femslash challenge
Feb. 10th, 2025 04:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meikureefemslash challenge questions by flo_nelja and brought to my attention by luckyzukky, thank you!
1) First time you encountered canon femslash
my memory's spotty but probably homestuck; bless the rose/kanaya contingent.
2) First times you encountered femslash shipping
if this isn't restricted to fannish awareness I've thought about putting fictional women together forever; I remember being 7 and spectating Final Fantasy 7 while my sibling played it, and thinking about tifa/aerith. in fannish terms, though, hetalia f/f and dragon age (isabela/marian hawke) were probably formative for me. I wish I had a more refined answer than hetalia of all things.
3) Is femslash the main part of your fandom life?
haha, yes
4) Have you already started a canon just because you knew there would be femslash shipping opportunities?
this happened more often when I was younger; nowadays, I'm likely to be prejudiced against a canon if it has little of interest to say besides cardboard-cutout lesbian representation! or lacks other elements for that representation to stand on.
5) Canon, subtext, or make-everything-work-by-yourself ships?
the latter two, definitely. I have a canon ship curse or something where the moment a f/f ship is pushed by show creators as canon(-ish) I'll lose interest in it. case in point: vi/caitlyn from arcane, and to a lesser degree shauna/jackie from yellowjackets (it's fine, but it's not the most interesting dynamic in that show). notable exceptions: taissa/van and taissa/simone, also from yellowjackets.
I'm not inclined to romanticise the idea of queer reading modes as a fixed consistent... thing, but if I had to theorise, this curse might be due to my preference for reading for things in the margins/negative spaces/unsaid elements of media.
6) A femslash ship you feel like you're alone in shipping
[looks at the camera and laughs]
7) Did you see a change in femslash fandom since the time you started fandom?
I think there's a zeitgeist towards toxic yuri that doesn't always translate into engaging with controversial but unfashionable and hard-to-swallow topics like incest, abuse, noncon, colonialism or genocide, so that when someone describes themselves as a 'freak' I have to squint and do an inner vibe check on whether they mean a freak (acceptable) or freak (not acceptable) before I pull out all my unmentionable fic. at the risk of being really facetious it's like the gentrification of toxic yuri, lol.
8) Some femslash poly ships? What are your opinions about f/f/m poly?
fine with it and open to it, but with f/f/m it'll have to be with the M part of the equation being placed in a nonsexual position and being a lesbian cheerleader/playing the role of Best Supporting Character from the sidelines; I have no interest in F/M sex in fiction.
9) Do you feel like shipping femslash is different from shipping slash, het or other? How?
I was about to say no, in that f/f is like a neutral ground to me, I like it because fictional women's stories are automatically interesting to me and not because of their gender. but on second thought, yes, ironically with F/M it's harder for me to separate out the spectre of gender roles. and with M/M, I find it harder to write or read certain fic, depending on the pairing in question, because I can't get away from the fact that I'm reading from the perspective of people in hegemonic positions in their societies.*
plenty of fictional women are in hegemonic positions too, but it seems to be a structural conceit for fiction about men to... gloss over or overlook the implications of these positions and treat them as default apolitical achievements because they're men in question. *
10) Favourites tropes for femslash ships?
I'll just refer people to my exchange likes, which cover most of them.
11) Fluff, humor, angst, or smut?
I don't subscribe to these genres, but I've been told I do the latter two most often.
12) Are there some m/m or m/f ships that you love genderswapped as f/f?
yes, especially in media where there are trans themes & characters whether ambient or explicit; examples are neo/trinity from Matrix or Alan Zaveri from Russian Doll. and Genly/Therem from The Left Hand of Darkness is often written as M/Other, but I would love an F/Other rendition of them.
13) Did you already write original femslash? If so, what was it about? If not, what would it be about if you did? If you would never, why?
no-but-I-should-try. a short story, probably pretentious and perhaps with magical realism elements.
14) Favorite femslash ship of all times
I can't pick! for now, zenin mai/zenin maki from JJK.
15) A guilty pleasure
I don't give myself grief or guilt for anything fannish-related, but the closest thing is likely trashy mother/daughter porn.
16) A fandom where I have so many femslash ships
all of them!
17) A femslash pairing I like on principle without even being in the fandom
most of them. or any pairing that involves one lady impaling the other with a sword, really!
18) A character I headcanon as lesbian/wlw without having big ships with her
can't think of any.
19) Rec day! Canon or fics, as long as it's femslash! Or even shippable!
will just refer people to my recs tag
20) Do you like your femslash homophobia-free?
neutral; I actually prefer media not to skirt or gloss over real-world prejudices like homophobia or racism and it's more escapist for me if they do engage with those, at least in characterisation considerations and the background.
21) Thoughts about lesbian tragedy and bad endings?
totally, I'm a sicko and TragedyLiker69.
22) Thoughts about (purely fictional!) lesbian unhealthy relationships?
see above, haha
23) Historical, fantasy or sci-fi? (or, if none of the above, what and why?)
slightly prefer historical, but with the caveat that anything can work with a compelling story
24) A time where a canon really surprised you, in a good (and femslash) way
Shogun! Mariko/Ochiba no Kata ftw. best part of the show by far. sorry to the showrunners, Blackthorne/Mariko squicks me, white man/asian woman pairings leave a really bad taste in my mouth because of the tendency for 'white man saving asian women from asian men' storylines.
also A League of Their Own, which is so good.
26) What do you love the most, and what do you love the least, about femslash fans?
I don't think it's a consistent or homogenous community, so I'll speak for my friends: I like how innovative and creative they are and how they're singlehandedly coming up with ideas and possibilities out of thin air. that's the benefit of the femslash landscape: nothing has been done, everything can be done.
27) Very last time you encountered canon femslash. Was it a surprise or were you looking for it?
Hacks, which has a character having a sex dream about her boss.
28) Now answer the important question about femslash I've forgotten to ask.
can't think of any for now; feel free to suggest Qs in the comments!
flo_nelja and brought to my attention by luckyzukky, thank you! 1) First time you encountered canon femslash
my memory's spotty but probably homestuck; bless the rose/kanaya contingent.
2) First times you encountered femslash shipping
if this isn't restricted to fannish awareness I've thought about putting fictional women together forever; I remember being 7 and spectating Final Fantasy 7 while my sibling played it, and thinking about tifa/aerith. in fannish terms, though, hetalia f/f and dragon age (isabela/marian hawke) were probably formative for me. I wish I had a more refined answer than hetalia of all things.
3) Is femslash the main part of your fandom life?
haha, yes
4) Have you already started a canon just because you knew there would be femslash shipping opportunities?
this happened more often when I was younger; nowadays, I'm likely to be prejudiced against a canon if it has little of interest to say besides cardboard-cutout lesbian representation! or lacks other elements for that representation to stand on.
5) Canon, subtext, or make-everything-work-by-yourself ships?
the latter two, definitely. I have a canon ship curse or something where the moment a f/f ship is pushed by show creators as canon(-ish) I'll lose interest in it. case in point: vi/caitlyn from arcane, and to a lesser degree shauna/jackie from yellowjackets (it's fine, but it's not the most interesting dynamic in that show). notable exceptions: taissa/van and taissa/simone, also from yellowjackets.
I'm not inclined to romanticise the idea of queer reading modes as a fixed consistent... thing, but if I had to theorise, this curse might be due to my preference for reading for things in the margins/negative spaces/unsaid elements of media.
6) A femslash ship you feel like you're alone in shipping
[looks at the camera and laughs]
7) Did you see a change in femslash fandom since the time you started fandom?
I think there's a zeitgeist towards toxic yuri that doesn't always translate into engaging with controversial but unfashionable and hard-to-swallow topics like incest, abuse, noncon, colonialism or genocide, so that when someone describes themselves as a 'freak' I have to squint and do an inner vibe check on whether they mean a freak (acceptable) or freak (not acceptable) before I pull out all my unmentionable fic. at the risk of being really facetious it's like the gentrification of toxic yuri, lol.
8) Some femslash poly ships? What are your opinions about f/f/m poly?
fine with it and open to it, but with f/f/m it'll have to be with the M part of the equation being placed in a nonsexual position and being a lesbian cheerleader/playing the role of Best Supporting Character from the sidelines; I have no interest in F/M sex in fiction.
9) Do you feel like shipping femslash is different from shipping slash, het or other? How?
I was about to say no, in that f/f is like a neutral ground to me, I like it because fictional women's stories are automatically interesting to me and not because of their gender. but on second thought, yes, ironically with F/M it's harder for me to separate out the spectre of gender roles. and with M/M, I find it harder to write or read certain fic, depending on the pairing in question, because I can't get away from the fact that I'm reading from the perspective of people in hegemonic positions in their societies.*
plenty of fictional women are in hegemonic positions too, but it seems to be a structural conceit for fiction about men to... gloss over or overlook the implications of these positions and treat them as default apolitical achievements because they're men in question. *
10) Favourites tropes for femslash ships?
I'll just refer people to my exchange likes, which cover most of them.
11) Fluff, humor, angst, or smut?
I don't subscribe to these genres, but I've been told I do the latter two most often.
12) Are there some m/m or m/f ships that you love genderswapped as f/f?
yes, especially in media where there are trans themes & characters whether ambient or explicit; examples are neo/trinity from Matrix or Alan Zaveri from Russian Doll. and Genly/Therem from The Left Hand of Darkness is often written as M/Other, but I would love an F/Other rendition of them.
13) Did you already write original femslash? If so, what was it about? If not, what would it be about if you did? If you would never, why?
no-but-I-should-try. a short story, probably pretentious and perhaps with magical realism elements.
14) Favorite femslash ship of all times
I can't pick! for now, zenin mai/zenin maki from JJK.
15) A guilty pleasure
I don't give myself grief or guilt for anything fannish-related, but the closest thing is likely trashy mother/daughter porn.
16) A fandom where I have so many femslash ships
all of them!
17) A femslash pairing I like on principle without even being in the fandom
most of them. or any pairing that involves one lady impaling the other with a sword, really!
18) A character I headcanon as lesbian/wlw without having big ships with her
can't think of any.
19) Rec day! Canon or fics, as long as it's femslash! Or even shippable!
will just refer people to my recs tag
20) Do you like your femslash homophobia-free?
neutral; I actually prefer media not to skirt or gloss over real-world prejudices like homophobia or racism and it's more escapist for me if they do engage with those, at least in characterisation considerations and the background.
21) Thoughts about lesbian tragedy and bad endings?
totally, I'm a sicko and TragedyLiker69.
22) Thoughts about (purely fictional!) lesbian unhealthy relationships?
see above, haha
23) Historical, fantasy or sci-fi? (or, if none of the above, what and why?)
slightly prefer historical, but with the caveat that anything can work with a compelling story
24) A time where a canon really surprised you, in a good (and femslash) way
Shogun! Mariko/Ochiba no Kata ftw. best part of the show by far. sorry to the showrunners, Blackthorne/Mariko squicks me, white man/asian woman pairings leave a really bad taste in my mouth because of the tendency for 'white man saving asian women from asian men' storylines.
also A League of Their Own, which is so good.
26) What do you love the most, and what do you love the least, about femslash fans?
I don't think it's a consistent or homogenous community, so I'll speak for my friends: I like how innovative and creative they are and how they're singlehandedly coming up with ideas and possibilities out of thin air. that's the benefit of the femslash landscape: nothing has been done, everything can be done.
27) Very last time you encountered canon femslash. Was it a surprise or were you looking for it?
Hacks, which has a character having a sex dream about her boss.
28) Now answer the important question about femslash I've forgotten to ask.
can't think of any for now; feel free to suggest Qs in the comments!
no subject
Date: 2025-02-10 06:17 pm (UTC)...Comparisons that got away from me.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-16 05:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-02-11 07:52 pm (UTC)"I have a canon ship curse or something where the moment a f/f ship is pushed by show creators as canon(-ish) I'll lose interest in it" huh i kinda feel this sometimes! not to a point where i've necessarily noticed it but yeah when a canon pushes it i feel often it can disregard other aspects of characters or their surroundings for reasons
"at the risk of being really facetious it's like the gentrification of toxic yuri, lol" THIS IS SOOOO TRUE I TOTALLY GET YOU T_T
no subject
Date: 2025-02-17 07:23 am (UTC)> it can disregard other aspects of characters or their surroundings for reasons
yeah, and what I notice is that I find it more romantic when writers aren’t even trying to push 2 people together, and yet it happens; it wasn’t designed that way, but it still happened.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-11 11:00 pm (UTC)This is so TRUE. Have been burned a couple of times by self-proclaimed 'toxic yuri enjoyers' who then found anything involving noncon, abuse, incest, and in one case a seven-year age gap between two twentysomethings 'problematic'.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-17 07:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-02-19 09:49 pm (UTC)