Alison said.

An additional possible explanation that makes sense to me is that women

have

strong internalised prescriptions against sexual self-expression. I'm not arguing about whether this is a good thing or not - just pointing out

that

it exists, for many women.

Doesn't sound like a good thing to me.

Despite social changes over the past few decades, and despite the fact that women are very different one from another, I

feel

that many women have conflicted feelings about sex, associated with guilt, fear, shame etc. The details aren't important to this discussion. However slash allows women to jump out of this frame, take a holiday if you like from these mental restrictions.

But this isn't getting rid of the feelings of shame though, it's just displacing them.

I also think this is why the male protagonists in slash often behave like women. In particular behave like 'bad' women. In ways that would be deemed bad if women did them.

But is it still deemed 'bad' if a gay man does it?

Shane

"Life expectancy must be very short on your planet" --Avon

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