So the topic of why straight women like/read/consume different types of gay porn is something I've read about for awhile. Originally it came up during college, when in a Japanese pop culture class we discussed obsessive fandom - otaku - and slash fiction. This then snowballed into slash fiction as it related to American cultural icons and questions about the audience for these particular artistic expressions. Now maybe it was the crowd I hung out with in high school, but straight women liking gay porn was not much of a surprise to me. It was just something I knew of and accepted as one of the things some of my friends liked - I didn't think too much about the 'why' behind it.
In the article a friend forwarded me from GAWKER the researches discussing the topic seemed to meander around one conclusion the most, that straight women like gay porn because some women are gay men trapped in women's bodies and aren't able to express this aspect of their sexuality in any other way. I kind of take issue with this assumption.
Instead I'd like to bring into discussion a reason I read about in relation specifically to Spock and Kirk slash fiction - that women are jealous of other women but when they read about two men going at it they're able to see themselves in the storyline without feeling inadequate in comparison to some fantasy character. It's less that a woman reader feels better because they know they could never have attained a certain crush (because the person
only likes other guys), and more that when relating to a story that stares one person in particular that you lust for, having a M/M relationship depicted gives the reader a chance to take on the other persona and place themselves in the story without getting distracted by the idea of there already being a woman. Am I making any sense?
It just seems much more straightforward to me that instead of having a lot of straight women who are actually frustrated gay men in women's bodies, you have women who might like one man enough that they feel more comfortable picturing themselves in a particular relationship when the other half is another man and not a woman - who they might feel the need to compete with.
Does anybody else think about this? Or is it just me?
