And Lex and Clark on Smallville!
I love m/m slash, and I’ve often wondered why it’s so popular with girls. Does anyone have a guess?
A male friend of mine once said that it’s the same reason why guys like girl-on-girl action. Which is what, I ask?
(*Notice that I’m not asking why most m/m slash fans are girls. The answer to that, in my opinion, would be plain homophobia: guys are socialized to be grossed out by guy-on-guy action, and they are more prejudiced against homosexuality than girls.)
Of course, all of this is a huge generalization.
This week I saw a Weekly World News cover story that Saddam and Osama have a secret gay relationship. I almost bought it… would that count as slash fiction?
Sorry, I just had to mention that somewhere as I’ve been laughing ever since.
I suspect that a leading reason for m/m slash is probably that television programs and movies rarely have many major female characters who are as interesting, likeable, and well-developed as the male characters. You’re usually lucky if you get one. Call it Scully Syndrome. So (with a few notable exceptions) most fandoms offer fanfic writers very few decent female characters to work with. If screenwriters were creating more and better female characters then perhaps there wouldn’t be so much m/m slash.
That’s my opinion. I may be biased as I’m more interested in gender representations in the media than I am in fanfiction. I hear from my slashfan friends that there are women in the slash community (some with sociology degrees and everything) who have written lengthy essays explaining the allure of slash. Some say it’s a way for women to assert sexual dominance over men, some say it’s because of feminine self-loathing/poor body image, some say it’s because many women don’t feel that men are capable of respecting them as equals in a relationship the way they respect other men. I’m sure there are plenty of other theories too.
But, as my biggest slashfan friend says, “No man ever had to write a dissertation to justify wanting to see two chicks goin’ at it.” I think the main reason may be a simple mathematical equation: two hot guys (or girls) are twice as good as one.
I keep watching S3 over and over again, hoping that I would see something (like a really hot kiss, or groping, or something) that I missed before between Buffy and Faith. I’m forever disappointed.
Now, this just makes me mad. I hate seeing broad-stroke, hurtful, and inflammatory statements like this. It’s opinions borne of ignorance like this that give the SDMB a bad name.
Sears suits aren’t that bad. 
We’ve improved greatly since the mid-90’s. Come see the softer side of Sears!
And I second the opinion of Smallville subtext. You can just tell Clark and Lex are in love! True love!