Slash and More ⚣

 It seems that in every show I watch, every book I read, one thing remains the same. I'm always interested in the romantic relationships of the characters, specifically same sex relationships between men. That's not to say I don't like "het" or "femslash", but m/m is my number one. 

Before I continue, a quick overview on slash.

"Slash" seperates a platonic ship from a romantic one. It's written as character/character or characterxcharacter instead of character&character. The latter is platonic and the distinctions are very important especially on platforms like Archive of Our Own where users will specifically search for a romantic ship or a platonic relationship. They do not want to see a relationship fanfiction for a paiting they like to read about in a platonic sense. The word slash itself came from Star Trek, of course. "K/S" or Kirk/Spock is widely regarded as the first notable m/m "ship" created by fans. "Femslash" is that but with women. An example would be Disney femslash or cross-fandom shipping the Disney princesses. Fun! 

Another word for male/male pairings is "yaoi". This comes from explicit Japanese manga and anime. "BL" or "boys love" is the SFW term. I don't use yaoi for this post because I'm talking about western media and my ships aren't even canon, so slash is the more appropriate term. Yaoi has become a buzzword for every teenager nowadays, especially on hostile mainstream spaces like tiktok and instagram. It's important to note that tiktok and instagram fandom spaces are a cesspool and should never be taken seriously especially when using specific terminology that doesn't apply to popular western ships like Sam and Dean from supernatural. Popular m/m ship, but not quite canon and not technically yaoi. (And no, your quirky roblox/object show ship is not "yaoi", so fuck off this isn't about you)

The term "fujoshi" is also thrown around. It was made up by men in Japan who hated women for reading yaoi/BL and considered them perverse. It means "rotten girl". The male alternative is "fudanshi". I consider myself a little bit of a fujo/fudan because I've read and enjoyed Japanese BL but again I won't use that term to describe people today because I'll be writing about my western interests. (I'm a bit of a tradjoshi, ok? Tradition is important!) 

Back to the topic at hand. 

What is the appeal of slash? For a while I didn't know why. A few years, actually. One of my first m/m endeavors was the Minecraft Youtubers Mumbo Jumbo and Grian. Specifically their Hermitcraft SMP personas. So, to be frank, I was shipping their characters, not the people (RPF is a topic for another day). I was about 10-11 when I started shipping them. Their character's personalities worked so well together. Grian, the clingy, winged flirt and Mumbo, the serious redstone engineer (Sigh, so dreamy). In my mind, something clicked. Neurons activated. A cartoon lightbulb lit above my preteen head. I thought about those two a lot. In class, at home, instead of doing my homework. And this was when I was getting online so I found communities where I could share my thoughts. Yep, if you knew me on Wattpad you were talking to an 11 year old. I made art. I read fanfiction. I wrote fanfiction. My AUs (alternate universes) were boundless. One time I showed my very romantic ship art to my school art club, I still cringe thinking about it. 

I now believe my interest was because.. well... teenagers are hormonal. We giggle at romance and the slightest hint of intimate tension. We swoon. I could explore the potential of a relationship without inseting myself and hurting my metaphorical feelings.  Me personally? I don't want to date. I just want the characters in my head to date. I explored a lot of different dynamics. Friends to lovers, Lovers to enemies to lovers again, my point being that I didn't have to confine myself to real life. I developed a love for untraditional/societally unacceptable dynamics such as student/mentor, captor/prisoner and doctor/patient. The power dynamics fascinated me. And no, I wasn't abused. This wasn't me coping with a traumatic life event. I was just interested in seeing that play out in a controlled environment, i.e. my head. I'd never wish that to happen in real life. The other obvious taboo aspect was the queerness itself. The forming of a gay relationship is so different from a straight one. Realising you're in love with your childhood friend is just more dimensional when it's queer because there's always the societal pressure to be straight. A girl and a boy wouldn't have that problem when they confess to eachother. 

Exploring queer ships is also important to kids and teens hwo are discovering their own identities. It doesn't mean that when someone likes BL/GL that they're immediately LGBTQ, but it does help queer people discover their true selves instead of bottling up their feelings.

And no, slash doesn't "turn" people gay. Your kid seeing an LGBT couple on TV won't make them queer. Me? I'm into girls. Attracted to guys but wouldn't date them. So I'm interested in a functionally f/f relationship IRL while liking m/m ones onscreen. Not the point of the post, I digress. 

A longtime favorite slash ship of mine is Sebastian x Ciel from Kuroshitsuji. This is one of the most popular m/m ships in anime spaces and has been for a while. They were deliberately written to have chemistry, between the in-universe fanservice and the provocative official art.

Credit: Yana Toboso

I mean, look at this. How am I supposed to not ship them. This official art is very obviously intended to be erotic. The grapes in the background symbolise indulgence and sensuality. Sebastian is seen taking off one of Ciel's boots, the other one already gone. There is a half eaten box of chocolates on the floor (I believe this is specifically Valentine's Day art?). And we all know that chocolates are sexy...

Credit: Yana Toboso

Just look at this. I don't need to say anything. 

It's important to remember that anti-shipper culture is just repackaged conservative rhetoric, so go write that fanfiction no matter how problematic it is. It's just words on a page at the end of the day and it doesn't represent you as a person. The Nazis burned books they considered degenerate, and antis would too. 

It's my birthday and I don't feel 16

     16 is such a big age. Who was ever 16? Not me. Until a few days ago. I'm driving age in several states (except my state, conveniently). I'm drinking age in several countries. But I don't feel 16, or 15, I still feel 11. 11 and 40. I've been 11 and 40 for my whole life. One day I woke up, I was 7, but I was also 11 and 40. I cry like a small child but I suffer like a 40 year old college professor. It's about time I say that I have my whole life planned out. Go to college. Work in field. Go back to college for doctorate. Work. Buy a big home for my wife and our several large Tibetan mastiffs. It's doable, I guess. Everything will come in due time. I can wait, I promise, but I'm aching and wasting away and I have so much potential. Just give me an old beater and a few thousand dollars, I'll make it in the world, swear it!

Visiting a little museum

Pretty birds. Our tour guide says that the taxidermy were so old that they had to re-dye the feathers. I didn’t know that was a thing. Pretty cool, and I trust her, because she’s been working here for 30 years. 

Less than decent fox taxidermy. Sorry. The eyes make it look a little like a Tibetan fox. 

Uranium glass. I don’t know how hard it is to find in thrift stores per se, but that’s gnarly. I wasn’t expecting it to be so neon. I don’t have much to say about uranium glass. Let’s all just sit back and bask in the auspicious green glow!

Me with one of only a handful of complete mastodon skeletons in the world! Here in upstate NY. I was with my mom for her craft fair, the site had historic buildings full of oddities. Our tour guide was really cool. The mastodon’s name is Harry (Hairy?). I found my green beanie after having lost it for months. Losing things makes me feel violent. 

 

Started "The Rifleman"

 I want to preface this by saying I got the idea to watch The Rifleman from a YouTube comment. What sort of comment, you might be asking. It was under one of those 1966 Batman clips where the old people congregate and slobber over the female cast, I don't blame them, and talk about the weird sexual undertones between Dick and Bruce. I'm not complaining, I can enjoy some Greco-Roman style male bonding.

Now back to the relevant topic- some commenter said that they grew up watching 60s television and B&R's relationship reminded them of "Luke" and "Mike" from The Rifleman. Now I've never heard of The Rifleman, so I go to google it and see that it's a western series. Cool, but who is Mike? (No seriously who is Mike). 

Anyways none of this is important. I was intrigued and found that it's free on YouTube (yay!) and I start watching. My immediate reaction is positive. I like Lucas and Mark as characters, and Chuck Conners is damn handsome and 6'5, and also in Old Yeller. No seriously, when I think of the 60s I think of a face like his (and Adam West who also appeared in an episode I'm pretty sure). After I finished three episodes I went to the web for more information and reviews which were mostly positive. I find a blog titled theuglybugball.wordpress.com who started posting about The Rifleman in 2011. My reaction was just like theirs. I love Lucas' protective nature over Mark in an era where fathers were expected to be stern and deadpan especially with their sons. Lucas was also a single father & widower in an era of nuclear family dreams, which is pretty revolutionary for 50s and 60s TV. Lucas really does care about his son, this much became obvious to me, and Mark still manages to get into trouble.. I'm only into season one but he's been kidnapped like four times already. Geez, somebody get this kid a psychiatrist. Television's most abducted child. Back to the real stuff, Johnny Crawford is a great actor for a young boy. His relationship with Lucas/Chuck felt authentic too. The episodes typically end with a lesson learned and Lucas "subduing" the criminals with his gun skills. 

I'm going to be frank when I say that I'm not so much interested in the guns as I am the characters. That's just how I am, I suppose. I've now been inspired to watch some iterations of Les Mis and Laramie (another western). 

Blogging is fun!