Happy International Day of Femslash!

...I had to laugh at this, did you know there is a series with Serena/Olivia as well?
I've read tons of femslash and am thankful for this article and that you provided me with some new links.

Another wealthy source of information is "The Royal Academy of Bards", with lots of original fiction by familiar authors.

There's one point though where I disagree with you, about the point when femslash first appeared. Especially in the genre of Science Fiction fan fiction and f/ was quite popular and there are several books of short stories which also include fanfiction and femslash stories, e.g. in the Darkover series created by Marion Zimmer Bradley

http://spoilmyself.blogspot.com

First off: excellent topic, faith.

I'm probably one of the few queer ladies who dares saying that out loud - and I'm prepared for a lot of hate mail from Xena and Gabrielle fans.
At the time of the show Ted Raimi got tons of hate mail from lesbian fans who thought Xena and Gabrielle belonged together and that he should stay out of their way. Fanatics, indeed. I felt sorry to hear that, although Ted took it in stride, figuring it comes with the territory. I still feel I have to stick up for him: he's a great guy - a little goofy, like his Joxer character is, but he's a great guy.

I sometimes head over to the Passion & Perfection femslash site for a little fix... Well, I used to frequently, after Alex Cabot went into witness protection and left Olivia Benson with Casey (Casey grew on me, but she couldn't trump Alex).

Fanfic has been something that I have never really understood, I just didnt see the point reading something that wasn't in the 'official' story, written by fanatic fans. I felt completely uncomfortable with it. I don't know why.

Recently my interest has been piqued and I've read a few stories on P&P, I have been quite surprised at the quality of 'some' of the writing and stories that are out there. I'll definately check out some of the links.

Great article

thanks, faith! (and special thanks for remembering the early glory that was Talia/Ivanova. Sigh.)

Now I suspect you will now be responsible, thanks to all the links, for dragging a few more lesbians into the time-consuming proverbial rabbit hole of wonders that femslash can be. ;-)

I would wholeheartedly sign your statements that femslash can be an important formative support when it comes to coming out and growing into one's own as a lesbian, as well as that femslash creates incredibly supportive international communities that, at least in my case, have resulted in lasting offline friendships.

Fan fiction in general is already a re-appropriation of given mainstream context, but I think the situation becomes more charged and imminently political when the genre promotes visibility of a group that tends to be invisible in mainstream culture: lesbians. My personal theory is that all the wonderful femslash-based lesbian literature out there, deservedly published or at least deserving of it, wouldn't be there without the perceived vacuum and continuing invisibility.

In the vase of femslash, lesbians have gone and have created an own, unapologetic viewpoint, inserting it into a maintext that largely keeps ignoring them.

And, yes, there is much horrible fan fiction out there, and much public puberty, but as we probably all know, some writing is not for writing's sake, but for the sake of finding out who we are, vent our issues and communicate with others. It may cause much eye-rolling in reading, but sociologically, it does serve a purpose.

On the other hand, there is actual writing for writing's sake, often within AU or Über settings, and that is an realm where there is a wealth of high quality lesbian literature out there - for free.

Most of the international femslash scene is English, but - since we are EU-diverse here - I'm curious: are there any other sizable non-English communities for femslash out there among the EU? Italian? Portuguese? Swedish? - I only know examples for  Spanish (perhaps because that's also a language with a large international community of speakers).

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Blogging against windmills:

1 Spaniard. 1 German. 2 pairs of glasses. 3 languages. ...and trying to get married.

Thanks, all, for the comment love when I was away! Holidays mess up your rhythm :P

Maxime68 -- Oh I'm sure there is some Serena/Liv fic out there and in the FF world, she really does tend to get around ;) It's been ages since I visited the Academy, thanks for the reminder link! About the appearance of FF... I probably should have mentioned that I was thinking of the TV timeline when I wrote that. Books and such are a whole different ball-game indeed. Thanks for the correction!

Lil G -- I think we ALL needed a fix after the Witness Protection Debacle. Damn... At least there was much, much subtext in that ep ;) I'm not a Joxer fan. Honestly, the guy bugged me to bits but sending him hate mail seems a bit over the top...

Bekonia -- Ha! I see you have joined the dark side! Good, cuz we have awesome works of fiction ;) ...and much thanks! ^_^

Bradamante -- Who could forget Talia/Ivanova?! B5 is still one of my fave re-watches! I wholeheartedly hope some people will be dragged into the wonderful world of FF because of this article! It's just too damn worth it! ^_^
I haven't been able to find much in the way of other languages when it comes to fan-fiction but I do know that there is supposed to be a healthy German FF circle. Now where to find it...