Slash Fiction and Human Mating Psychology
Below is an article on women and slashfic that one of my friends sent me a while back. It was written several years ago (2004), so some aspects of it may be out of date, and the authors are evolutionary psychologists, so that's the perspective they are coming from. I think the article is pure and unrelenting bullshit, but I thought I would share it anyway, since it seemed appropriate for this comm. You will most likely either find it hilarious or infuriating. Possibly both.
Slash Fiction and Human Mating Psychology
Some of the more bizarre assertions made by the authors:
"One hypothesis that might account for the existence of slash is simply that the women who write and read this erotic subgenre are, in some yet-to-be-determined way, psychosexually unusual--analogous, for example, to male paraphiliacs."
"While slash fans produce a great deal of slash-related artwork, it is unabashedly romantic, very much in the vein of romance novel cover art. It may depict nudity, but it almost never depicts penetration."
"In describing their characters, slash writers are to some extent constrained by the physical traits of the actors who play the roles in the series being slashed, but poetic license regularly enables the main POV character to be "feminized": that is, to be portrayed as the smaller of the two, physically weaker, lighter in coloring, more seductive, more in touch with his emotions, and quicker to perceive the development of mutual love."
From the sound of it, they did not actually talk to any slash fans before writing their article. What they did was browse a couple of web archives, and conducted a survey of 22 romance novel fans after they had read a (published) gay romance novel.
This article was also expanded into a book entitled Warrior Lovers: Erotic Fiction, Evolution, and Female Sexuality. It's available for free at the link, and has gotten some rave reviews. If you can stomach 100 pages of this sort of BS, consider writing a review to balance the others.
Slash Fiction and Human Mating Psychology
Some of the more bizarre assertions made by the authors:
"One hypothesis that might account for the existence of slash is simply that the women who write and read this erotic subgenre are, in some yet-to-be-determined way, psychosexually unusual--analogous, for example, to male paraphiliacs."
"While slash fans produce a great deal of slash-related artwork, it is unabashedly romantic, very much in the vein of romance novel cover art. It may depict nudity, but it almost never depicts penetration."
"In describing their characters, slash writers are to some extent constrained by the physical traits of the actors who play the roles in the series being slashed, but poetic license regularly enables the main POV character to be "feminized": that is, to be portrayed as the smaller of the two, physically weaker, lighter in coloring, more seductive, more in touch with his emotions, and quicker to perceive the development of mutual love."
From the sound of it, they did not actually talk to any slash fans before writing their article. What they did was browse a couple of web archives, and conducted a survey of 22 romance novel fans after they had read a (published) gay romance novel.
This article was also expanded into a book entitled Warrior Lovers: Erotic Fiction, Evolution, and Female Sexuality. It's available for free at the link, and has gotten some rave reviews. If you can stomach 100 pages of this sort of BS, consider writing a review to balance the others.