Slash – even more so than gay romance – is the ultimate fictional expression of erotic faith. The romance heroes in these stories fall so in love with their male friend or partner, so embrace the religion of erotic faith,

And let’s not pride ourselves on the monogamy, either; this is another patriarchal imposition which women have sexualized – in fact I believe it can be seen in the K/S [Kirk/Spock] material (as in the romances) as a metaphor for

Given the dominance of pairings in fan fiction, (…) the opposition between romance and sex can look like a sliding scale of visibility between G-rated stories, in which romance itself is only implied, and NC-17 stories, in which sex is