "is that hickey?") but doesn't require any kind of reading against the text or slash goggles to see.

Shut up. I like to pretend there is math involved in this. It makes me feel smart.)