The Darker Side of Slash Fan Fiction

Book excerpt: Like other forms of fan fiction, slash fiction--centered on same-sex relationships between two or more characters--is a powerful cultural dialogue. Though the genre can be socially transformative, particularly as an active feminist resistance to patriarchal ideologies, it is complex and continually evolving. This collection of new essays covers topics on real, "fringe" bodies and identities; the inscription and transgression of bodily boundaries; and the exploration of power, autonomy and personal agency. Considering the darker side of the genre, these essays discuss how systems of authority are both challenged and reiterated by the erotic imagination, and how the voices of marginalized groups are both raised and ignored within slash fiction and fan communities.