Some of the disagreement seems to have stemmed from semantics - wordings, definitions and interpretations. For example, the core statement of the debated has been phrased different ways:
- I don't like ...
- I would read this as merely meaning that someone doesn't actively like something - which is not the same as disliking it. That said, some people who say "don't like" may actually mean "dislike".
- I dislike ...
- Here we have someone who, for whatever reason, actively does not like something
- I hate ...
- Hate: "dislike intensely, often in a way that evokes feelings of anger, hostility or animosity", "have strong distaste or aversion for"
Next up, I've seen numerous different definitions of slash:
- Any story which has homosexual (or bisexual) characters in it.
- Any story featuring homosexual romance/relationships/etc.
- Stories in which the main character(s) is/are homosexual (or bisexual).
- Stories where a major pairing is homosexual.
- Stories containing explicit gay or lesbian sex.
Putting the above together, we can have a whole range of meanings, from "I hate slash (definition 1)" - which I would say is pretty unambiguously homophobic - to "I don't like slash (definition 5)" - which I would not see as being homophobic. Personally, while I may like slash (any definition) stories, actual slash smut doesn't interest me. What, then, of an unqualified "I dislike slash"? There are various meanings and reasonings, clearly someone who says this is not expressing themselves clearly. They may well be homophobic, but they may have non-homophobic reasons (being a canon purist and not seeing the canon characters as homosexual, having a het OTP and not reading anything else, having disliked for other reasons what slash they have read).
From what I've seen of the debate, it seems that for the most part, the debatees are agreed that homophobia is not acceptable, and that disliking slash purely because it contains homosexual characters or relationships is homophobic. The bone of contention appears to be "innocent until proven guilty" vs. "guilty until proven innocent". As a naïve idealist, I like to take the former viewpoint, but from some of the comments in the discussion, I've begun to see why some people would take the latter.
Edit: The word I skipped over the fist time was 'homophobia' - but the more I look at this debate, the more I see it as a word that people are interpreting in different ways. Yes, unlike slash, there are dictionary definitions - but plenty of people have disagreed with those. In my mind, when someone is labelled a homophobe, that makes me think of people who commit hate crimes, who loudly proclaim that homosexuality is evil and wrong, who object to a gay couple holding hands while the hets are sucking face, etc - even though I know that 'homophobia' has a much broader definition. This distinction is why I personally would not want to jump in too quickly with the homophobe label that might offend a person who is, by the broader definition, homophobic, but who is supportive of gay rights and despises anti-gay behaviour. Of course, such a person shouldn't be posting an unqualified 'I dislike slash' in the first place.
