Archives for The Toast’s Femslash Friday feature are here. This is a bonus, for your edification and weekend reading pleasure.
Fandom loves the penis. An exploration of why could take a while (start here!), but let’s just say that while fandom may love awesome women, it’s the dudes, awesome or not, who generally get to have all the gay sex. (White dudes. Straight-in-canon white dudes. Ahem.)
Fortunately, there is great femslash to be found if you look, from reinterpreting classic kids’ lit to writing better stories for the women on current television. I’m here to save you the looking part.
Television and Movies
Heavy Is The Head by devilinacardigan (Mellie Grant/Olivia Pope, Scandal)
Hey, you know how Fitz kind of sucks? Imagine if Mellie divorced him and ran for president. And did whatever it took to win. And had some hot sex with Olivia. Better now?
(Also, this story is a little rough around the edges but it’s fairly rare to find explicit femslash so I can’t resist including it.)
You can’t put back a petal when it falls from a flower by zvi (Cristina/Meredith, Grey’s Anatomy)
“Milk’s already in the cereal, isn’t it?” says Meredith. She gives Cristina a mug and a kiss and sits down in front of her bowl. “Also, before we have sex, I should probably dump Derek.”
Like, 90% of the reason my roommate and I used to watch this show, other than swooning over Addison’s shiny pretty hair, was to complain about Derek Shepherd.
Cristina says, “It’s not gay without pussy, Meredith.” I want to marry this story.
Boston Marriage by Jae (Rory Gilmore/Paris Geller, Gilmore Girls)
Because sometimes super high-achieving, attractive girls should stop constantly competing with each other and make out.
If you feel like winning by Jintian (Torrance/Isis, Bring It On)
OK, it’s easy to pair up Torrance and Missy, what with sharing a bed and wearing tiny cheerleader panties and hello, have you seen Eliza Dushku in anything ever? But what if Torrance went to college and reconnected with the tall, gorgeous, smart and tough captain of the rival Clovers, who might just be the one person who really gets her?
How the mouth changes its shape by breathedout (John/Sherlock, Sherlock [genderswap])
Because fandom is nothing if not creative, sometimes writers in a fandom with primarily male characters will swap the genders of one or both members of a popular pairing. This can have interesting political dimensions — how is life different for the swapped character? If only one is swapped (very common), is it really so they can perform heteronormativity? — or just be another way to write about sexy times.
I had the privilege of being an editor on this amazing, novel-length story in which Sherlock and “Johnnie” are lesbians in 1950s London, one a cross-dressing detective and one a WWII vet. There’s mystery-solving and underground lesbian clubs and exploration of their sexual identity amidst the rigid butch/femme dynamic of the time, plus motorcycles and sex and subplots and all the stuff you want in a good long bathtub read.
Sympathetic Magic by gloss (Buffy/Faith, Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Yeah, so, see above re: Eliza Dushku. You can’t watch five minutes of these two without wanting them to bang. Which is pretty much all they do in this super-NSFW and kinky story.
(Bonus Buffy/Faith: Theurgy by Jintian, less porn, more exploration of their thorny light/dark relationship.)
Books and Theater
Roll in the Burlington by breathedout (Anne Shirley/Katherine Brooke, Anne of Green Gables)
Katherine Brooke, lately of Summerside, Prince Edward Island, stood for the seventeenth night running on a makeshift stage under crude footlights in a top hat and scarlet tails. Katherine-with-a-K gets off PEI, pines a little, and goes Sarah Waters.
Love and Longing by Lysismache (Emma Woodhouse/Original Female Character, Emma)
In which Emma is secretly gay because oh my god of course she is. The obsession with Harriet’s love life! The portrait-painting scene! The determination to remain rich and unmarried! Marrying a nice friend of her father’s who doesn’t even make her move in with him! The whole book makes much more sense if you read her as a confused queer girl who doesn’t even know what queer is.
Another Country by tryfanstone (Jill Pole/Susan Pevensie, Chronicles of Narnia)
Takes the Biblical threads of the series and twangs them, hard. Daughters of Eve and apples and innocence in post-Last Battle Narnia, and chilling to boot.
Like Juno’s Swans by mayhap (Celia/Rosalind, As You Like It)
“Besmirched! By my verses which thou art vowed to praise! Thy sworn sweetness is as full of pricks as thy name,” Celia scolded. “Smirched and slandered both, i’ faith! For thou knowst better than any other that pricks have nothing to do with this Rose.”
It’s not every day you find respectable Shakespearean pastiche and naughty femslash in the same story.
With Gentle Curves and Tender Feelings by Lauren (Claudia Kishi/Ashley Wyeth, BSC)
Another “of course she was secretly gay!” story. Remember Ashley, the utterly cool abstract sculptor in Claudia’s art class who had the rest of the BSC worrying she was going to skip out on the whole babysitting gig for her? Those babysitters were onto something. I mean, Ashley wore ankle-length denim skirts, how could Claud resist. *moment of silence dedicated to Claudia’s amazing outfits*
Rashida Jones
(Who gets her own category because she’s never been in anything where you couldn’t read her as at least a little bi. Also I have a huge crush on her.)
The Thing Itself by Kyra (Pam Beesly/Karen Filipelli, The Office)
All right-thinking people know Pam should have ended up with Karen instead of passive-aggressive manchild Jim. Remember that time their Committee to Plan Parties took on Angela’s Party-Planning Committee, and they made margaritas and had lots of unresolved sexual tension? God, Karen was great.
Flying Solo by fearlessfan (Leslie Knope/Ann Perkins, Parks and Recreation)
Adam Scott and Rob Lowe are great and all, but come on, Leslie and Ann 4eva.
a heart worth the breaking by aphrodite_mine (Natalie Rochlin/Cindy, Our Idiot Brother)
And then there’s that movie where Rashida actually played a lesbian. (Dating Zooey Deschanel! Paul Rudd is in it! It’s on Instant now, check it out if you are at peace with having predictable hipster movie tastes, like I am.) Femslash can tend towards the saccharine, and this story brings a welcome bit of realism.
Happy reading, all!
Tags: a femslash enthusiast, background reading, lgbt, resource guides, the internet
Can you just give us rec lists ALL THE TIME? Please and thank you.
“… and goes Sarah Waters.” < ahahaha, hahahaha, hahahaha, Affinity is still [terrible] {complex and not to my taste as to what I want in a novel about SPIRITUALISM and homosexuality}.
This list is excellent. Thank you.
Okay, wait but does anyone remember that BSC fanfic that I think was mentioned on The Hairpin a few years ago? Maybe it was even just in the comments but I read it and it was probably the most bananas thing I’ve ever read.
Spoiler alert:
It was like… okay, Claudia is always doing coke and has a famous but abusive boyfriend, Maryann has a baby from someone but she doesn’t know who and Stacy falls in love with her and they live in a barn together, Dawn has moved out to California with Shannon, her pimp. And Mallory supposedly died but didn’t (????) and was living as this middle aged reclusive writer (???) and has this bizarre revenge plot and she ends up getting caught and SENTENCED TO THE MOON. And then all the other babysitters go live on the moon, too.
I would search for it but I’m on my computer at work and don’t want those search results on here.
On a “texts from the BSC” post by Mallory (of course): All That We’d Lost, by CrazyWriter.
“We’ve all found a new start – except for Mal. It’s such a tragedy. We thought once she was acquitted for insanity and released to her parents, well, with enough love and good friends, she could get better. After all, we all helped her through mono!
” But things didn’t get better… they just got worse. Mallory murdered all sixteen Pikes.”
I can’t believe I’d forgotten that!
All That We’d Lost https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3792082/1/All-That-W… (I have it bookmarked for when I’m having a bad day.)
A++
yes hello I just read the Bring It On one and it moved me along the Kinsey scale.
Sympathetic Magic is not linked! And I am all about Buffy/Faith. FAITH MADE ME GAY.
(I am not even kidding. Faith made me gay.)
It exists! I found it! http://archiveofourown.org/works/344811
:: notes word count on Sherlock/Watson story. Abandons all hope of a productive afternoon. ::
YOU WILL NOT REGRET THIS. It’s sooooooooooo gooooooooooood.
I am already 100% sucked in.
Seriously this story is amazing lesbian separatists forever.
How the mouth changes its shape is RIDICULOUSLY great
AW YISS
Boston Marriage is the only Gilmore Girls fanfic I have ever read. Boston Marriage is the only Gilmore Girls fanfic I will ever feel the need to read.
Even the title (lbr especially the title) is flawless.
There’s a Boston Marriage story in Holmes fandom too – let’s just admit that story’s way more fun if at least one of the characters is a girl. Tragically, it isn’t quite femslash, but I hold out hope for the sequel. https://archiveofourown.org/series/8405
Have you read anything else by Jae? She’s a stunning writer. Amazing work.
OMG you are/were a beta for breathedout???!?!?! eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. I might be hyperventilating a little bit right now. Maybe. Probably. OMG that story is Just. So. Amazing. that I might need to go read it again. Right. Now.
OH MY GOD, BLESS YOUR HEART. This is the post I always needed. Most of the femslash I read is genderswaps (which I love, don’t get me wrong) so it’s always grand to get new recs that aren’t.
I got really into Gwen/Sybill from season 1 Downton Abbey for a while, there’s some good stuff for that on AOOO.
Oh dear, is the title supposed to say “A Femslash Resource Guide”? Because it actually says “A *Femlash* Resource Guide,” which led to me being disappointed at the lack of whip-buying tips for the femmey misandrist.
HAHAHAHAHA
A Femlash Resource Guide, by Franziska von Karma.
(Anyone who got that: let’s be friends.)
Thank you!!!
I wish there was an archive dedicated just to all the femslash, especially of the explicit smut variety. With slash, you can just go over to AO3 and never leave if you don’t want to, but femslash means hunting around for Livejournals that have been abandoned but not taken down.
Archimage is a Revolutionary Girl Utena fanfic that is well worth your time too – it’s on AO3. I know some other Toasties love Utena!
I’m really trying to get into this Leslie/Ann femslash, but I just can’t get over the fact that Leslie Knope would NEVER deign to eat a salad, even in a lesbian separatist alternate universe.
THERE IS ROSALIND/CELIA SHAKESPEAREAN FEMSLASH. MY LIFE IS COMPLETE.
(Note to self, time to actually get around to writing that Midsummer Night’s Dream Helena/Hermia story.)
HELLO FRIEND!! Oh man, it is so delightful that a random acquaintance linked me over here and it turned out to be you! I was just thinking about you because I took a walk down memory lane and watched some X-Files and then went in search of quality Mulder/Scully stories and ended up reading one of your old ones, which was, of course, of about 300 times the quality of anything else I could find. I’m glad you continue to exist in the world!
(And omg, off to read me some serious Faith/Buffy, right after I thank you for the nice words! <3)
I’ve read some really good short femslash that was Hermione/Luna, although I have no idea if I can find it again. I keep hoping Mallory will do a Friday post on them and dig up some of my faves for me.
I probably will not! But I am glad you have a pairing that brings you joy.
I have so much law and order SVU femslash to rec for you, let me tell ya. (please, someone, give me an excuse)
Can I just add a personal femslash favorite?
http://archiveofourown.org/works/17826
It’s Britney Spears/Christina Aguilera!
Cooking on High, by Creme Brulee.
So old that it is functionally an Internet antique, so well-written I suspect the author now releases books under an alternate name on Bold Strokes Books.
I love that one!
We MISS yooooooooou. 🙂
Urgh, that Narnia one was so pretty, but I’m fairly certain the symbolism just wooshed right over my head 🙁
i knew emma was my favorite austen novel for a reason!!
Ah, if there was explicit Carmilla femslash out there, I would die a happy woman.