Picking the Collective Femslash Brain: Femslash as a Fandom

[dagas_isa]

If there is in fact, a collective brain, I'd like to ask it a few questions. I've recently been wondering about Femslash fandom as a whole and thinking about whether it exists and how it manifests.

• Does femslash fandom (as a larger entity) exist?
  
• If it does, what, other than the obvious (having at least one f/f ship), are the central features of femslash fandom?
  
• How is femslash fandom culture different from (or the same as?) het fandom/guyslash fandom?
  
• What are the main fannish interactions in femslash fandom?
  
• Are there any femslash fans who are exclusively into femslash?
  
• What are the canons that you think most femslash fans would (or should) know through osmosis (that is, they might never have experienced them, but would know through discussion/meta)?
  
• What are your personal experiences being a femslasher in a (small/large/eastern/western/etc) fandom?
  

Tell me, what are your thoughts on femslash?

(I have thoughts, but it's easier to ask questions than give a hazy reply based on a limited sample and my experiences in small fandoms.)

Comments

[soukup]

Being pretty new to fandom, I am totally unqualified to make any kind of sweeping statement about What Femslash Fandom Is or anything like that. But I can share my own limited experiences, for whatever they're worth!

Are there any femslash fans who are exclusively into femslash?

I think "exclusively" is kind of a strong word, but I'm pretty thoroughly a lesbian IRL, and that certainly carries over into my porn preferences. That's to say, I'll sometimes read porn with guys in it, if it comes highly recommended for other reasons, but it usually doesn't do too much for me sexually.

What are the canons that you think most femslash fans would (or should) know through osmosis

I've never been into either Buffy fandom (which I'm told has a good-sized crew of Faith/Buffy shippers) or Xena, but I've absorbed at least the names of the most commonly-femmeslashed characters and some basic information about the shows, just by reading metafandom off and on for a year or so.

Good questions! I'm excited to see where they go. And I'd be very interested in your "hazy reply," if you feel like taking the time to post it.

[dagas_isa]

Thanks for your responses. ^^

Buffy and Xena are definitely the top fandoms I can think of in terms of femslash (and I'm not into either as a fandom).

As for my hazy reply (that isn't too long). Just from the corner of femslash fandom I've been in, it does exist, but it centers more around a "You're not alone in liking/writing f/f pairings" camaraderie and pointing out canons that are particularly good at f/f fodder versus reading/commenting/reccing fic. There's also a lot fewer people who are exclusively into f/f as opposed to either liking every type of pairing, or liking slash pairings (m/m and f/f) in general, or liking pairings with at least one woman in them (m/f and f/f).

But that's based more on impressions than evidence.