I saw an entry by someone ranting against slash (yaoi, actually) and couldn't help but find it laughably presumptuous and arrogant.

Really, where to slash haters get the idea that we slashers don't respect the canon material? The simple fact is, we slash because we love the canon material, love the characters, but want something that canon did not show.

Let me put it this way, we already know canon, therefore are complacent about it. Complacency breeds boredom and boredom sends us off looking for something new, different and interesting. Slash is different - different that canon at least - therefore interesting.

Another thing, a fan's sexual orientation does not mean that fan can only read fic that fits only into that orientation. Let me explain my point of view on slash:

I am straight. By default, that means men are sexy (to me). One man is sexy, two men is twice as sexy, and two sexy men together is more than the sum of it's parts. It's sexy squared.

It's not just the sexy factor that makes slash appealing, it's the character combinations. I like Ultra Magnus. I like Optimus Prime. I don't like Elita-1. Do the working out there - Optimus/Magnus will always be more interesting to me than Optimus/Elita, or Magnus/Elita.

I don't always have this problem, over in Final Fantasy VII, I really, really like Aeris Gainsborough. I am also a fan of Cloud Strife. Now I first entered the FF fandom through the Sephiroth/Cloud pairing, but I can easily say that if someone started a Cloud/Aeris resurrection fic that wasn't ridiculously sappy, then I'd read. Honestly I really find it down-heartening how in the OT4 of SHINY (Seph/Cloud/Zack/Aeris) that Aeris gets shoved off with Zack all the time and gets almost no smut with either Cloud or Seph. An even foursome that does not make!

I am less of a fan of Tifa Lockhart than I am of Aeris, and I don't like reading her with Cloud or Vincent, but give me a fic with her paired with... say, Cid? HOT. Cid Highwind doesn't get enough love in the FF fandom.

But not all my fandoms are so lucky - they don't have a female I like to the degree I love Aeris, and sometimes they don't even have any secondary pairings that would be interesting to read the females in, like Tifa does.

This is a matter of character preferences - it doesn't mean I hate Tifa if I don't want to read her with Cloud, it doesn't mean I hate Elita-1 if I don't want to read her with Optimus. I just am not that interested in them, or their canon pairing.

I actually don't like my slash warping characters ridiculously girly - it's OOC. Oh, I am very tolerant, more tolerant than a lot of other people seem to be. I am a fan of at least two TF writers who get slammed as writing the characters OOC, but what I see is a really good, dramatic, angsty story, that maybe takes a few liberties with the characters. It's not like it's the extent that badficcer fanbrats on FFN do.


But it just really gets at me that people can be so mean and vicious about slash, and their hatred of it. Maybe this is because I don't see the point of putting out that much energy for negative feelings, but then I tend to be apathetic about a lot of things and don't see the point of putting out an excess of energy for something unneeded in any circumstances.


I just... think it's stupid. If you hate slash, don't start yelling at us slashers for it. It annoys us as much as our love of slash annoys you. Go back to your safe little het communities, take all slashers off your watch lists and flists and fool yourself into believing we're too far away to scar your poor sensitive brains. Oh, and on that last point? Rule 34 is a fact, and if you're so harmed by people slashing your childhood favourites, then get a clue, grow a thicker skin, or GTFO the internet, because all your dearly loved childhood favourites have slash, and probably have disgustingly kinky fanart too.

Is anyone else having problems with LJ? I can't get on there at all at the moment, which is annoying because I have several comments in my email I wanted to reply to.

Bleh.

So a few hours ago (while deep in RP) I uploaded a pile of pictures I had stored in various places on my compy.

Most of them are remnants of the chibi pictures I did a couple of years ago, when I went down to my cousin's place for christmas - probably xmas 2005, because it was the end of the first year of my involvement in Final Fantasy and right before I got my computer upgraded to run the Sims 2, and by default, run FFVIII as well (which only needed a graphics card, while the Sims needed a graphics card, a new CPU, more RAM... you get the idea).

I did post a couple of other things, like the Dot Tree and a couple of scraps, but mostly it was a pile of chibis.

So, yeah, haven't made an entry in frigging ages - well over a year according to the sidebar on the input page. But I have good reason to post here, because it's to do with something here on this site. Nothing bad though.

So, I finally got around to posting more art on here, particularly my "Sad Cloud" pictures - [link] and [link]

They aren't recent pictures and have been on my Photobucket for ages, but after posting Pennants Magnus, I realised how few items I had in my gallery. But anyway, I got quite a rush of comments on it - something I had never expected.

See, I never expect comments, the most comments I've had on FF.net is two on any one fic (they're short and for a fandom that is on the older side - Baldur's Gate). I've had more on my stuff on LJ, but from mostly a restricted audience (i.e. my flist, the only exception is my one 1sentence set, which was on a public comm) and usually what little I produce is for a very restricted audience so I just don't expect comments.

But it's is nice when I do get comments, I even like casual comments on my normal LJ posts, and when I get review replies on FF.net.


So, for anyone who commented and favourited "Sad Cloud - Styled", thankye very much, it means a lot to me.


And I should start digging up more of my stuff to post.

I am slowly uploading what fanart I have. So far I have three of my chrismas chibis uploaded - that is, chibi drawings I did last chrismas when I was at my cousin's house and had no computer access (because the only compy there was her husband's and it didn't have internet and I didn't want to waste his battery power because he probably uses it for work).


I don't expect to use this journal much, maybe only to commant when I've posted art. I use my journal on LJ far more - hell, most of my online social life is on LJ.