ship & slash question

[Greesha]

Where did the terms "ship" and "slash" come from? i mean, i know that ship is short for relationship and slash means /, but who coined the terms? And was there any particular reason?

[Madeleine]

I've hear that 'ship was from X-files fandom, and slash was first used about Kirk/Spok.

[Major Fischer]

I remember ship first from X-Files stuff, and slash has been around as, as Madeliene said, since at least the 1970s when fan fic was on paper and it primarily revolved around Kirk/Spock, and the crew from Blake 7.

[Ramne]

I had never heard either term until I found Gateworld.

[Skydiver]

way back when, characters would be abbrviated Kirk as K for example, spock as S

so when you did a pairing, if it was a het pairing it was K&S, if it was same sex, it was K/S, thus creating the term 'slash fic' since a slash was used to denote that the genders were the same

[greytop]

I had never heard either term until I found Gateworld.

Neither had I. I thought, a first, shippers were people aboard spaceships, etc. Now I know what people are talking about on this forum.

[Major Fischer]

I've been around scifi fandom a pretty long time, and though usually not a 'slasher' (which has such horrible images before you know what it is) that It's always amusing to see the reactions when someone asks what 'slash' is.

I think the most interesting discussions I was watching were around the time of Babylon 5. Most slash till that point had been defined specifically as a non-canonical homosexual relationship. I actually was party to a few discussions over if Ivanava/Winters fic was really slash because it was a canonical relationship.

The wonder of changing times.

[Greesha]

thanks!

[Skydiver]

when i first heard about slash fic, i though, ewwe, gross, it'll be all bloody and gory, like a slasher movie.

yeah, i was surprised.

And a relationship being canon brings up something interesting, take Will and Grace for example, a show with canon, established homosexual characters.....is fic with will and, say Jack, in a relationship slash? I mean, yes, it is in one way because both men are canonly gay, yet they're not in a relationship (last i knew anyway)

[Matt G]

when i first heard about slash fic, i though, ewwe, gross, it'll be all bloody and gory, like a slasher movie.

yeah, i was surprised.

Makes two of us.

[Greesha]

i was just confused when i first heard of slash. But some of the fics listed pairings, and when i noticed a pattern (all of the pairings were same-sex), i figured it out.