Femslash ships

[sophinisba]

For December 15th, fitz_y asked me to name my top five femslash ships in any fandom, ever, and this caused me to reflect that I don't have much experience with what I think of as the big femslash ships. I like femslash and I think a lot of people see me as a femslasher, but I don't have the really strong feelings about any femslash pairings that I have more often had for boyslash pairings.

I was into Gwen/Morgana, which, you know, made some sense during the first season of Merlin and after that was a ship of heartbreak, and we Gwen/Morgana shippers would get together and sadface at each other a lot. I have a plan for a Gwen/Morgana vid that would express some of these feelings, which are real feelings, but also like. I love Gwen so much, you guys, and I care for Morgana but I don't really think Morgana cared for Gwen that much, so I've mostly shipped it as a fucked up ship that makes me sad.

Once canon made Gwen/Morgana difficult a lot of people started shipping Morgana with Morgause and, you know, every other lady on the show, and I sometimes did that too but it also made me uneasy and/or sad because Gwen is my favorite and I didn't want to leave her out. But Gwen barely ever got to interact with other women in canon, so there wasn't a lot of opportunity for femslash there. I enjoy rarepairs and I've written and/or podficced just about every combination of ladies on the show, including lots of pairs who never actually meet in canon, but it doesn't really make sense to say they're one of my favorite ships.

And that's sort of been my pattern in other fandoms too, like I'll go in and write a story or record a podfic for a ship, but I'm just as happy to see one of those characters paired up with her canon boyfriend or some other random character, and don't think of myself as devoted to the femslash ship.

I think of Xena/Gabriel as an Important Femslash Ship and I even have some affection for them, but I don't know if I've ever watched a full episode of Xena, it is just not really my kind of show, and there's so much of it it's always seemed overwhelming. I am grateful for the Gay Girl's Guide to Xena that fitz_y's started posting, but, well, I don't know if I will actually watch any.

I watched some early episodes of Voyager as a pre-teen and still have a lot of affection for Captain Janeway, but I never got to the later and more femslashy seasons, and B's and my recent attempts at a rewatch haven't gotten very far.

Similarly, I've just never made it through the second season of Legend of the Seeker. I just, it's such a ridiculous show. (I know, I know, I watched five seasons of Merlin.)

I have watched all of Buffy and I understand but don't actually feel the appeal of Buffy/Faith. I like Willow/Tara.

So idk trying to answer this sort of made me feel like a bad femslasher. :( I really do like all kinds of ships! Just not usually in an epic way.

Comments

[fitz_y]

You are not a bad femslasher at all! God, I know. Gwen/Morgana was/is the ship of heartbreak. And I agree about loving Gwen and wishing she got more attention or another femslash ship possibility. Sigh.

[sophinisba]

There were so many opportunities gosh! But in later seasons they just kept Gwen locked up in the castle while Arthur and Merlin got to meet all these other characters. How awesome would it have been to get some good Gwen/Annis mentoring action?

[fitz_y]

I know, right! She felt totally locked up. Then again, I have only seen the last few seasons in clips via fanvids, but still. It should have been the Gwen show. Sigh.

[netgirl_y2k]

Ah, the heyday of Gwen/Morgana... younger, more innocent times. I actually completely agree that Morgana didn't actually care that much about Gwen, or if she did it was in a possessive, slightly distasteful way, which is part of why I started shipping her with all and sundry apart from Gwen. I do look forward to that Gwen/Morgana vid of feelings, should you ever get round to making it.

And, you know, I watched Xena as a teenager, but can't really rewatch it because a lot of it sets of my secondhand embarrassment squick, I was exclusively a het shipper in Voyager, and I never felt the appeal of Buffy/Faith either. In fact a lot of the juggernaut femslash ships just make me sort of blink and wander off. So if you're a bad femslasher, probably so am I.

[sophinisba]

I have the song picked out and certain bits of this vid look very clear and devastating in my mind, but it is five minutes long and that's a little intimidating to start out with, all the clipping that would be involved especially. Plus I think gosh if I make it I'll have made all of two vids for my favorite show and they'll both be about how much my show hates women. /o\

I do think it's funny that we kept on with the Gwen/Morgana feelings as long as we did, even when the show gave us so little. I wasn't even active in the fandom until season 2, and that's when things started to fall apart for them, but oh we kept on. I did think Pastimes and Lifestyles did a great job of including the ship while also sort of acknowledging that Gwen wasn't really Morgana's first priority. She had lots of other things going on!

[veleda_k]

I always felt that in season one and early season two, Morgana did very much care about Gwen, though it was complicated by Morgana's self-absorption. She was always much more wrapped up in herself than Gwen (or anyone else). But there was at least genuine caring between them, early on.

And, you know, I think was willing to overlook a lot of the problems in that ship, like Morgana's selfishness and the power differences, because dear god a real, important friendship between women. And then... well. But, yeah, looking back, there are plenty of issues.

I would watch the hell out of that vid, by the way. I've watched the hell out of your last Merlin vid too, though, like a jerk, I never commented.

[sophinisba]

And, you know, I think was willing to overlook a lot of the problems in that ship, like Morgana's selfishness and the power differences, because dear god a real, important friendship between women.

Same, same, I probably didn't express it well in the post. But there were a lot of things in the first two season that I at least as a viewer experienced as Gwen and Morgana truly caring for each other. Then I would read other people's interpretations and think some more about how wrapped up in herself Morgana was, idk. I still got so much pleasure out of watching them together, and more so out of reading the fic, listening to podfic, squeeing over them with other fans.

And thank you for being interested in my vid! I've been thinking about it more this last week since I made that other post about vidding. Would really like to give it another try once we get through Festivids season.

[fleete]

I really feel this post. My femslashy feelings often seem like they're on the outskirts of fandoms rather than the centers. So to speak. A lot of femslash ships are already on the margins anyway.

But I think for me the place where my femslash feelings come from is the same place as my ALL OF THESE WOMEN SHOULD TALK TO EACH OTHER feelings. So I end up shipping women who don't have much interaction in canon, because I desperately want them to know each other and commiserate.

(Oh, and I feel you about LOTS. That was a cracktastic show. And that fandom produced crack the likes of which I have never, ever seen.)

[cantarina]

But I think for me the place where my femslash feelings come from is the same place as my ALL OF THESE WOMEN SHOULD TALK TO EACH OTHER feelings. So I end up shipping women who don't have much interaction in canon, because I desperately want them to know each other and commiserate.
This was basically what I spent a year doing in Supernatural fandom. NO REGRETS.

[sophinisba]

ALL OF THESE WOMEN SHOULD TALK TO EACH OTHER

Right? And I love making those stories where they do, making up a little for the way they're so isolated in canon. Really Gwen/Morgana was just about the only time when I've gotten to do femslash any other way, and that's a little trippy when you think about it!

[cantarina]

All kinds of ways to be interested in femslash and/or be a femslasher. There is no yardstick to worry about measuring yourself up against <3

[sophinisba]

Nice icon bb! <3