Why are all the nominations Male/Male?

Because good female/female is hard to find?

So true.

But really, what does this say about us as a fandom - or can it be generalized to all fanfiction?

Why is there so much male/male being written by an overwhelming amount of female authors?

We're weird. We just can't process the fact that female/female can work.

And you've given me an idea Clan dear. Check the Best Slash Nominations in about ten minutes.

Finally, someone else raises this troubling question that I have been asking myself since 5 seconds after I got into fandom.

And I genuinely want an answer.

I have two main theories about this - the first being the overwhelming cast of male main characters. Really, you only have Yuffie, Tifa, Aeris, and possibly Elena to work with - compared to the hoard of Soldier boys and Company executives.

Then you have the whole Tifa vs Aeris stigma (not so much around here, but it's still plenty relevant) so it's hard to find someone dedicated enough to the few female characters provided.

Personally, I try to work as canon as possible (usually) and would never really strive to write Yuffie in femslash - I just could never see her swinging that way. Ever.

But perhaps it's because I'm surrounded by Vincent/Yuffie shippers?

Either way - Vincent/Yuffie is a force to be reckoned with, which I feel really takes her out of the list of possible characters to work with.

I don't know, perhaps we should bring in our Yaoi expert - Sai!

Tell us, Sai, what of the male/male persuasion draws you so? Though I guarantee you have a valid and better answer than the other ten million crappy Yaoi authors out there.

Oh, and Mo - thank you for nominating me - really, you spoil me. But I'm totally gonna lose to you; which reminds me that I've still yet to review your update. I'll get on that.

I am going to imagine you heard of my spiel on "WE NEED MOAR FEMSLASH AND HET, YOU GUYS!" and that's one of the things that made you ask.

I believe that it's the idea that (for a female) there is nothing to do with your anatomy. Writing about females is hard, especially when an author thinks about what they experience in daily life. Who wants a character who bleeds a week out of the month? Or someone who has been deemed as less important and stigmatized for their sexuality? I think that most yaoi authors are first appealed by the simply sexual appeal of two men, mostly because these girls do not understand that the sex isn't perfect (they know from experience that sex between males and females can be a bit on the gross side--sweat, smells, pains and aches that they don't believe are common in sex with men.) and that their representation of male/female gender is completely skewed.

That's one of the reasons why a lot of yaoi bothers me--it's placing a man into a gender role that isn't his. Cloud may enjoy cock, but that does not mean that he is female (it's a bad representation of females, too... we perceive females as a weaker species because we recognize the fault of females--because we are them.) He is still a man, which is sometimes a difficult balance that the writer has to strike.

I love it mostly because when I first found out about it, it was still a taboo subject. Heck, fan fiction in general is still a taboo subject, but stating that you write yaoi was almost a novelty. (If you hadn't noticed, I got in before the flurry of shitty yaoi... Hard to find, but most of it was at least decent.) It's something I can't experience as a human being, because I am not male, and that leads to difference in perspective and character development.

Sure, I occasionally will write some one-shot that's just kinky sex, but yaoi (for me) was a meaningful subject that I wanted to explore and learn from.

Now I want to take a book and break heads.

My personal thoughts about why girls like yaoi so much and are attracted to it?

It's non-threatening.

You heard me!

When you fall in love or lust with a character, you want them to be happy in your fanfic. However, you don't want to write them as straight because you'll have to write them with another woman if they're in a relationship. Jealousy, Rrrrrgh!

Enter yaoi. Writing your love with a man is totally different. It distances you from female body parts like your own, and makes it so that he's still "there" for you in your mind.

This is, naturally, not something that attracts ALL fangirls. Just some, mostly of the heterosexual or bisexual variety. Women who are lesbians and asexual may like yaoi for totally different reasons, and those of the hetero or bi variety who have some brains. And most fanboys don't like it at all (even the gay ones, because it's so unrealistic). It's similar to what attracts men to lesbian porn - in their minds, it's less threatening than heterosexual porn because he could suddenly walk in and be the prerequisite penis. See what I mean? Unrealistic, but mental masturbation in the grand scheme of things.

It's funny because I find that 99% percent of the time, Femslash is being written by a female who is lesbian - or bisexual. Very rarely have I come across a heterosexual girl writing yuri.

That and men - men write yuri a lot. And they get it wrong. All. The. Time.

As soon as 'scissoring' appears, I instantly know it's a male and must then walk away.

I am a het male who has just started to write Yuri... mostly because I can't stand most of the stuff I see and I think those pairings deserve a good chance. Whether or not I am doing those pairings justice remains to be seen, because I have no first-hand experience with girl/girl relationships.

I think that the people more qualified to write any pairing should be of that sexual orientation -- not just because they won't fall victim to the "this is so hawwwwt" syndrome, but because they generally have a broader understanding of what it actually entails. Clan, you are a female lesbian so you're girl/girl fics will be infinitely more realistic than those of, say, a gay male, who might have NO experience with females at all.

It is because we are all afraid of earning Clan's disapproval.

Sai isn't nearly as scary.

EDIT:

That said, I disagree with T. Costa's assessment regarding females who fear female rivals. I think a sexual rival is a sexual rival. The sort of person T. Costa described writes unrealistic self-inserts and Mary Sues, not yaoi.

I think Sai, however, is onto something. Girls are looking for a venue to explore something that they can never experience for themselves. It's taboo for them to talk about it, but they can write about two men together all they want in fanfiction.

They don't write about women together because it's physically possible for them to experience, and therefore less desirable.

People are weird.

If nothing else, penis is more fun to type than vagina?

Not true. The sort of person I described writes unrealistic self-inserts, Mary Sues, and bad yaoi.

The other sort of person writes good yaoi, which is a totally different beast.

Ite, you're not doing poorly at all - usually males go wrong by focusing the story too much about sex simply for the pleasure of sex (that and doing it wrong). I will one day type up my rant about 'scissoring', but for now it will simply be the most obvious clue to someone writing about something they have no idea about.

In fact, there seems to be some hierarchy pattern that males follow with femslash sex- such as it must start with breasts, move to stimulation, then penetration, and end with 'scissoring'.

And you can't pass Go without collecting two hundred dollars.

But directly on topic, I think Tasha and Sai both bring up valid points. I guess it might feel more 'awkward' to write something from experience if you don't have the clarity to separate yourself from self-insertion.

But my main problem with Yaoi is that so much of it is crap. Outside authors on this site - namely Sai and Mo - I've yet to bounce across a believable slash fic. I just can't fathom how any of the masculine characters (namely Cloud) are manipulated into this gender role 'uke'. My brain can't comprehend it.

It may be because I'm gay and simply find nothing in that genre for me from a stimulating and relating perspective - but in honesty it seems much more logical and canon that two women would get together over two men.

Especially when the most popular male pairing happens between mortal enemies and a deranged lunatic.

But yet, femslash is rare - and good femslash is sacred. I think I can list all good stories on one hand, and I check around often.

And I know this completely disrupts the flow of this post, but I was suddenly struck with the idea that perhaps for the fanfiction contest prompts we could sometimes have pairings?

I don't know, I think that could really help both perspectives of Slash - say if one month we had Tseng/Rufus and another Elena/Tifa - or even more crack. Just to really flesh out some of the underdeveloped areas of fanfiction.

But back on thought train - Most Yaoi seems like a complete destruction of character and simply a means for someone to write gay sex with characters who look like FF7. And it's true for Yuri as well - though not as big a percentage because it is so limited.

Outside the sexual problems with Yuri, there arn't really any major bends - there's usually a problem with actual style and grammar before the actual characters themselves.

EDIT:

Well, went and checked, and actually - I found that if there is problems with character - it's always with Tifa. She ends up some cold-hearted assassin/vampire/dyke.

And Phyzix, you better be afraid of me. I have powers yet to be tapped and destruction yet to be unleashed.

You flatter me Clan darling.

Anyways, I think the subject of yuri is just alien to many people. Even for the friends that I have (guys and girls), they're completely fine with gay rights, but somehow, they seem to regard lesbian relationships as a totally different ball game. I think the idea of two men banging each other seems to be somehow more accepted than females, even when it's perverted guys talking.

Perhaps it's because of the whole mindset about females needing to be in a relationship where someone is caring for them, and not just about them. Bloody gender stereotypes.

That's actually very interesting, because I got the idea that it was more acceptable to be lesbian than a gay male - they seem to suffer much more. But this was brought up in the IRC and decided that it would be because Males typically have a harder time with gays - especially other guys.

But I think it really depends on situation, being a known lesbian in a locker room is not fun.

I've always wondered about that- why do so many people think that 'being gay'= 'fancying everyone of the same sex'?

I have no idea. Somehow they forget that EVERY guy doesn't find them attractive but remember that EVERY lesbian does.

Dude, being anything other than straight (bisexual, gay, asexual, transgendered, whatever) is hard. People will always give people FECAL MATTER for being different.

I always got the feeling, however, that it was more socially acceptable for women to be lesbians or bisexual because either, "it's just a phase," or it doesn't involve sodomy (which is a lie, some lesbians totally like sodomy). Also because a lot of dudes find it hot and as much as I hate to admit it, we DO live in a pretty male-dominated society.

I would also like to interject that as a bisexual chick I got all sorts of flak - from straight people who hate homosexuality in any form, from gay people in general who thought I was doing it to be trendy, and from lesbians in particular who thought I ought to "pick a side." I think it just depends on the person.

Luckily I never had to deal with the locker room scenario or I'd have probably come out of high school with a much lesser self-esteem.

(ALSO ALSO I WROTE MY FIRST FF7 YURI.)

Hmm, I think the thing with bisexuality is that a lot of people DO claim it, to be trendy! I remember how it went through a bit of a vogue when I was in year 9. :S Also, I think that sometimes girls mistake 'one crush on another girl for a week in their teens' as 'being totally bi'. Obviously, this isn't always the case, but it can be...

I'm going to do an experiment.

I'm going to write a speed fic for Mo with the pairing Tseng/Reno. I'm gonna see how hard it is, and if I can do it easily, I will forever hold a grudge that more heterosexuals don't write Yuri.

This is game time.

I'M ON THE CLOCK!
TWO HOURS!
GO!