Social Media Freaks by Dustin Kidd is an informational book that focuses on varying issues in the social media world. Kidd focuses on racial discrimination, gender and sexuality perspectives, disability perspectives, and social class bigotry. The focal point of chapter three in Social Media Freaks is the perspectives of individuals who identify in the LGBTQ community.

A major concept presented to the readers is something called slash fiction. Slash fiction focuses on allowing fictional characters to be presented to the public eye as homosexuals. The word slash comes from the slash you would use to put in between the two names. For example; Kidd gives the sample slash for the characters Harry/Draco from Harry Potter. Slash is not an actuality of the characters getting together; it is a recreation of the story in one’s head or shared on social media.

Slash fiction is the intimate fictional relationship between characters of the same sex. For instance, an example of slash fiction could be members of the LGBTQ community using “Batman/Robin” meaning there is a fictional intimacy between the two. Another famous slash fiction is “James Bond/Q” from the movie Skyfall. Young adults also can do this with children’s movies like Toy Story using the characters “Buzz Lightyear/Woody”

How do you think society would react if film makers were to create more movies with main characters that were attracted to the same sex?

Personally, I think society would discriminate even more if more movies were to have main characters that identified as LGBTQ. I give credit to the citizens of the United States for becoming more open to homosexual relationships, but our society as a whole is still far behind. Compared to other places in the world that serve the death penalty for people expressing their sexuality, we are much more advanced. Parents in today’s society still fear their child will “turn gay” if exposed to that at a young age. This alone still shows how far we have to come as a society. For now, slash fiction will have to do, and it is safe to say that members who participate in these acts enjoy doing what they do.