Hmm. Based on my semi-limited experience as reader/writer of slash and reader of het... my supposition is that it's because of the deep and abiding hatred of Mary Sues.
Female characters in both slash and het stories tend to come either as the victim or the bitch. Writers aren't good with middle ground or realism for that matter. Curiously, they're also happier to write woeful stories of the poor raped and abused male character! But if the character is female then it's all "Geez, why hasn't she got over it already?! What a whiner!"
Perhaps it's too much like looking in the mirror. If the writer is a woman who's had these experiences, she can distance herself from it with the male character. But the female character gets all of her self-loathing for not being able to get over it.
Or the sex. Sex with the males characters can be fantasy. Sex with the female characters they know the reality too well. So you get the "Yeah, right. Men are not THAT good or attentive in bed with women. Gimme some slash."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-04-22 06:06 pm (UTC)Female characters in both slash and het stories tend to come either as the victim or the bitch. Writers aren't good with middle ground or realism for that matter. Curiously, they're also happier to write woeful stories of the poor raped and abused male character! But if the character is female then it's all "Geez, why hasn't she got over it already?! What a whiner!"
Perhaps it's too much like looking in the mirror. If the writer is a woman who's had these experiences, she can distance herself from it with the male character. But the female character gets all of her self-loathing for not being able to get over it.
Or the sex. Sex with the males characters can be fantasy. Sex with the female characters they know the reality too well. So you get the "Yeah, right. Men are not THAT good or attentive in bed with women. Gimme some slash."
Ah, who can really know.