Slashing Smallville: The Interplay of Text, Audience and Production on Viewer Interpretations of Homoeroticism

This essay examines the slash community surrounding the television series Smallville. Utilizing textual data, audience survey responses, and fan ethnography, I locate the performance of homoeroticism in Smallville and highlight important (sub)textual moments of the series as recounted by participants. These observations reveal important implications concerning the performative capabilities of narrative, the cultural significance of this particular Superman retelling, and the influence of textual intent on subcultural practices related to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. In essence, slash fans create an alternative vision of television narrative by marking each characters’ actions as homoerotic, which is rearticulated by the writers, directors and actors of the series. This interplay illustrates the changing nature of television narrative, where text, audience and production are inseparable when analyzing media artifacts.