There are many reasons for this discrepancy between m/m and f/f slash. It is generally held that fanfiction began(or at least came to prominence) with Star Trek. Taking a look at the characters on Star Trek, it is easy to see why most fanfic would have focused on the males. First, there were simply more of them, and second, they were given more to do. Poor Uhura simply repeated what the computer told her. The male characters were more developed and more action oriented. They were more interesting to write.
Although male slash was vastly in the majority at that time, the qualities of male slash were sometimes intensely feminine. The slash writers, mostly female, portrayed their men as more loving, more open than men were "supposed" to be; in a way, feminine. Female slash, which began to trickle in slightly more rapidly around the time of Star Trek: The Next Generation, followed the set patterns of male slash so easily because the patterns were inherently feminine.
| Female slash really came into its prime with the premiere of Xena: Warrior Princess. Xena, a strong, capable warrior with a dark past, was just the sort of character that femslashers had been looking for. She had potential for angst, humor, drama...and romance. She also had a convenient outlet for romantic feelings in her companion, Gabrielle. In a even stranger twist, the writers of the show encouraged this development, putting the two characters into situations where it was easy to see ulterior motives: subtext, if you will. |  |
On March 10th, 1997, Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered. The show was somewhat of an oddity: a teenage girl fighting vampires? But slowly and surely, the show built up a large and dedicated fan base. Even though(or perhaps because) the show focused heavily on the "star-crossed" relationship between Buffy and her vampire boyfriend, Angel, a substantial amount of slash fanfiction was written about the show. In the third season of the show, a character named Faith arrived on the scene and shook things up, both on the show and in the fandom. Faith's feelings towards Buffy, so ambiguous on the show, were made more concrete in fanfiction. Although there was Buffy femslash before the arrival of Faith(the Buffy/Willow shippers, Kate Bolin's "The Human Drama" series), Faith was undoubtedly the catalyst for the rise of Buffy femslash.
SapphicSlayer is one of the outlets for Buffy femslash. It began on Aug. 10th, 1999. It was designed as a forum for all types of Buffy femslash, any couple, any type of plot. Other, more specific fanfic lists sprouted up: WillowSlash, Cordyslash, BuffylovesWillow, etc. And there are less specific outlets for all types of femslash: The PinkRabbit Consortium, the ladyslash mailing list, any number of Xena fansites. In conclusion, the amount of femslash is growing, both in Buffy fandom and in fandom in general.
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