View source for Femslash

{{short description|Subgenre of slash fan fiction}}
[[Image:Slash.svg|thumb|100px|The symbolic slash, used to separate the two names in a romantic pairing, from which slash fiction takes its name]]
{{Sex in SF mini}}
'''Femslash''' (also known as "f/f slash", "f/f", "femmeslash", "altfic" and "sapphic")<ref>{{cite web |author1=Lawrence, K. F. |author2=schraefel, m. c. |year=2006 |url=http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/11800/01/wbc2006KFLawrence.pdf |title=Web Based Semantic Communities – Who, How and Why We Might Want Them in the First Place |publisher=[[University of Southampton]] |access-date=12 August 2007 |archive-date=24 August 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070824192253/http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/11800/01/wbc2006KFLawrence.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> is a [[genre]] which focuses on romantic and/or sexual relationships between female fictional characters.<ref name=afterellen />

== Characteristics ==
Typically, characters featured in femslash are [[heterosexual]] in the [[Canon (fiction)|canon]] universe; however, similar fan fiction about lesbian or bisexual female characters is commonly labeled as femslash for convenience.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Herzing |first=Melissa |date=April 2005 |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/51291784.pdf |title=The Internet World of Fan Fiction |publisher=Virginia Commonwealth University |access-date=April 24, 2021}}</ref> The term is generally applied only to fanworks based on Western [[fandom]]s; the nearest anime/manga equivalents are more often called [[Yuri (genre)|yuri and shōjo-ai]] fanfiction.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dictionary.lunaescence.com/index.php?cat=9 |publisher=Dictionary of Anime Fandom |title=Lunaescence |access-date=19 July 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070704015723/http://dictionary.lunaescence.com/index.php?cat=9 |archive-date=4 July 2007 }}</ref> "Saffic" is a [[portmanteau]] of Sapphic from the term [[Sapphic love]] and fiction.<ref>Tosenberger, Catherine (2008) "Homosexuality at the Online Hogwarts: Harry Potter Slash Fanfiction" ''Children's Literature'' 36 pp. 185–207 {{doi|10.1353/chl.0.0017}}</ref> "Altfic" as a term for fanfiction about loving relationships between women was popularized by [[Xena]] fans.<ref name=afterellen />

There is less femslash than there is slash based on male couples;<ref name=Bitch/> for example, in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' fandom, only a small number of femslash stories are written about the [[Arwen]]/[[Éowyn]] pairing in comparison to slash between the male characters.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood|last= Thompson|first= Kristin |year= 2007|publisher= University of California Press|page= 178 |isbn=978-0-520-24774-1}}</ref> It has been suggested that heterosexual female slash authors generally do not write femslash,<ref name=Bitch>{{cite web |url=http://bitchmagazine.org/article/fan-tastic-voyage |title=Fan/tastic Voyage |website=bitchmedia |date=April 1, 2003 |access-date=April 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090215150953/http://bitchmagazine.org/article/fan-tastic-voyage |archive-date=2009-02-15}}</ref> and that it is rare to find a fandom with two sufficiently engaging female characters.<ref name=afterellen>{{cite web |url=http://www.afterellen.com/Print/2006/1/fanfiction.html?page=0%2C1 |title=Fan Fiction Comes Out of the Closet |last=Lo |first=Malinda |publisher=afterellen.com |date=January 4, 2006 |access-date=April 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516121400/http://www.afterellen.com/Print/2006/1/fanfiction.html?page=0%2C1 |archive-date=16 May 2008}}</ref>  [[Kathryn Janeway|Janeway]]/[[Seven of Nine|Seven]] is the main ''[[Star Trek]]'' femslash pairing, as only they have "an on-screen relationship fraught with deep emotional connection and conflict".<ref>{{cite book |url=http://j-l-r.org/asmic/fanfic/print/jlr-cyborgsex.pdf |title=New Voy "cyborg sex" |author=Julie Levin Russo |date=August 2002 |publisher=j-l-r.org |access-date=2009-03-05 |archive-date=2010-12-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101227004418/http://www.j-l-r.org/asmic/fanfic/print/jlr-cyborgsex.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>  Although it is debated whether fanfiction about canon lesbians such as [[Willow Rosenberg|Willow]] and [[Tara Maclay|Tara]] of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' counts as "slash", their relationship storylines are more coy than heterosexual ones, which entices Willow/Tara femslash authors to fill in the gaps in the known relationship storyline.<ref name=afterellen/> It is "relatively recently" that male writers have begun writing femslash, and this entry of males into femslash has occurred within ''Buffy'' femslash. The femslash authorship is mostly female.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://slayageonline.com/Volumes/Slayage_Volume_4.pdf |title=Slayage: The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies |volume=4 |publisher=slayageonline.com |access-date=19 November 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716091719/http://slayageonline.com/Volumes/Slayage_Volume_4.pdf |archive-date=16 July 2011 }}</ref> As of 2008, femslash was enjoying increasing popularity and was the "dominant form" of slash in some fandoms.<ref name=Lawrence>{{cite web |author=K. Faith Lawrence |date=March 2008 |url=http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/14704/2/thesis.pdf |title=The Web of Community Trust |publisher=University of Southampton |access-date=19 November 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101225065919/http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/14704/2/thesis.pdf |archive-date=25 December 2010 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref>

== History ==
Femslash was relatively rare in fanfiction communities until the 1990s. The show [[Xena: Warrior Princess]] served as one of the first major femslash fandoms, with the relationship Xena/Gabrielle, and also served as one of the first major fandoms where [[Alternative universe (fan fiction)|alternative universe]] fics were widely written.<ref name="Gizmodo">{{cite web|date=4 August 2016|title=The History of Femslash, the Tiny Fandom That's Taking Over the Universe|url=https://gizmodo.com/the-history-of-femslash-the-tiny-fandom-thats-taking-o-1765143690|author-last=Cranz|author-first=Alex|access-date=26 June 2022|work=Gizmodo}}</ref>

The television show ''[[The L Word]]'' set up a contest at the website FanLib.com where fans could submit a femme slash fanfic. The winner's story was incorporated into a scene of a third-season episode.<ref>Hibberd, James (December 5, 2005), "Lights! Camera! 'L Word' Action!". ''Television Week''. '''24''' (49):4</ref><ref>(December 5, 2005), "At Deadline".''MediaWeek''. '''15''' (44):3</ref>

For more recent TV series, femslash fans have focused on shows with significant platonic female relationships such as ''[[Once Upon a Time (TV series)|Once Upon a Time]]'', or with canonical queer women in ''[[Orange Is the New Black]]'' and ''[[The 100 (TV series)|The 100]]''.<ref name="Gizmodo"/>

==See also==
{{Portal|LGBTQ}}
* [[Fan fiction]]
* [[Lesbian literature]]
* [[Lesbian science fiction]]
* [[Lesbianism in erotica]]
* [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fan fiction|''My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic'' fan fiction]]
* [[Slash fiction]]
* [[Xena: Warrior Princess in popular culture|''Xena: Warrior Princess'' in popular culture]]
* [[Yaoi]]
* [[Yuri (genre)]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite journal |last1=Millward |first1=Liz |last2=Dodd |first2=Janice G. |date=January 2016 |title=Mid-course correction: ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ and Stargate SG-1 femslash |url=https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/qsmpc.1.1.41_1 |journal=Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=41-59 |doi=10.1386/qsmpc.1.1.41_1 |url-access=subscription }}

{{Fan fiction}}
{{LGBTQ fiction}}

[[Category:Slash fiction]]
[[Category:Fan fiction]]
[[Category:Lesbian fiction]]
[[Category:Fiction about sexuality]]