Soap Slash: Gay Men Rewrite the World of Daytime Television Drama
HOLLIS GRIFFIN Soap Slash: Gay Men Rewrite the World of Daytime Television Drama On Days of Our Lives Philip Kiriakis and Shawn- traditionally “male” television genres, Douglas Brady are two points in a hotly contested particularly science-fi ction, there is almost no love triangle with female character Belle Black. scholarship on slash written about traditionally Philip and Shawn make up, fi ght, and make up “female” television genres, nor is there any again as they struggle for Belleʼs attention and substantive literature on gay male slash fi ction affections. But on the Internet, many slash fi ction authors. Though this particular fan practice authors refer to Philip and Shawn as “Phawn,” from this particular subject position is defi nitely combining their names to denote the fact that they a minority among a wider slash community, its have recast them as two halves of a highly romantic, authors constitute a vibrant presence within that erotic, even pornographic pair. In the slash story community. Gay male-authored slash fi ction of “Salem High,” one author has appropriated the two soap operas features fairly prominently on slash characters for a narrative in which they leave their fi ction websites, and I have examined a fairly girlfriends waiting for them outside of the locker large sample from slashcity.com, squidge.org, room after a big basketball win in order to celebrate and nifty.net. This fan practice raises interesting by engaging in mutual masturbation in the showers. questions about issues of gay male representation In other words: “Too Hot for Daytime TV.” within the genre, gay male audiences of soap While there is a considerable amount operas, what makes soap operas and their of scholarship on female authors slashing characters “slashable,” and how original soap GET A LIFE?: FAN CULTURES AND CONTEMPORARY TELEVISION 23 Lauri Mullens, editor, Spectator 25:1 (Spring 2005): 23 - 34.
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