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

[saekhwa]

I'd like to think that femslash fandom exists as a larger entity because I believe in that collective fandom awesomeness that we come together to talk (maybe not always squee) about common interests. But then again, I seriously can't find it. Maybe I'm missing the pulse of it because while I enjoyed Xena and Buffy, I wasn't really into the fandom side of things while it exploded. I was very much in the animanga and comics camp and mostly squeeing with my friends about the ladies of Sailor Moon or the id-tastic greatness of Tank Girl.

Having said all that, I can't really answer the follow up questions because I guess I don't feel that plugged into femslash fandom. I participate, but I always sort of feel like I'm on the outskirts, someone who enjoys it but isn't really included.

Me, personally? I'm into fantastic stories so I'll read anything: femslash, het, slash, gen. Not to say that I don't have my favorite pairings, but I don't have strict, hard boundaries either, so if a story has been recced or well-received or features a character that I love or seems like my bag of goodies, I'm there.

As to the last question, I often feel like I'm the only person who ships my teeny-tiny pairings. I watch some of the most obscure movies (e.g. Bitch Slap) and even for the not-so-obscure (e.g. Death Proof and maybe St Trinian's), I often feel like I'm playing in my own sandbox all by my little lonesome. I still write the stories I want to write, regardless, but I definitely feel like I'm missing something. Maybe the femslash fandom norms or culture? It's hard to pinpoint from where I'm standing.

[dagas_isa]

I still write the stories I want to write, regardless, but I definitely feel like I'm missing something.

I definitely feel ... maybe not 'alone' in being in femslash fandom...but more like playing alongside fellow fans in several cases as opposed to playing with. Which is still nice, because I'm not the only one reading/writing femslash even if I'm the only one who is reading/writing a particular pairings.

A lot of my purpose in writing the post is to wonder if it's this sense of being on the outskirts is actually the majority of femslash fandom or there's a 'fandom' in the more traditional sense.