u2slash | (no subject)

Before I get to today's topic of discussion, I have a little tale to tell:

My dad likes to snoop. Ever since I moved out on my own, he's had to content himself with looking at all my webpages, which is not a big deal, because it's not like they're Secret Web Pages. My parents have known for years that I write slash. But my dad was very upset when he found my story "Heat Lightning," because he thought it was Sick And Wrong for me to write about gay Mounties. (Please, no one tell him about Due South.) My dad's very homphobic, and he seems to be under the delusion that Mounties could never be gay, because they are good, upstanding citizens. Or something, I don't know, can someone explain homophobia to me please? Jesus.

Anyway, so this made for an awkward Easter Sunday. But you know, all day long I just kept thinking to myself, "Man, I can't wait to get home and write some more slash! Just really raunchy porn!" It's not because I just want to piss my dad off. (If you knew my dad, you would know that no one wants to incur his wrath. Ever.) Even as a teenager I was not that sort of person. It was more like, for the first time I understand what Catholics tend to feel: "Sex is dirty and wrong.....but that's kinda what makes it so fun!"

So anyway, here's the question I shall pose to all of you: Has your desire to write (or read) U2 slash been affected by outside opinion? I don't necessarily mean family or friends, although that could be one way to answer. But it could also be other U2 online communities whose members say slash is "gross," or the attitudes of your community towards homosexuality, or your religious upbringing. Or maybe just that little voice in the back of your head that says "U2 aren't really gay you know. They have wives and children." Basically, has anyone or anything made you just want to write more, to spite the opposition? Or discouraged you? Has anything made you feel good/bad/rebellious/dirty about what you wrote?

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I can be quite peculiar about RPS, to be honest. I'm happy playing in U2 fandom in large part because they don't ping my gaydar, to be honest. If I thought there was something going on between any of them, I'd feel weirder about it. Just my little weirdness - up until the U2 thing bit me, I couldn't read RPS at all. Wanted to, tried to, but whenever I did, I'd get so horribly uncomfortable with the subject matter that I had to stop.

As to what other people think - nope. Never bothered me. My non-fannish friends know I slash fictional characters, but I do keep quiet about the U2 thing.

I try not to mention my involvement in slash to my U2 friends outside the U2 slash fandom because I understand some of them may be uncomfortable or get offended because of it.

I've let a few of my close friends read what I read (like Hawkmoon) and the few pieces I've written, and they don't exactly approve of it, but they don't lecture me about it.

I used to feel guilty about reading and writing slash because I grew up in a very religious community, but I've come to terms with it - I don't think I'm hurting anyone; if anyone gets hurt, well, they shouldn't have started reading it in the first place. I think we have enough warnings posted all over this community!

Plus, they aren't gay (as far as we know, anyway) - that's why this is called Real People Fiction. Defamation? Libel? I suppose so. But that's what disclaimers are for, right?

I'm pretty cautious about discussing slash in public, no matter what the fandom/pairing is. Out of my fannish friends - most of whom I see regularly because we live in the same area - I'm certainly the least 'involved'. I'm sure as hell not going to get into details of a PWP over dinner in a restaurant. Then again, I'm just as private as Larry when it comes to my personal life.

That said, my brother knows what slash is, and that I read it online. This is only because I'd been talking to his girlfriend (also a slasher) about it. When he asked me what it was, I told him to look it up, and he did. My mom has some idea, so my father probably does as well. If they disapprove, then they disapprove. I'm not going to stop.

I do feel uncomfortable about writing fic or RPS now and then. When the postponement of the tour was announced, I put my two major stories on hold because it felt disrespectful to continue writing the way I'd planned. I've since found an alternate route for one of them.

I know they're not gay. At least, I believe them when they say they aren't. But then I never did run out of ideas for 'let's play what-if'.

I haven't been brave enough to try my hand at writing U2 slash, but I've written some Backstreet Boys slash over the years, and other than my husband, no-one in the outside world knows about my slash love. I love reading U2 slash, and maybe one day will get bold enough to write a slash story.

My best friend (though since that riff, it's been hard for us to connect again). She thought I was disgusting and if I didn't stop (well, she thinks I have) she would tell my mother, who wouldn't like that. At all. I've felt bad and dirty about a lot I've written, and I haven't even gotten back around to writing lately, because it just totally stopped me.

I suppose it comes to how you look at it. I look at 'fanfiction' as fiction, predominantly. I don't feel the need to justify my habits, because I don't justify anything that I read. Most of my friends at some point or another have been made aware of the fact that I like Real Person Fiction, but most of them are grown up enough to see that I like things for the quality writing.

When it comes to the NC-17 stuff, I think of it as homoerotica, and I'd rarely discuss that with my friends except in that 4am stage of drunk.

I tend to think of what we do here as fiction with characters who bear certain characteristics in common with real people. Lazy fiction, if you like, where the background is understood by all. But I don't think of it as a topic for discussion any more interesting than I'd want someone to sit and tell me all about what their Sims are up to!

Interesting you brought this up because I was just thinking about it, but more in the RPS-as-a-whole sense, not one particular section of it. I don't think what I like to read or write is wrong, but I do feel bad sometimes that other people think it's creepy or wrong. Recently I wrote to a girl seeking platonic friends who said she was a little kinky and liked yaoi. We exchanged a few e-mails and I figured she knew what slash was so I "outed" myself. I also said I like Real People Slash. She never wrote back. I wrote a follow-up a while later and no reply there either. *shrug*
I know there's a lot of defense of RPS out on the web, though, and I think there was even a link to one essay on the U2slash archive . . .
People (mostly girls) have been slashing their favorite bands for years before I did it, on paper or on the web. Hello, Duran Duran!
Anyway, I'm pretty sure we all know the difference between fantasy and reality, fiction and real life. Let's hope so, anyway. I really don't care if U2 is having hot gay sex - it's just fun to imagine they are.

There's an interesting discussion on Real People Fiction here:
http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_lounge/249008.html

Especially this thread:
http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_lounge/249008.html?thread=3479472#t3479472

All of my close friends know that I read slash but if anyone else ever found out I would be extremely embarassed. I recently told a friend who I never see anymore and she kept asking me how I couldnt find that disgusting. It doesnt bother me though and other people's opinions havent changed my views.

Like Bug said, its only my really close friends that know what I do here. Most of us has been slashers since we were in seventh grade, picking up the yaoi vibes in Japanese anime, and when I discovered U2 it came naturally to me to convert all of them to RPS, and none of us see it as weird.
I have one friend who knows I read/write slash, who isn't a slasher. It hasn't come between us, I just don't shove it in her face that I like the manlove, lol.
I think the only thing that could come between me and slash is if my parents found out, because they are the only people that can physically prevent me from accessing U2 slash. Anyone else's opinions (other U2 fans, friends, PLEBA mods) don't really factor in my decision to sell my soul to the devil and indulge my stalker-y side.

I like reading and writing slash just because it floats my boat, and in no way because I've been led to believe that it's a bit rebellious or anything. That said, I am careful who I mention it to - I've mentioned to a few friends that it exists, but not that I regularly read it and have written it. The few that I've told seem to think it's a bit of a strange concept, and to be honest I'm happier if they don't know the extent of my involvement. I like it and am not ashamed of it, but understand that it's not for everybody, whether they are homophobic or not.

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