thefourthvine: Two people fucking, rearview: sex is the universal fandom. (Default)
Keep Hoping Machine Running ([personal profile] thefourthvine) wrote2009-02-20 12:04 pm

[Poll] The Science of Slashiness

Recently, [livejournal.com profile] 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: [livejournal.com profile] 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, [livejournal.com profile] lolaraincoat!

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

[Poll #1352713]
noracharles: (Default)

[personal profile] noracharles 2009-02-21 01:12 am (UTC)(link)
To me, New Doctor Who is very slashy (I haven't seen any Classic DW). It has Doctor/Jack, Doctor/Master, Doctor/FoB, Doctor/The Next Doctor...
Torchwood isn't particularly slashy. I don't see any interesting UST in it at all, no emotional connection I want to explore. There's a gay relationship, but it doesn't really have the elements I look for and enjoy in slash.

It's funny to me how we can have such different understandings of what slash is, and still agree that, yes, Starsky & Hutch and Pros are very slashy indeed ^_^

[identity profile] lydiabell.livejournal.com 2009-02-21 02:26 am (UTC)(link)
I'm with you on slash. :) I'm afraid, however, that we're losing the definitional battle and it's coming to mean homoeroticism in general, whether textual or subtextual, emotional or just physical.