Thanks for commenting! I really enjoyed reading your thoughts!!

I'm not sure a dislike of slash is necessarily homophobic. I agree with you about this. There's LOTS of slash and het fanfic that I don't like, and I understand slash not being everyone's cup of tea (heck, lots of people don't even like tea!). I was just really struck by the negativity towards slash - and more specifically gay sex - by some of the commenters which seemed really homophobic. It was the horror at slash that seemed homophobic.

my dislike of slash (and fic in general) is my sometimes irrational love of canon. I can totally understand this. The Buffyverse, in particular, is such a well-developed and layered universe that it's hard to imagine/desire anyone else stepping in and altering it. I have this weird personal dichotomy wherein I love the show's canon but also love reading good fanfiction.

I discovered fanfiction when I was bored at work one day (imagine that!), and was initially upset - not because of the slash - but because some of the characterizations of my beloved characters were inaccurate. However, over the years I've read some really amazing stories that are written by awesome writers who love the show and the characters. I've also come across some truely hideous stories, that I've stopped reading in boredom or unhappiness with the bad quality of writing.

What I find fascinating about fanfiction is that it questions the notion that there can one canon for a text. Sure there's the truth of the show's canon, but as stories are written by fans multiple versions of the truth emerge all co-existing at the same time. I love the concept that in the show Buffy came back from the dead at the beginning of Season 6 but in a variety of fanfiction stories she remains dead and the Scoobies struggle to move on without her. I love the episodes "The Wish" and "Birthday" which both show us alternate universes for BtVS and AtS, so - for me - good fanfiction it like getting lots of episodes like that.

Despite my whole "why I like fanfiction" rant, I embrace your dislike of fanfiction and your love of canon. I just think it's so cool that there are so many ways to enjoy the same show. Interestingly, I haven't been inclined to read any Battlestar Galactica fanfiction, even though I know there's lots of it out there and some of it is probably good.

I certainly understand why some folks don't see the gay subtext, though. They aren't necessarily "trained" to look for it. sigh. That is true, it's just not something that makes me very happy. My friend pointed out to me that a discussion like the one on Whedonesque is good because it gets people who may not look for gay subtext thinking about the topic - and that's a good thing.

The over-riding problem is the fact that queer men and women are under-represented on television as it is - that's what really needs to be addressed. Oh definitely!!! I was so sad the year that both Buffy and Dawson's Creek ended (besides my sadness at Buffy being over) because it meant that 2 shows that had queer characters in major roles were ending. With Will & Grace ending this year, that only leaves a few shows with major characters who are queer. For some reason - I don't have any stats on hand - it feels like there's less queer characters on tv instead of more in the last couple of years.

If I want man/man, I'll watch "Queer as Folk" or "Brokeback Mountain" or "Happy Together" - and lament that I can't get legit canon man/man action any other way.
I love "Brokeback Mountain" (Ang Lee!!!) and "Happy Together" (Wong Kar-Wei!!!). I think I've just realized that it's taking a while for there to be more queer characters in mainstream media (yay indie films!), so in the meantime I've been enjoying queer content where I can find it (eg. my love of the subtext on Smallville and Reba).

A friend of mine said once that slash is a type of grass roots movement that makes gay pairing more acceptable in a wider section of fandom. If more and more people are being attuned to looking for or finding gay subtext, which leads to more gay characters in stories, books, plays, movies, etc - then it's all worth it. I love that statement!! It makes me very happy.