This process of slash fusion, particularly using the Brokeback Mountain trailer as a foundation, allows artists to queer virtually any on screen relationship and is especially important for LGBTQ fans who have so few options of characters to identify with in mass media.

MissSheenie‘s trailer is one of our favorites because it offers us a convincing queer-positive re-interpretation of the heteronormative Harry Potter universe using careful editing and audio manipulation as visual evidence.

Although we would not normally classify remixed trailers as “vids” MissSheenie is an avid vidder so we think its appropriate. She also makes Kirk/Spock slash which you can see on her other YouTube Channel at spirksmistress.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In this slash vid, thingswithwings uses famous slash paring from popular speculative fiction TV shows and movies. She relies on subtext to read between the lines within her source material and imply a romantic relationship between two characters of the same gender. While the source material and its authors may have had no original intention of hinting at their character’s sexual orientation, this vid deliberately slashes the character relationships in Star Trek, BSG: Razor, Babylon 5, Homicide, due South, The West Wing, Buffy, Lost, Stargate Atlantis, Starsky & Hutch, The X-Files, X2, X-Men: The Last Stand, Primeval, Angel, Doctor Who, and Xena to reveal what happens when these relationships are reinterpreted by fans.

thingswithwings sites Henry Jenkin’s quote “slash is what happens when you take away the glass”, as the inspiration for this vid. What Jenkins was referring to was the social barriers in traditional masculinity that prevent men from articulating emotions or expressing intimacy.

The discussion in the vidding community regarding slash, its meaning and usage, is ongoing. Check out our previous posting for more on slash. Through the vidding process, fans become participants in media and culture creation by changing or queering story lines and characters, taking ownership over corporate owned media to make it their own. We think this is a very political act.

Read thingswithwings original livejournal entry.

The term “slash” refers to a same-sex pairing of TV and movie characters placed into sexual or romantic relationships by fans in their own fan fiction, art or vids. The first slash works were created in the 1970s by fans re-imagining a queer relationship between Star Trek’s Kirk and Spock. Typically slash refers to male/male stories, but depending on who you ask it can also mean female/female pairings (which are also called femslash). In the current heteronormative mass media landscape we definitely consider slash vids like these to be queer-positive forms of remix.

Here is a much more detailed description of slash from the FanLore site.

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