Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

I think that the precipitating fact of the recent fandom eruptions of slash vrs Spuffy (which is so very strange to me - you know, some of my *best* friends are spuffy-shippers and why, my sister is even one of *them*, so to say that I am prejudiced against Spuffy is just silly /sarcasm) is prompted by the very fact that yes - Spike will be on Angel. And hopefully, often.

Seriously, I understand the pain of having a somewhat downer of an ender for your favorite pairing (I've never supported a fandom pairing that ended well - even my canonical 'ships end in death or disaster or worse) but to at least have an ending - and then to find out that no - the shiplicious painful ending you got is not it, and the story will continue - the characters will continue,just not together - and meanwhile the slash fans, are justifiably gleeful at the same news -- well discord is bound to be brewing.

So now you have a fandom where the Vampire Slayer is no longer the binding force - but rather the vampires. The two rather sexy, male vampires that have chemistry between themselves galore. From a het-shipper's standpoint, it probably did not seem that fair. A few months before all of this there was a whine on a fan-fiction board at TWOP about how *all* of the good Spuffy writers were now writing Spander (what amused me greatly about that post referenced Anna S. as one of the quality Spuffy writers, now lost to them due to Spander -- anyone that reads her work knows that the het-ness of "Season Noir" is a departure for her, rather than the norm)- I thought it was funny. This summer several other prominent writers in the buffy fandom also wrote a bit of slash - probably most notably Annie Sewell-Jennings. I think it was more of a creative decision for her - an artist does what they are inspired to do - and most people were just continually grateful that she was writing. I, for one, was happy to have more slash and went to the field and picked daisies and tra-la-la'ed my way home. I also understand why a lot of writers were becoming intrigued by the A/S dynamic -- well I am more than understanding of that, I support it as a lifestyle choice, but I understood why the interest was being generated *at this time* - I mean, anticipation is key.

So the charge that resounded throughout the fandom -- that slash is now "trendy" should not have surprised anyone. In actuality the amount of overall slash fiction had not increased, but the fandom-wide prominence of some of the authors had. Which also leads to the nasty backlash against BNFs (otherwise known as either Big Name Fans, or Bare Naked Firemen - you pick which one is appropriate)and several people suddenly having to justify the existence of their fiction. Add to that the ability to gather in new ways with LJ and the summer-time popular flash-fic-a-thons (of which there were several slash only) and never forget for a moment that Spike is going to be on Angel and Chicken Little had to shout that slash is overtaking the fandom and the het-sky is falling. But really it was the "trendy" crack that pissed a lot of us off. Then all of a sudden slash was straight women objectifying straight men (Angel is not gay - he is "straight as a skyscraper", dammit - of course the person that said this later admitted to not actually watching AtS, just BtVS)- but since no one seemed to really care about that (since straight men have been getting a free ride objectifying women -period) then is was straight women objectifying gay men. And then since that was not accurate - a lot of the gals in the fandom protested that they are gay or bi - it just became women objectifying the poor defenseless gay men. And then the cry went up "What about the gay men?!" and truly if fandom wank did not exist by then, it would have been invented for us at this time. We are the wankiest of the wankers and cannot let anything just die. But we were bored and it was another 2 months of hiatus and if you can't flame/snark at your fandom neighbor than who can you flame? Especially since she is so clearly wrong and misguided as to disagree with you.

Now I look forward to the "This Sucks" and the "No it doesn't, you suck" response that a new season always brings. Viva la fandom and may we all live to a series renewal!