Metathought on Gender and Buffy Fanfic Writers

[jetpack_monkey]

This is something of an embarrassing confession, being male and a Buffy fanfic writer. I've had a few recent additions to my fanfic awareness bubble and I've taken to perusing their profiles. It's come to my attention that I automatically assume that a Buffy fanfic writer is female unless I'm otherwise informed.

How ridiculous is that? There's nothing about "Buffy" that makes it more orientated to the female writer than the male. Indeed, there's nothing about men that makes them less likely than women to key into the "Buffy" fanfic world. Hell, I write fanfic (I just don't finish it), and I'm male.

Maybe it comes from experience. I've been involved in a couple of LJ RPs in my time, and I'm usually one only a few males. Once I was the only one. In the one major fanfiction group writing project I've done, I was the only guy (and also, incidentally, the youngest by a few years).

So, I guess the real question is - where are the good male Buffy fanfic writers? I know they exist. I've read their work. But why is it such a minority that I actually find myself shocked when I discover one?

So, here's a little survey for the guys out there:

1) Do you write "Buffy" and "Angel" fanfiction?
2) Do you feel that you're in a gender minority in the Jossian fanfic circles?
3) How would you describe your fanfiction? What genres, 'ships, etc. do you write in?
4) What genres, 'ships, etc. would you absolutely avoid?

And for everybody:

5) Why do you think there's a gender imbalance in "Buffy" and "Angel" fanfiction writing?
6) Does this trend extend to all fanfiction?
7) Do you find it's more difficult for a writer to win your readership, based on their gender? Why?

Please pimp this out, start a dialogue. I'm interested in the answers and the discussion resulting from those answers.

Comments

gender in fandom and fanfic

[hjcallipygian.livejournal.com]

Interestingly enough, I have a note in my LJ bio that says I'm male just for that very reason: I figure that, otherwise, people will assume I'm female.

To the questions!

I write Buffy & Angel fanfic. I definitely think that the majority of fanfic writers are female; I have no idea why. Probably about 75% of my friends list is female, though, and almost all of them are gotten from Buffy/Angel fandom.

I tend to write ensemble pieces that are mystery/action/adventure/tragedy types, or comedies with either a specific character or ensemble. There's nothing I wouldn't write, but I haven't had any hankering to write anything smutty or porny at all.

I have no idea why there's the gender imbalance... but of all my writing friends -- even at university when I was in the fiction program there -- it was more female than male.

And I never look at someone's gender before reading a story, just what the story is about and how well it seems to be summarized. In my opinion, good writers write interesting summaries.