I was never in SPN fandom but this was a great read. Love all the clarity and context you bring to it, both in terms of what media we were consuming and in how fandom was shaped by that.
I completely agree with you that slash was born out of media where the only interesting relationships were between men because women were not portrayed as people. Which I think is one of the key reasons that X-Files became a megafandom--it actually did have a female character who was portrayed as a person, and it did have a relationship between a man and a woman that was deep and multilayered and interesting. Of course it's also the reason that XF fan culture became largely defined by the shipper/noromo conflict, because it was actually possible (though not guaranteed) that the central ship would become canon.
I had learned through hard experience that when show runners looked at their fans it always hurt (just ask West Wing)
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I completely agree with you that slash was born out of media where the only interesting relationships were between men because women were not portrayed as people. Which I think is one of the key reasons that X-Files became a megafandom--it actually did have a female character who was portrayed as a person, and it did have a relationship between a man and a woman that was deep and multilayered and interesting. Of course it's also the reason that XF fan culture became largely defined by the shipper/noromo conflict, because it was actually possible (though not guaranteed) that the central ship would become canon.
I had learned through hard experience that when show runners looked at their fans it always hurt (just ask West Wing)
Oh my god. I had almost managed to forget. >_<