When characters go gay: Inside slash fiction

'Is that a dildo in your pocket, Harry Potter?': Jules Wilkinson sheds light on the genre of slash fiction. 

Engorgio! Remember that time at Hogwarts when Snape tutored Harry in the Dark Arts of S/M? How Harry begged for more as Severus tightened those nipple clamps and whimpered as a spell from his teacher twisted the butt plug nestled in his ass?

Wait what, I hear you say? Is this a secret manuscript that J.K. Rowling accidentally left on a train to Norwich? No – it's the plot from a piece of slash fan fiction.

Fan fiction is stories written by fans using the characters and settings from a favourite book, TV show, movie, or even the lives of real people. It is most usually associated with sci-fi and fantasy, possibly because geeks have such great imaginations, but fanfic exists for just about anything you can think of. From the Bible to The Babysitters Club, if someone has written it, odds are someone else has written fanfic based on it.

The seed of fanfic is there in anyone who has ever finished a book and was hungry for more of the characters or who got to the end of a film and wondered "what happened next?" It comes from the same place that makes you sing along to your favourite song, putting your own feeling, your own spin on it.

Fanfic stories can cover any genre; they may be thrillers or romances, space operas or literary tales. Writers may follow the canon and style of the work that inspires them, or create new worlds for the characters (known as alternate universes or AUs) - maybe rewriting The Social Network in Ancient Greece. Or they may mashup different stories so that the kids from Glee end up at Hogwarts.

Slash fiction is what happens when curious fans wonder "… and what if they were gay?"
The term slash comes from the Star Trek fandom in the 1970s, when stories about Kirk and Spock going to warp speed and engaging thrusters in their spare time were abbreviated to Kirk/Spock. The slash between the names was adopted for the genre, where characters of the same sex, heterosexual in the original text, are written as being in a romantic relationship, or just as having very hot sex.

Slash is about seeing the whole world through queer eyes. While most mainstream entertainment is still as straight as a lightsabre, slash allows anyone and everyone to be queer. For once, we can be the heroes.

Any two characters can be slashed, sometimes fans just think two hot guys should get it on, although most often it is those who have a close relationship, where there exists a subtext that can be teased out. Often slash doesn't have to go far to nudge a bromance into a romance.

Slash fic is similar in many ways to queer fiction and there are themes that are common to both. Coming to terms with sexuality, coming out, dealing with prejudice, having relationships, forming families and discovering new ways to have hot safe sex all get covered.

Slash also holds no particular adherence to a gender binary, and characters are often reimagined into different genders so we can see who Captain America might be if Steve Rogers was a woman, or how the story of Twilight might play out if Edward and Jacob were girls or Wonder Woman was trans. In some stories biology is simply trashed completely as assholes become self-lubricating, men lactate or boys have babies in the trope known as "mpreg".

However in slash fiction, characters may be same-sex attracted but never identify as gay and even changing genders doesn't mean a character would think of themselves as trans*. Slash is not often concerned with attempting an accurate portrayal of gay life. In some ways, it exists in a world separate to our real queer one of culture and identity.

In slash though, the queer is not only in the text. Fanfic is where the girls come to play, and what could be queerer than writing and sharing porny stories about your most freakish desires from the depths of your id with other women? It brings women together in a celebration of sex in a way that transcends notions of straight or gay.

Slash fic is an almost entirely female occupation. It's impossible to characterise the typical author – she may be straight or queer, of any age or background. It's a global pursuit too, with culturally specific manifestations such as that associated with manga and amine. Sometime you must let me tell you my thoughts on yaoi.

There are many theories as to why women are drawn to write slash, which is dominated by stories about men. I agree with the view of lesbian scifi author Joanna Russ in her about slash essay “Pornography By Women, For Women, With Love”, that slash allows us to create a space that exists outside the constraints we often feel in the world as women, whether straight or queer. It's akin to writing a story set in another time period or on another planet, except in slash we use men and their bodies to explore ourselves, and our sexuality and how intimate relationships may work in space not weighed down by societal, and our own, expectations of what it is to be female. Which is, when you think about it, is pretty queer.

Plus, hot sex is hot sex. I have read more sizzling, filthy and kinky porn in fanfic than in any published work – partly due to censorship laws, partly due to societal constraints on what is acceptable. One of my personal favourites is non-consensual sex in which one of the characters has tentacles. Don't judge me.

There's a great tradition in fandom that admonishes kink shaming - that is to demean or label unacceptable something which another fan fetishizes. Dark desires from the crusty corners of your id are not only allowed a space but encouraged. In fandom, I have discovered kinks not only that I didn't know I had but that I didn't know even existed.

So now you probably want to know where to find these tantalising tales. Two of the major repositories for fanfiction are the site fanfiction.net and the blogging site LiveJournal. Many fandoms will have their own specific fanfiction libraries, and the Archive of Our Own, is a mulitfandom website run by fans. These days you'll find many fanfics available in pdfs or ebook form, so they can be conveniently read on your e-reader or phone.

Most slash stories will start with a summary that indicates which pairing is featured in the story. Many fans will only read stories focussing on a particular couple – often referred to as their OTP or One True Pairing.

The story summary may also feature a handy and very specific guide to the kinks you are seeking. Given the vast numbers of fanfics around, it is useful to be able to hone in on those stories where Batman is a bottom, with a kink for watersports and orgasm denial.

Slash fic is fun and playful. It can be experimental in form and transgressive in thought. It is nearly always hot and entertaining.

You can have the rare pleasure of hearing some local fanfic authors read their work at Is That A Dildo In Your Pocket, Harry Potter? Join us as the outlandish Ash Flanders presents his Golden Girls femslash, Emily Turner reinvents the cast of Merlin as horny uni students in a sharehouse in Brunswick, and much more. There may even be a tale featuring Harry Potter and some tentacles. We'll also showcase a selection of fan videos that will prove just how queer the world of movies and TV really is once you don your slash goggles.

Is That A Dildo In Your Pocket, Harry Potter? Saturday, February 4, 8pm, Hares & Hyenas, 63 Johnston Street, Melbourne. midsumma.org.au