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Original Slash as a Writing Term
I've seen this argument bouncing around for a little while and I considered making a post about it several times, but haven't. Now a friend mentioned it to me in an e-mail, so, in reply, I laid my thoughts down on the subject and realized, well damn, there's my lj post on the matter.

If you're not already aware, there are some pro-writers who have balked at seeing their writing tagged with the term of slash. Why? Well, they define slash the same way I did when I first discovered it: a subverting of existing media content to perceive two male characters in a homosexual relationship. Those characters aren't written to be interpreted that way, but there's subtext that can be used to support the idea that there's more to that relationship than what's supplied on the tv/movie screen or in a specific writing.

So, what do you do with content that /written/ to be perceived that way? For example, I have a hard time calling fanfiction of Queer as Folk slash because there's nothing to subvert. There's not subtext--it's all text.

As such, in a way, I agree with those pro-writers. Up to a point.

Language changes. End of story. That definition of slash is an old one now. It still applies, certainly, but it's no longer limited to that. Slash as a fanfiction term is not fixed--language is NEVER fixed--and it has morphed into something more. Those pro-writers may believe it should be a fixed term, but that's like trying to hold back the tide. Slash as a literary term has been taking hold because it's a style that's unique to female writers. It's not gay fiction, it's not erotica (necessarily), it's romantic fiction with diverse themes and homosexual content written by women for women. If you don't call it slash, what do they suggest it be called? Because in a publishing world where every small nuance of writing style is given a name, you can't say "it shouldn't be categorized." That's naive.

Anyway, there's my two cents. I'm all for embracing slash as a way to describe original romantic m/m fiction because calling it "original romantic m/m fiction" is tedious.

If not "slash" then what?