Just a warning: I am suffering the hangover from hell so I’ve miss
most of the Destiel drama but by reader request I’ll do my best to figure it
out. If you’re going to read on then please remember that this is just my
personal opinion, you can disagree with me if you want in fact I actively encourage
it. Anyway let’s talk about talking about slash shall we.
From what I can gather someone
asked Misha a rather direct question about Destiel and he replied with a
typically vague answer (as is to be expected about anything shipping related).
Then the same person wanted to ask Jensen a similar question and the woman
screening the questions said
that it would make Jensen uncomfortable. This sparked the age-old debate about
whether or not it is appropriate to ask questions about slash. The fandom
split, those that think it is uncomfortable to talk about slash and those that
think avoiding the topic is homophobic. Let’s talk about that shall we.
I know my life has taken a turn towards all things Sterek but I have
always been a firm supporter of the good ship Destiel. In fact it is through my
involvement with the Supernatural
fandom that I have watched the attitude towards slash shift dramatically in the
last 5 years. Gone are the days of hushed whispers and secret clubs, slash
fandom has come out of the shadows shouting, “notice us” but not everyone is
happy about it.
Back in the day you were lucky if one brave individual would stand
up at convention and as an extremely vague metaphorical question about possible
homoerotic tension. Nowadays slash is one of the most talked about topics to
the extent that it’s kind of annoying. There are only so many times you can
listen to the same unsubstantial answer to the question: how do you think
character A feels about character B? But that’s the nature of conventions,
they’re like press junkets, it’s just the same people answering the same
questions over and over again. Repetitive questions are annoying but inevitable
there are only so many things to ask. (Seriously
the next person that asks the “deserted island” question is going to get a slap).
While I’m not a fan of anything that could be called censorship, I
do understand that screening questions is necessary because there are a lot of
creepy assholes out there. Please don’t misunderstand me, I don’t think there
is anything inherently creepy about slash… creepy assholes are not exclusive to
slash fandom, they are everywhere and
they are ruining the fun for the rest of us.
I’ve made my views about talking about shipping pretty clear before
but for those of you that are new to Pop Culture is Not Art here’s
the gist: It is perfectly acceptable to ask respectful questions about
something you are passionate about even if what you are passionate about is
homoerotic subtext. As long as you are
respectful there is no reason your question should upset or offend the
person you are asking.
That said the person you ask is under no obligation to answer your
question and really if you are asking about an ongoing series there isn’t much
they can actually tell you. They can’t sink ships because that ruins the fun
for everyone (also you should never say never) and they can’t confirm it
because that’s spoilers. All they can really give us vague unspecific answers
but that’s something fans have to get used to.
Look, I don’t know the details. I wasn’t there, I don’t know what
the question was exactly, or what other questions had already been suggested.
This whole drama has come out of hearsay but that doesn’t mean that the issues
raised are any less relevant.
People have been jumping out of the woodwork talking all kinds of
nonsense about whether or not it’s homophobic for Jensen to screen questions
about Dean’s sexuality. As I said above, there should be no reason for anyone
to be upset or offended by questions about queer ships – if you have been
respectful and they are uncomfortable then that is their issue, not yours. Of
course the big disclaimer there is respect, questions that are deliberately
designed to make someone uncomfortable (such as: leading and/or overtly sexual
questions) are not cool.
The thing is, there is a fundamental problem with the fact that so
many people think it’s acceptable for an actor to feel uncomfortable answering
questions about the possibility of a homosexual romance. That’s not acceptable.
A lot of the fandom’s responses to this drama have been unacceptable (I saw someone suggest that talking about
Destiel might make Jensen uncomfortable because it would mean thinking about
his close friends sexually… I just, do you not understand the concept of
acting?)
The underlying homophobia in patriarchal society should never be
dismissed and the way that fandom thinks it is acceptable for an actor to be
uncomfortable talking about queer sexualities is incredibly problematic. I
don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable but we need to think about what it is
about slash that makes it so unnerving.
I don’t want to defend this ideology in anyway, it’s not good, but
without knowing the exact circumstances I am unable to condemn anyone’s
behavior. Personally I think in this instance it comes from previous
experience. There have been a number of creepy assholes asking Destiel (or
sexuality) related questions in the past so by stopping people from asking
those questions it lowers the chance of inappropriate interactions. It’s more
about the bad reputation fellow slash fans have created rather than the fact
that Jensen is unwilling to discuss his characters sexuality or slash pairings.
But as I said above I don’t know the specifics.
It’s a privilege that we get to interact with our favourite
performers in this way, and if we keep acting like creepy assholes we’re going
to lose it. But for the last time, talking about slash in a respectable manner
is NOT being a creepy asshole! It’s perfectly reasonable to ask about something
that matters to you and there is no denying that shipping matters to a lot of
us.
Then again the practice of screening questions should be used to prevent
repetition – it’s super boring when a bunch people ask the same thing – but it
should not be used for censorship. But just because I don’t condone censorship
doesn’t give you license to say whatever the hell you want… I keep saying it
but for goodness sake please be respectful, because this is not a slash fan
problem this is a creepy asshole problem.
And that is all my hangover-ridden brain and handle at the moment. Just
remember I am not on top form.
I’ll be back later in the week with more Shipping
News.
