Some musings on Zeppelin slash and the wider Zep fandom
After returning to Zeppelin slash fandom, I have to say I’m pleasantly surprised at the way the fandom has evolved and diversified.
During my earlier Zep fandom participation, all the elements were in place for an explosion of interest which I’d hoped would trickle down to create a cohesive slash community, but never did. The 2003 DVD had just come out, and numerous younger fans joined up, including many young women and girls who were, on paper, potentially more receptive to slash (or fanfic full stop) than the previous / existing (straight) male-dominated fan culture had been.
(I’m excluding Tris/Alex here, as that was *very* underground and mostly a product of the ‘zine era; the fact writers had to use psuedonyms for the band is proof of how obscure - not to mention marginalised - this subculture was within the greater Zeppelin fandom.)
The zeppelin_slash LJ emerged from this era; there was also a Tris/Alex Yahoo! Group which archived fics from the ‘zines, and there was a site called Rockfic which also included het and gen, but overall the great anticipated explosion never materialised. I have a couple of thoughts as to why this might have been.
First of all, the mainstream fandom had (probably still has) its fair share of gatekeepers who’d come down on you like a shit ton of bricks if you attempted to discuss the more “complicated” or “difficult” stuff. Things weren’t so bad on the old Electric Magic forums, but the gatekeepers were out in full force by the time those forums became “official” shortly before the O2 reunion. Quite a few people decamped to the Royal-Orleans.com forum as a result. That place was also fairly anodyne in terms of permitted content, but at least you could openly discuss boots and *some* of the more controversial parts of the band’s history and dynamics without fear of reproach. Still, there was a lack of opportunity for connection with like-minded others because of the overall gatekeeping, and connection is essential to making links and helping the garden grow.
Secondlly, what might also have been missing was the queer element. Of course, you can’t tell somebody’s identity from their username, or even from the content of their posts unless the topic under discussion is relevant and the poster chooses to disclose this information, but I think it was a factor. The fandom-at-large was so gatekeeper-y in so many respects that conditions for the flourishing of slash fandom (any fanfic, in fact) could never be optimised.
Women and queer folks don’t necessarily engage with fandom in the same way as het males. We often experience attaction to the musicians in addition to the music, and we sometimes experience the music through different filters and frames as well. I don’t believe the mainstream fandom was able to adapt to these ongoing changes in fandom demographics and fandom engagement, and simply closed ranks in response.
I’d be interested to hear other thoughts regarding this. (Edited from the original because it sounded like I was implying the slash fandom *should* be bigger; what I meant to ask is *why* it’s not bigger, it a purely speculative / theoretical sense. Apologies.)