[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

[tevere.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised that people are giving HP canon such a low slash factor! REMUS AND SIRIUS, PEOPLE! Werewolf = gay? (Forced to hide identity; once discovered, driven out of mainstream society.) They LIVE together for a period? They have a long and troubled history of secrets and lies and betrayal and hot exploratory adolescent sex, and then hell of a lot of sadder complicated adult sex? (Okay, perhaps those last two are my interpolation, but the very fact I CAN interpolate means there's seeds in the canon!)

Like many previous commenters, my brain went a little ka-boom on the DW/Torchwood combined question. Bizarrely, I consider DW more slashy than Torchwood. Because DW is full of potential and tasty subtext (Jack's flirting with 9 is just wonderful, and with 10 you get Jack's bitchy comments about being left behind), whereas Torchwood has made it explicit -- and to my mind, making one pairing explicit actually sort of reduces the overall slash factor for me. And, yeah, the overall quality of writing is very different between DW (I'd grade it 8-9) and Torchwood (I'd say around a 6).

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

I have provided a poll with additional fandoms (http://thefourthvine.livejournal.com/99145.html), including TW and DW each with their own separate questions. Yay for science!

And, oh my god, you're right: I had totally forgotten about Remus and Sirius when I voted! Although, by weight, it's still not a super-slashy fandom. Hmmm. *ponder ponder ponder*

[thepouncer.livejournal.com]

The Master/Doctor slashiness was also off the charts, in the season three finale run. They might as well have been having sex over that cell phone, it was so intimate and hot.

[tevere.livejournal.com]

OMG YES! I can't believe I forgot the Master! Gyaarrgh. That was so slashy it was just incredible.