Which is what I really don't think when I apply the term femslash to a relationship between women. Femslash, at least to me, says that the story is f/f. Both of them could be bisexual, heterosexual, homosexual or asexual. But that's just me.
In real-life, the presumption that I am a lesbian pisses me off because most of the time, it's a case of people telling me what my sexuality is. They don't ask, they just assume two women = two lesbians. It's...frustrating, to say the least.
And on the one hand, I'm not talking about real-world relationships, I'm talking about fanfiction -- but on the other hand, how people think about fiction is influenced by real-life and fandom isn't some magical safe place where prejudice and bigotry don't happen. So while it's possible that two characters in a f/f relationship could be bisexual women, the language of fandom is such that slash seems to be often read as 'gay' and bisexual characters are NOT gay. I am not a lesbian because I'm in a relationship with a woman and I don't want to read fics where that stereotype is perpetuated.
But on yet another hand, the language we use to talk about this stuff is slippery and confusing and I don't think there are any easy answers that will make things fair for everybody.
Which is also frustrating because damnit, easy answers are easy!
But "other", among other things, seems to contain sex with/between non-humans (including cars) [...].
Ahh, so Transformers fandom *has* made it to AO3, cool! *grins*
Re: here via metafandom @ delicious
In real-life, the presumption that I am a lesbian pisses me off because most of the time, it's a case of people telling me what my sexuality is. They don't ask, they just assume two women = two lesbians. It's...frustrating, to say the least.
And on the one hand, I'm not talking about real-world relationships, I'm talking about fanfiction -- but on the other hand, how people think about fiction is influenced by real-life and fandom isn't some magical safe place where prejudice and bigotry don't happen. So while it's possible that two characters in a f/f relationship could be bisexual women, the language of fandom is such that slash seems to be often read as 'gay' and bisexual characters are NOT gay. I am not a lesbian because I'm in a relationship with a woman and I don't want to read fics where that stereotype is perpetuated.
But on yet another hand, the language we use to talk about this stuff is slippery and confusing and I don't think there are any easy answers that will make things fair for everybody.
Which is also frustrating because damnit, easy answers are easy!
But "other", among other things, seems to contain sex with/between non-humans (including cars) [...].
Ahh, so Transformers fandom *has* made it to AO3, cool! *grins*