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

[littlebutfierce]

Oooh, I am excited by your questions! I don't have a lot to say myself, but I am going to check back for comments.

I will say my experiences as a femslasher in a really boyslash-heavy fandom (& one in which people seem reluctant to read het as well: ew, girls *eyeroll*) have been kinda meh. I've been psyched to get the odd really positive comment on fic from people who do want to see the pairing, but it's been a lot of cricket chirping. Which... fair enough, there are lots of reasons that might happen in response to fic. But I get the distinct impression it's b/c people don't care about the female characters in a lot of cases, nevermind imagining them in pairings. That's partly b/c they are fairly minor in canon but also, yeah, I think girl cooties too.

[dagas_isa]

I hear the crickets chirping a lot too, especially in fandoms where the main appeal isn't the femslash. It's one thing to be in Sailor Moon or Final Fantasy fandoms and be into femslash (because there's lots of female character interaction), while a completely different thing to be into femslash in a more boy-centric fandom.