Why Do Women (specifically, me) Read/Write Slash?

[elspethdixon]

minikitkatgirl has spawned yet another dicussion about the appeal of slash to female writers on the pirategasm community.

My comments on the subject can be read .

Unlike some slash fans (note that I say "some" and not "all"), I read and write both slash and het, which means, of course, that I ship both slash and het. I've heard (and seen in the posts above) the arguments that slash fics are simply better written than het fics, that all het romances involve Mary Sues, and, the most prevalent argument of all, that the equal nature of slash relationships makes m/m (or f/f, but those are much rarer) pairings more interesting. I'm not sure that all of these are true, though the last one is to some extent.

I've read stunningly beautiful gen fics, and gorgeously written, well-plotted het fics (though rarely ones that feature an OFC--I tend to stick to pairings featuring canon females), so while there tends to be more bad het out there (simply because the very nature of slash tends to attract older writers), I've also seen some completely cringe-worthy slash.

What I look for in a fic is good writing, solid characterization, and, in long fics, an interesting plot. A sizable serving of hurt/comfort doesn’t hurt either, but the appeal of reading about characters being made to suffer horribly isn’t what we’re debating here. We’re discussing the appeal of reading about two men in a gay relationship.

Note the use of the word “relationship.” When I read fics, I tend to look for longer ones, stories that give me some plot along with my smut (in fact, I may even end up skimming over the NC-17 bits if I’m not in the mood for sex). It’s not the hot guy-on-guy action that sucked me into slash—it was the characters and their relationships with each other. I don’t slash every set of guys I read about or watch—in fact, there are some fandoms, such as X-Men, that I hardly slash at all. And there are some fandoms, like Weiss Kreuz, where I slash everyone. It depends on how much subtext the show or books present me with, as well as how well developed the cannon females are (if, indeed, there are any females at all).

The thing that makes slash stories truly interesting is the interaction between the characters, in and out of bed, and the fact that they are both men only intensifies that interest, because it throws so many added issues into the bargain (the possibility of censure from society, the control issues, ect.). And as many others before me have pointed out, the truly appealing thing about slash is that a homosexual relationship is theoretically a relationship of equals—since neither of the characters is a women, there is, theoretically, no need to conform to the traditional male/female roles of a het romance, with the strong man and the weak, submissive women. The upshot of this is, when it’s done well, a relationship that can be competitive as often as it is co-operative (and that sort of relationship is simply fun to read). There are het relationships out there in fandom that approach this power dynamic (Buffy/Spike, in particular, can read like very good slash when it’s well done), but many fandoms are desperately lacking in decent and/or interesting female characters.

However, there are hoards of slash writers out there who feminize one of the two men to the point that their stories effective read just like a Harlequin bodice ripper, with one character being portrayed as much weaker than the other, and dependant on the stronger man’s support and protection. This irritates me to no end, probably because most of the characters I like are fairly strong, capable men, and while I have no problem with portraying one of them as more experienced or emotionally dominant (or with one being “on top” more than the other), I dislike seeing them reduced to weepy shadows of their cannon selves. Still, the number and popularity of this sort of fics leads me to deduce that not every slash reader and/or writer is in it because they want to portray equal relationships of the sort mentioned in Plato’s Symposium or D.H. Lawrence’s Women in Love.

So it’s not about relationship dynamics for everyone. It tends to be for me, though. To be perfectly honest, I find sex scenes hotter when there’s a woman involved, because then I can put myself in her place. It takes a little more imagination to put myself in a man’s place. F/f smut, I‘ve got to confess, is the hottest of all, because there are two women to identify with (the fact that I’ve got bisexual leanings may or may not have anything to do with this).