According to Quantcast, which I'm told is accurate, fanfiction.net has a 67% female visitor base and Twisting the Hellmouth has a 66% female visitor base.  While it doesn't, and probably can't, break it down by writers vs. readers, I think that the numbers are indictative of a general trend that exists in fanfiction.  The general perception, evidently based on polls, is that slash tends to be written by women.  The obvious theory for why so much slash exists then.

That's not so much a problem per se.  Or more specifically, it's their right to write it, I suppose barring whatever legal ramifications there are for fanfiction as a whole.  However, the necessary hoops to jump through to get from canon to slash are such that it either A) takes up quite a bit of time and therefore tends to take precedence over plot or B) is assumed which is usually an indicator of poor writing anyways.  Or to put it another way, so much of this type of fic is centered on getting the pairing together, which is pretty boring given how pervasive every slash pairing is.  More so when so much of a fandom is taken up by this pursuit.  There's one thing to do variations on a theme, there's another when it's the 500th iteration of Harry somehow falling for Draco in a completely unrealistic manner.  This wouldn't be so much of a problem, but for the general way that fanfiction shakes itself out.

Again using quantcast figures, I would say that if the overall number of writers are female, write what they want to read, or write what female readers want to read, then it seems logical that the majority of reviews are left to those types of stories.  Which doesn't lead to a particular push for quality, since it seems like positive reviews are based more on pairing and the angst/process of getting them together than an actual plot. 

Fanfiction writers don't get paid.  It's done as a hobby, and like all hobbies, the hobbyist needs to get something out of it.  In economic parlance, call it utility.  The utility of writing would come from two parts, writing and also the interaction with those that are reading.  Fanfiction is, much more than professional writing, an interactive activity.  The way I see it, the utility of a writer for a particular story, or writing in general with no feedback is generally like a bell curve with a long right tail.  There's a plot idea the writer gets excited about, and he starts writing it, excited and therefore getting quite a bit of utility from writing.

As time goes on, it takes more effort to write something long and good and therefore it starts getting less fun.  For example, I could write another chapter of a story, but if it's chapter 60 coming after 300K words, then without feedback I'd get more utility from playing Call of Duty 4 for an hour than writing for an hour.  So I play video games instead of writing.

However, that long right tail with falling utility can be delayed or continously propped up by interaction and reviews from the readership.  I'm much more inclined to write if I'm getting good feedback from the readers.  I'm not saying that it has to be all positive, but stuff that has some thought behind it.  Of course, even a "good job" is appreciated so I at least get a sense of what the general feeling is.

Here's the thing though.  Apparently, writers shouldn't expect feedback, or feel obligated to get reviews.  It's more pure that way I guess.  That's technically true, I mean nobody is obligated to give reviews, and I fully understand the reasoning.  Of course, that means that long and complex stories are not going to be written or finished because it stops being fun after a while or the writer doesn't even want to try.  The utility that would be gained from the feedback isn't there to offset the fall in utility from simply writing.  One could say that that makes it less artistically inclined to at least partly write for feedback, but hey, it means that good stories get finished.

The ultimate result of this "purity" is a preponderance of really short stories which end up by necessity being character pieces or effectively pairing/romance stories.  Or unfinished stuff.  They have their place I'm sure, but if that's all that exists....well I guess people want crap because it's more pure.  Or for more unfinished stuff.  But hey, as long as the readers don't feel obligated to do anything but read.

The Avengers

    

Those Not Quite There Yet

    



And Finally

And the good thing about masks?  It could be anybody under there.