Each of us is familiar with the feeling when a very beloved work is over (or the next part of the book series / series of the series is to wait for a long time), and we need a continuation like a breath of air. This is especially susceptible to adolescents, who perceive cultural content much brighter and more sensitively.
And so, in order to brighten up the time in anticipation or boredom in their beloved world, characters and stories, young people (mostly girls from 13 to 18 years old) create fandoms - fan clubs based on the work in which the participants are engaged in fantasy art. They write stories (fanfiction), draw pictures (fanart), make clips and much more. Some do, others evaluate and also join the process, thus making new acquaintances and developing talents. It would seem - what's wrong with such a cute child's play? But this kind of fun is connected with completely non-childish topics, and the world of fandoms has its own characteristics that all parents should know about.
As it is not shocking, but most of the creativity on fandoms, the participants of which are united by a common interest related to a particular movie or book, generally consists of a slash or, less often, a fem-slash. Slash is a genre of amateur works dedicated to the non-existent same-sex relationships between characters in a real novel / TV series. Slash - men, fem-slash - women. That is, in the film we have heroes - two friends, or two brothers (there is no sanctity of family ties for a slash), and in fan stories of various age ratings (from light romantic stories to outright pornography), these same heroes suddenly turn out to be lovers or mistresses …
When you try to get to know this area at least a little, the obvious artificiality of the created tendencies that came to us from the West catches your eye, as well as the term "slash" itself.
Planting a "culture" with a slash
The first slash videos appeared in the 1980s on the Star Trek TV series. Now almost any PC user can, in a relatively short time and with a minimum of effort, edit a video clip based on the available video sequence. But 30 years ago, this area was available only to professionals who had access to special equipment. Therefore, it can be argued that the creation of this direction in fantasy art was not spontaneous, but artificial in nature and was one of the elements of the implementation of the technology of legalizing perversion in society.
But the artificiality of this culture is betrayed not only by its shaky history, but also by the current situation, since the authors of American and British television series constantly flirt with this topic and themselves are engaged in teaching this wild science to their viewers. The serial business, and the slash in our time primarily concerns the series, is based in such a way that how many people watch the new episodes will determine whether the series will be financed for another season, another year of work for actors and screenwriters. Therefore, naturally, even in the absence of ideas, the authors resort to fan service to arouse the interest of slash fans.
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What is fan service? This is when actors playing those very friends, brothers or enemies somewhere at festivals or interviews throw ambiguous jokes, hints to whet the interest of slashers who play one of the main roles in most fandoms.
Thus, the slash becomes one of the rating building tools. For example:
The series "Sherlock" - in the first episode of the first season, modern Sherlock and Watson made sure each other was not homosexuals, though having agreed that they were not interested in each other, they were still the whole episode of the ambiguous jokes of their environment, when evil and when "Kind". The same line was in the third episode. In the third season, Sherlock and Moriarty played out a slasher girl fantasy by practically kissing.
In real life, Benedict Cumberbatch hosted a wedding for wealthy homosexuals, which naturally became an important news item for the media.
The Vampire Diaries TV series - In the film itself, the fan service is already more ambiguous and subtle, understandable for those who are “in the subject,” but the actors pay off the lack of internal fan service with external ones. For example, in an advertising humorous video, the actors answered the questions of the famous American game: "kill-sleep-get married" where they were offered to choose from three characters given by the interviewer who they would sleep with, whom they would kill, and whom they would marry, the actresses chose from women, actors from male characters discussing and arguing their choice. In another humorous video, the actress of the series with feeling read erotic fanfic fem-slash genre.
The series “Once Upon a Time” - in interviews, actresses are often asked about the slash, to which they answer that they understand the fans.
Such examples can be cited indefinitely; they apply to almost any relatively popular American television product. It is worth mentioning separately that many actors post in their social media accounts. networks of fan art of fans, including this kind, encouraging it, and thereby "licensing".
Some TV shows for a higher rating not only create a fan service, in which, among other things, they actively develop a slash, but after a while they embody the fantasies of slashers on the screen ("Once Upon a Time", "In sight", "Lost"). This often leads to scandals.
In Once Upon a Time, for example, the relationship between the heroines Mulan and Aurora was developed from a slash into a real couple, confirming that Mulan is in love with a princess. Here's what the actress who played Mulan says about it: “When I played it, it was like an ongoing joke between me and Sarah. Like I secretly care about her. And there was an online conspiracy with the audience: "Mulan loves Aurora!" So I'm glad the writers listened and I think they planned it from the very beginning. Everyone loves twists, so … why not? This one looked so natural from the start."
The same thing happened with the series "In sight", where at first, having submitted fan service in the form of ambiguous jokes from the heroines, the authors not only encouraged such fans in the social. Networks, posting slash-themed drawings, but also made a pair of two female enemies.
Slash culture and children
Having understood the concept of a slash and its artificial creation and development, now let's see how this information affects those adolescents (they are the main target audience) who get into this stream.
First, once in the creative environment of the fandom, a new person will have to get used to the rules, learn a new slang (only a small part of it is mentioned in the article) and realize that most of his new friends are fond of slash - writes, draws, makes clips. Then the newcomer has several ways: either to become practically an outcast - anti-slash and over time with a high probability of leaving the community (the formed environment squeezes out such people), or treats the slash at least neutral, so as not to oppose the opinion of the majority. Once again, we note that contrary to common sense, it is this direction of fantasy art that has been the most widespread since the appearance of fandoms in Russia.
Judging by the constantly growing army of slash fans, the majority, due to weakness of will, young age and receptivity, choose the latter, which, among other things, provides them with a greater response from readers or viewers.
It is worth noting that the parents of these children do not naturally know about their hobby, both fandom and even more slash, it happens there at the computer in communication with peers under logins and avatars. Real meetings are rare and have a festival look - Sleshkons and other events.
The consequences for the psyche are quite obvious - depravity, constant thoughts about a different orientation as the norm, possible doubts about one's orientation. One of the main consequences is a perverse understanding of friendship, kindred love, etc. In fact, such an information flow teaches a person to perceive any relationship through the prism of sex.
Former slashers who have realized or recovered from this ailment admit that this artificially formed skill "to look for vulgarity in everything" haunts them in everyday life. Moreover, a slash, that is, a voluntary, far-fetched relationship between representatives of the same sex, is only an initial stage, often in addition to such relationships, incest, pedophilia and other perversions are added to fan works.
The infamous novel "50 Shades of Gray", which was artificially promoted by the Western press, was originally just a fan story based on "Twilight", albeit not slash, but of a pornographic nature. That is, the virtual world of fandoms is gradually being withdrawn from the Internet into the real world.
