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

[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.