My understanding is that slash originally* meant taking two characters of the same gender from an established piece of fiction (tv show, book, movie, whatever) in which those characters are NOT participating in any kind of same-sex sexual interaction, and writing a story in which they DO participate in some kind of same-sex sexual interaction. Imho, that's ALL "slash" means. It doesn't mean feminizing, or mpregging, or writing a gay character in a straight relationship.
*originally in this case referring to the offline fandoms of about 30 years ago. At any rate, this is the earliest reference to 'slash' that I've been able to find. The term comes from the backslash - the "/" - used in, for example, Kirk/Spock, Starsky/Hutch, etc (and today, Harry/Draco and whathaveyou). Kirk-slash-Spock. Slash. It was used to refer specifically to same-sex pairings in fanfiction and in discussion/interpretation of canon. So, yeah. I don't quite get applying the term to anything other than that.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-16 01:14 pm (UTC)*originally in this case referring to the offline fandoms of about 30 years ago. At any rate, this is the earliest reference to 'slash' that I've been able to find. The term comes from the backslash - the "/" - used in, for example, Kirk/Spock, Starsky/Hutch, etc (and today, Harry/Draco and whathaveyou). Kirk-slash-Spock. Slash. It was used to refer specifically to same-sex pairings in fanfiction and in discussion/interpretation of canon. So, yeah. I don't quite get applying the term to anything other than that.