About slashing

[shiraoi]

DON'T VOTE BEFORE READING THIS

It's something that has been on my mind recently and I hope to provoke a discussion. Different fangirls have different views on when it's okay to pair up two characters of the same gender. (I'm talking mostly about yaoi here, it applies to yuri as well, but since it's a bit different, let's focus mostly on the yaoi aspect) You know what I mean, situations like this:

"AxB OTP!"
"But A is straight! He's in love with C!"
"Who cares?"

Since the poll has limited space, let me explain the answers better:

1. self-explanatory
2. I mean situations where there is no canon word that suggests a character's homosexuality. "Dumbledore is gay" is a good example of canon statement, but something like the Bakappuru works as well (in case of Koharu and Yuuji it can still be questioned, but it has been hinted strongly enough, you know what I mean)
3. As subtle hints, I mean something like Hiyoshi and Gakuto in amusement park, characters being always together... you know, these things that make a fangirl squee in joy, but someone else would just say "but I really can't see it o.o"
4. I think it's pretty self-explanatory as well, I mean for example boys grinning when they get to see boobies etc
5. This is the case when characters are shown to have interest in opposite gender and may have been shown denying homosexuality in some way.
6. This involves cases like Kamio and An, Sakuno and Ryoma, Lithuania and Belarus, Chiyo and Abe... you know.
7. Self-explanatory
8. Self-explanatory

So what are your opinions? I really want to hear them

[sphere]

For me, it's always okay to slah! Tango Pair is my new OTP, Even though Atobe has a hoard of fangirls... he dosen't show interest in any of them. Thy're just an ego booste. and Sanada dosent show interest in anyone... but they make a cute pair~

[Lovux The Great]

So, sphere, how do you want to be smex?

Well, I'm rather picky with my yaoi. But when I find two characters with well-developed personalities and a bond that interests me, I slash them. Sure, I don't exactly slash characters like, say, Sengoku, but that's more because of him not having any certain relationships with another male that catches my eye, rather than him going gaga over all ladies he see.
That doesn't mean, however, that I think the characters being slashed are canonically gay. Face it, homo and bisexuality is still a minority (which sounds politically incorrect, but it's the truth, man) and thus not as common as heterosexuality. Really, I can HARDLY imagine ALL those 100+ fourteen year old boys in TeniPuri being homosexuals, that's just insane. Of course, most series aren't about realism anyway, but you get my point anyway?
I'd say, it's always okay to slash, BUT ONLY AS LONG AS YOU RECOGNIZE A MALE'S HETEROSEXUALITY (or whichever sexuality he has) and make sure you point out or let it known that you're only EXPERIMENTING with "possibilites", and don't seriously go all "But he HAS to be gay! He saved XXX from a certain death and SMILED, that must mean [physical/romantic] attraction!!!", because it doesn't. Ever heard of friendship?

Or something like that.

Besides... most slash is based on fictional stories with fictional characters. They're just fantasies, they are not real. I found Real People Slash being VERY disrespectful and could NEVER bring myself to ship the relationship between two IRL persons "just because they look good together" or "they would make a sweet pair" - but pairing up two guys from a manga or an anime or a video game? Completely fine. They are just some inc on paper or pixels in a computer, they are not offended by some stupid fantasies by a rabid fangirl. Their feelings will not get hurt, because they are not real, which makes the M/M smut not real by default.

And how is shipping a gay relationship between two non-existing [straight] characters bad?

Edit: I don't think I'll vote though. My shipping in general is very complicated and can't be categorized within only one certain option. Sometimes I slash characters who are obviously hetero, sometimes I defend their sexuality and can't slash them for my life. I can't put all my pairings together like that, I just can't. It depends too heavily on the characters' personalities.

[Raiden]

I voted "not okay when the character has a canon het interest".

Since I imagined what it would be like if this character I tend to pair with another guy had a canon girl he liked... I ended up deducing I'd pair him with the GIRL. ._____.

But well, yaoi pairings are always okay when you're dealing with a shounen-ai anime. ^____^ *waves around artbook of "Saint Beast"*

[miruchu]

Picked the same one as Raiden.


If someone has feelings for the person of the opposite gender, I think it's not right. For Prince of Tennis, I never shipped Ryoma with any other guy because I always saw him with Sakuno. Same with Sasuke from Naruto. The reason I dislike the Naruto/Sasuke pairing is because Naruto is with Hinata and Sasuke is with Sakura.

[shiraoi]

Well, it's mostly Sakuno who has feelings for Ryoma, nah? But it depends on how you wish to view it, I can see why people would say he returns it.

I've recently found out that i can be quite fond of het as well. My two favorite Hetalia pairings are het and I've stopped frowning when character I wanted to slash brings a girl to the screen. I'm perfectly okay with Air Gear characters getting all boypervy when girls are around and stuff, I do not expect every single anime character to fulfil all my yaoi wishes and I only start shipping when I get deep enough into the fandom to analyze differen possibilities, I guess I've matured as m&a fangirl...

...however, all this nice stuff becomes scarily nonexistent when it's Tenipuri. In this fandom, I take Kamio, who has canon heterosexual crush on An and pair him with Shinji. I defend this pairing with all my power, even though it's an obvious fangirl thing. I'm becoming a nice example of Die For Our Ship (although you won't hear me insulting An, never) and yes, I am ashamed by this, yet I can't transfer my nice and polite shipping manners from other fandoms to my beloved Tenipuri fandom that raised me. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I've been a Tenipuri fangirl since I was 12 and the pace of "fangirl maturing" was much slower in this fandom for me. I'm not saying that I haven't realized things, I won't say anymore that Everyone Is Gay (although I deal with it in this way -> Everyone is straight but these characters I'm slashing ATM) or that my OTPs are canon and unbreakable, I know how frail and virtual all the "canon hints" for, say, ShinjixKamio are, yet I love this pairing with a child's heart and it wasn't even my first Tenipuri OTP, it wasn't even the second.

I'll never say that a character can't be slashed, it all depends on the situation, Hetalia's Austria, for example is straight and I can see it. I love HungaryxAustria to pieces, but I read PrussiaxAustria and liked it (wonderfully written) As I said, I'm careful and polite, but it almost completly disappears when I return to my Tenipuri roots, sadly ._.

[plantress]

I choose 6 for this. When a character is shown to be interested in someone of the opposite gender, even if those feelings are only one sided, I just cannot see them with someone of the same gender.

Actually, there are very, very few yaoi pairings I like. I can name..three I like. And that's pushing things. I'll read any sort of pairing as long as it's well written, but I very rarely actively ship anything male/male. The couple has to strike the right tone in me to get me to really believe anything is possible with them.

[shiraoi]

Just one more question... what about characters that are canonically homosexual?

[Lovux The Great]

Well, first of all I'm VERY surprised at how little love they usually get in fandoms, while all the "said to be straight" bishies get their butts raped in every second fanfic. It's kind of homophobic when you think about it.

But hey, I could easily slash a canonically homosexual character with a [straight] character, if I like their interractions, how they behave in each other's presence and stuff. I could slash them if I have some interesting canon evidence (like, they have actually MET each other) to base my imaginations on.

Thread revival.

[Raiden]

...Saint Beast is a good example of how baasan here feels about canon gay.

I ship YudaXShin so much right now. <3 On the other hand I ship all the canon pairings in that show (GouXGai and RukaXRei, ftw!).