There are many writers of slash who have issues with female characters, but it's definitely not universal. There's a continual state of soul-searching among more thoughtful slash fans about this, which I think is mostly a good thing, except when someone starts constructing justifications why it's totally consistent with their social justice stance that they don't write women (or people of color, or so on).
I mean, it's okay to write or not write something just because that's what you want to do. That's really all the justification anyone needs for doing anything that isn't harmful to others. And often trying to justify it beyond that just ends with digging oneself into a hole.
As for myself. There definitely is something appealing about exploring relationships etc. without committing to anything. I mean obviously writing about something in a story isn't any kind of commitment, but it often feels more directly applicable when I'm writing about female characters.
And partly for that reason, often I feel more protective of female characters. It's easier to put a male character through the mill.
(That being said, I think some of my best work - the Cottia stories, or Eponine, or for that matter Ammeri and Erenyay - focuses on girls who have been through the mill.)
On a more mercenary level, there's also the issue of audience. Especially when I started writing fic, when I was 19, I wanted an audience and slash was where the audience was at. Outside of exchanges, I find that slash stories get a ton more hits than anything else.
(To defend the ragged shreds of my artistic integrity, I never wrote stories I didn't like; I just focused on the story ideas that I knew would get hits.
There was an Owen/Gwen fic I wrote and didn't post for years, because I knew there was no audience and at that point it would have crushed my soul to post it to the deafening silence.)
...The odd thing is that in fic exchanges, even exchanges that aren't specifically focused on female characters (Yuletide, for instance), I've found that female-centered stories do very well.
So clearly there is an appetite for these stories, but lots of people don't go looking outside of exchanges, maybe partly because of the perception - which is often born out by reality - that the stories just aren't being written. Because people don't look for them, outside of exchanges. It's a vicious cycle.
no subject
I mean, it's okay to write or not write something just because that's what you want to do. That's really all the justification anyone needs for doing anything that isn't harmful to others. And often trying to justify it beyond that just ends with digging oneself into a hole.
As for myself. There definitely is something appealing about exploring relationships etc. without committing to anything. I mean obviously writing about something in a story isn't any kind of commitment, but it often feels more directly applicable when I'm writing about female characters.
And partly for that reason, often I feel more protective of female characters. It's easier to put a male character through the mill.
(That being said, I think some of my best work - the Cottia stories, or Eponine, or for that matter Ammeri and Erenyay - focuses on girls who have been through the mill.)
On a more mercenary level, there's also the issue of audience. Especially when I started writing fic, when I was 19, I wanted an audience and slash was where the audience was at. Outside of exchanges, I find that slash stories get a ton more hits than anything else.
(To defend the ragged shreds of my artistic integrity, I never wrote stories I didn't like; I just focused on the story ideas that I knew would get hits.
There was an Owen/Gwen fic I wrote and didn't post for years, because I knew there was no audience and at that point it would have crushed my soul to post it to the deafening silence.)
...The odd thing is that in fic exchanges, even exchanges that aren't specifically focused on female characters (Yuletide, for instance), I've found that female-centered stories do very well.
So clearly there is an appetite for these stories, but lots of people don't go looking outside of exchanges, maybe partly because of the perception - which is often born out by reality - that the stories just aren't being written. Because people don't look for them, outside of exchanges. It's a vicious cycle.
...possibly I should write this up in a post.