Meanings
- slanguncountablelifestyleSlash fan fiction which pairs pop musicians, especially ones belonging to the same boy band.
Popslash writers use pop stars as their protagonists, constructing fictional narratives that supplement and enhance those disseminated by the media.
2006, Kristina Busse, “'I'm jealous of the fake me': Postmodern subjectivity and identity construction in boy band fan fiction”, in Su Holmes, Sean Redmond, editors, Framing Celebrity: New Directions in Celebrity Culture, Routledge, →ISBN, page 2542 more examples
Consequently, popslash grew popular among media fan writers, many of whom created similarly brilliant and science fiction-like premises to explore celebrity culture as a metaphor for gender identity and other performances of the self.
2006, Francesca Coppa, “A Brief History of Media Fandom”, in Karen Hellekson, Kristina Busse, editors, Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays, McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 56The popslash phenomenon gathered momentum after a 2001 story that imagined Chris Kirkpatrick of the band 'N Sync experiencing a sudden overnight gender change, […]
2011, Katherine Meizel, Idolized: Music, Media, and Identity in American Idol, Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 46
Origin
Cite this entry
popslash. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/popslash
“popslash.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/popslash. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “popslash,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/popslash.
Source: popslash on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.