I think that there's is still a wide variation on what people call "slash", despite how firm your own convictions on the term may be.
ITA. I first came into fandom through doujinshi, which is the Japanese term for 'fanzine', and to think it took me well more than a year to find out that doujinshican be het or gen ^^;;; Anyway, when slash first began to boom on internet back in 98? Or was it 97? The common (mis)conception then was that slash is but "Westerners's way of terming yaoi", which of course makes no real sense to those who truly understand what yaoi stands for- but that's another debate.
Anyway, I no longer am sure about what 'slash' originally stood for, but if you tell me today a story is slash then this is what I would expect of it: a story that features two (or more) male characters being involved romantically with one another. Whether or not there is sex and if so how much and how kinky would be told by its rating. If you tell me it's a piece of 'gay literature', then I would imagine something other than romance is being dealt with, most likely RL gay issues or the concepts about being gay? That's basically how I differentiate between the two 'genres'...
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Date: 2004-11-16 03:06 pm (UTC)ITA. I first came into fandom through doujinshi, which is the Japanese term for 'fanzine', and to think it took me well more than a year to find out that doujinshican be het or gen ^^;;; Anyway, when slash first began to boom on internet back in 98? Or was it 97? The common (mis)conception then was that slash is but "Westerners's way of terming yaoi", which of course makes no real sense to those who truly understand what yaoi stands for- but that's another debate.
Anyway, I no longer am sure about what 'slash' originally stood for, but if you tell me today a story is slash then this is what I would expect of it: a story that features two (or more) male characters being involved romantically with one another. Whether or not there is sex and if so how much and how kinky would be told by its rating. If you tell me it's a piece of 'gay literature', then I would imagine something other than romance is being dealt with, most likely RL gay issues or the concepts about being gay? That's basically how I differentiate between the two 'genres'...