Spotlight on: Femmeslash!

Hello! I'm cherie_morte, and ash48 invited me here to try and sell you all one of my niche interests, femmeslash. I was actually a very late convert to femmeslash, so I know you may be thinking it's not for you. I was there once! Or maybe you've considered looking into it but not had any idea where to start? If you care to take a stroll with me down Lady Love Lane, I hope to help settle any interested converts into the Wonderful World of Femmeslash.


No, dammit. I didn't mean it like that, Ruby.

For me, the awesome thing about femmeslash isn't just that you get porn about devastatingly pretty people. That doesn't hurt. Boy, does that not hurt. BUT IT'S NOT EVERYTHING.

Femmeslash is a really refreshing alternative to your standard slash fic, because it tends to be a little lighter, more fun and flirty. Not that I don't love the heavy stuff, but it's always nice to also have a cheerful, pretty sandbox to hop over to when you want to relax. The characters tend to have more emotional connections than the fixation on physical connection, which is not to say the physical ~activities~ aren't hella hot. It's just a completely different animal, seeing the way two female characters interact with and react to each other.

Because there are not many female characters in this fandom, on either the RPF or FPF side, that get a lot of screen time, femmeslash is a pretty rare animal around these parts. And while it sucks sometimes to have so little to work with, character building-wise, I find that this is also the most liberating thing about reading and writing femmeslash. There is so much undeveloped in canon to explore with FPF and so much potential for deciding how a character or pairing should evolve when you don't have established rules about how characters should behave and what situations they can or cannot be in. It's a great way to play with your creativity, completely different but just as rewarding as working with a rich canon like J2.

I'll confess right now that this is going to be a lot more RPF-heavy than FPF-heavy. I don't read much FPF fic outside of Sam/Dean, which is a huge failing of mine, but if I can just spark your interest, I promise there's a great world of FPF femmeslash out there for you to explore as well as RPF!

VISUAL EVIDENCE OF THE PRETTY

In case the pictures linked above are not enough, perhaps I can suade you with a little something m/m slash does not really offer in this fandom. Here are some pictures of our ladies making out with, getting lap dances from, and generally being way hot and canonically slashy with other ladies!


Whose wives are these anyway?


Someone get me the Genevieve/Nicole Tubiola baby fic, okay?

Here's a video of my girlfriend, Adrianne Palicki, getting a lap dance from a girl:



And here are two gif sets. Because you can't really see that from enough angles, lbr.


Okay, I really like Adrianne Palicki making out with girls, tho.


Sandra McCoy starring in Something I Approve Of

I think I've made my point.

COMMUNITIES TO WATCH

spnfemslash: First and most obviously, here's your one stop for femmeslash fic and art of both the RPF and FPF variety. While comms like spn_ruby and spn_anna are great for finding fics if you're interested in one particular actress or character, this is a wonderful comm because it consolidates all the femmeslash in the fandom. It's not too busy because the genre is so rare, so it's easy-to-follow and keep up with!

spnfemmeslashbb: Unfortunately, the Supernatural Femmeslash Big Bang only ran once! But, that just means it's easy to get through the catalogue! Here are 7 long femmeslash stories if you're someone who likes meatier fics. There is also thelittlebang, a multifandom femmeslash bang that I know had at least one SPN RPF fic in the past, so that's worth looking into!

spn_fs_exchange: This here is another gem of a comm to dig into! The exchange hasn't run in a few years but there are TONS of fantastic fics, art pieces, and Fanmixes for all kinds of pairings ranging all over the fandom! Really worth jumping into this pool!

femslash_today: The multi-fandom femmeslash newletter! It's basically what it sounds like: these fine folks keep track of all the femmeslash posting on LJ and then post the links every day so that all you have to do is skim through the entries and see what you like!

podfic_project: Awesomely enough, femmeslash has way more podfic made from the stories than would be an accurate representation of the femmeslash: m/m slash ratio in fandom. THIS IS ME NOT COMPLAINING. This particular comm started out as supernatural-specific, then I think it opened up to other fandoms, and then it moved to dreamwidth. So mostly my point is that the vast majority of the podfics in this comm will all be Supernatural or Supernatural RPF, especially if you go back a page.

Other comms where you can find all kinds of female-centric goodies as well as femmeslash are: spnwomen_kink, spn_ladies, spnpussypalace.

ETA 2: cantarina1 pointed out in comments: "For what it's worth, LJ communities were peripheral to my experience as a femmeslasher in the SPN fandom...If you want f/f on your flist, build a network of lady-friendly and loving SPN fans! Don't just follow communities, follow people too. I never wondered where all of the love for SPN's women was, because I saw it writ large on my flist every day, even when the communities were mostly silent." I can absolutely back up her advice! Although we femmeslashers are a small group in these parts, we are hella enthusiastic! Find some friends who share and encourage your interest in femmeslash and the support you get will be so intense you'll forget femmeslash is a rather limited section of fandom.

POSTS WITH LOTS OF SHINY STUFF

Anyone interested in femmeslash would do well to check out obstinatrix's Girls Just Want to Have Fun comment meme! This was a goldmine of femmeslash fun and games, as well as some yummy het, if that's your thing. There's short, mostly porny fics to drool over and even some super cute art!

The spn_fs_exchange ran a kink meme. I feel like I don't even need to explain to you why this is awesome.

ETA 1: Because I don't go on tumblr, I completely forgot the significance of me posting this during February. Although this isn't really a thing on LJ (and thus it went over my head for years, apparently), Femmeslash February is a thing on tumblr! I can't point you to any cool tumblrs, but I bet if you search the tag for Femmeslash February you'll find lots of yummy things! I also can't encourage you enough to participate, whether on LJ or Tumblr, posting original content or just reblogging (or whatever people do on tumblr).

STARTER FICS, ART, AND OTHER PRETTIES

A Beauty Desired [an SPN/CW RPF femslash podfic anthology], all stories read by exmanhater

This is a great way to get a good foundation of the CW RPF femmeslash out there—13 excellent classic femmeslashy fics (and also 2 by yours truly that I don't know if I'm allowed to call excellent :P). Some of these are my absolute favorite femmeslash fics ever; I especially rec Imposters in This Country by goingtoqueens and No one else can see the spark by lazy_daze. Those are both Genevieve/Adrianne, and classics of the pairing, if you ask me.

I apologize in advance that my recs will be very Genevieve (and particularly Genevieve/Adrianne) heavy. But I have preferences, you see. The podfic anthology above has really stolen my thunder here, because many of the fics I would have been linking are already included in it. So basically, I doubly recommend downloading it and listening to the stories—they're all pretty quick listens and without exception enjoyable. And if podfic isn't for you but you're looking for good femmeslash fics to read, definitely approach it as a rec list and read through the stories!

One author you can't go wrong with is lazy_daze, who has written a ton of ridiculously sexy RPF femmeslash. Other good authors to look into are obstinatrix and bertee (who, in addition to writing some of the yummy contributions to the above podfic anthology, even has a super kinky Adrianne/Danneel/Genevieve series on AO3 under the name SpiralStreet).

Here are some of my favorite fic selections:

CW RPF

The Hand, the Head, and the Heart by lazy_daze
Pairing: Danneel/Genevieve
World Count: 18,300
Summary: Danneel Harris lives a normal, dull life - with a normal, dull job and a normal, dull boyfriend. Until she sees classical pianist Genevieve Cortese at a recital - the beautiful performance unlocks the artistic inspiration Danneel thought she'd lost upon leaving art school three years ago. Danneel paints again, her trademark rich abstract pieces bursting forth, and her life turns around and upside down in more ways than one.

A chance meeting leads Genevieve and Danneel to form a friendship and connection which comes to a head when Genevieve asks Danneel to paint her. Their connection and chemistry is something unexpected and terrifying to Danneel - but if she lets it, it could be something beautiful. A story about music, art, passion and love.

No Map for Our Travels by exmanhater
Pairing: girl!Jared/girl!Jensen
World Count: 27,000
Summary: Jensen's life is predictable and safe, and she likes it that way. At the beginning of her last year of grad school she knows exactly what the future holds, and it seems like enough, until she meets Jay. Jared Padalecki isn't a typical anything, and her arrival in Jensen's life shakes everything Jensen knows about herself into disarray. Jay has never done anything the way she was supposed to, and falling for her hot TA is no exception. As she gets closer to Jensen, she realizes nothing will ever be the same again – and she can't wait.

so high above with you by lazy_daze
Pairing: Adrianne/Genevieve
World Count: 4,600
Summary: Movie-star!Adrianne/stewardess!Genevieve.

En Travesti by lazy_daze
Pairing: Danneel/Genevieve
World Count: 3,700
Summary: Warnings: sort-of infidelity but not angsty, mild D/s, roleplay/crossdressing/genderplay themes. (author does not provide a summary, but frankly, the warnings sum it up pretty well XD)

Bedside Manner by lazy_daze
Pairing: Danneel/Genevieve
World Count: 3,100
Summary: Genevieve goes to gynecologist!Danneel for a check-up and it 's a lot hotter than anyone is expecting.

SUPERNATURAL FPF

she's a real time girl (in my imaginary world) by lazy_daze
Pairing: Sam/Dean (girl!Sam/girl!Dean in the porn)
World Count: 8,300
Summary: In which the Trickster flips Sam and Dean into another genre of television...

^^ This is a particularly great first fic for anyone getting into femmeslash from slash fandom because the boys are the boys in it and are then genderswapped, so the characters have to ease in and get used to it just like new readers do (and also IT IS SO HOT DEAR LORD).

The earth could not play by lazy_daze
Pairing: Tessa/Jess
World Count: 6,300
Summary: The night before Jess died, she met Tessa.

For art, my go-to artist is scarletscarlet. She posts more femmeslashy art than anyone else I can think of, and it is GLORIOUS. As far as other artists go, the sad truth is that there is not nearly as much femmeslash art in the world as there should be! But some good options on people who have drawn some in the past include ordinaryink, angelicfoodcake, and melanth0.

Some of my suggested pieces of starter art:

CW RPF

Fins by scarletscarlet
Pairing: Adrianne/Genevieve
Summary: Wereshark!Adrianne saves diver!Genevieve with some buddy breathing.

bacon, panties, and love by ordinaryink
Pairing: Adrianne/Genevieve
Summary: Having a not-classy!breakfast date in which Genevieve is sitting on Adrianne's lap and they each have their mouth on the opposite side of a piece of bacon...a la Lady and the Tramp.

ETA3: HOW DID I FORGET TO INCLUDE THIS?!

Untitled by ordinaryink
Pairing: girl!Jared/girl!Jensen
Summary: girl!J2 being all adorable on a couch.

SUPERNATURAL FPF

Untitled by angelicfoodcake
Pairing: girl!Sam/Jess
Summary: NSFW

Trail of pie-crumbs by scarletscarlet
Pairing: girl!Dean/Charlie
Summary: Sharing some pie.

mary and anna by melanth0
Pairing: Mary/Anna
Summary: NSFW. Prompt was for Anna running her fingers through Mary's hair.

Two truths and a lie by counteragent
Pairing: Anna/Jess
Summary: Anna is sent to Stanford to guard Sam. She falls for Jess instead.

Beautiful Distraction by tringic
Pairing: Jess/Pamela
Summary: ghost!Jess talks to Pamela through a Ouija board.

ETA 4: I just got linked to this and IT SEEMED IMPORTANT THAT I SHARE IT.

Untitled by Casdasgay @ Tumblr
Pairing: Charlie/Gilda
Summary: NSFW.

So, that's my sell! Hopefully I've at least piqued some interests or helped interested parties orient themselves. If you have any femmeslash related questions that I didn't cover in the above post, please please feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer! I'll edit this post as we go along in case there's things in the comments that I think will help new femmeslashers along.

If this post has given you such a burning need for femmeslash that you cannot contain yourself and must find a way to make more exist, I heartily endorse any and all attempts at getting another femmeslash bang off the ground. :P