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

[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!