ABSTRACT
This chapter unpacks the results of nearly a decade of ethnographic wanderings through online and in-person slash spaces to argue that slash functions as a flexible designation where new modes of expression and relationality become possible. Taking a critical approach to ethnographic overgeneralization, this chapter cautions against the desire to reach totalizing conclusions about fans. As a result, the concept “slash” remains multivocal, as it holds numerous experiences and lives within it; yet, for some participants slash also becomes the basis of deeply felt investments in female spaces, queer identities, same-sex erotics, and passionate friendships.
