No? Good. 'Cause I was musing on this instead:
I realize there are probably a bazillion psychological reasons that could be put forth for slashing and HoYay! and even non-canonical het relationships, but something that occurred to me today was that it might have just a little bit to do with the quality of romantic relationships as written on the TV shows themselves.
[Un-]Simply put, friendships are better written and therefore more compelling than the romantic relationships, which are not very well written.
In general, the romantic relationships as written have all the appeal of a shriveled up lima bean, and tend to feel as though they're being foisted upon us (or maybe just me). Whereas when writing friendships, writers don't have to worry about the will-they-or-won't-they nonsense, or "what will we do once we've finally put them together" blah blah blah because they're already together, as friends, and there's not that pressure for it to be perfect or not so perfect-- it just is what it is.
And then because the friendships are so much more interesting, so much more dynamic, so much better written, people watching the show gravitate towards them, and make that pairing into the romantic one because the pairing that the show and/or network wants to propagandize as the best thing ever is as boring as all get out.
I realize there are probably a bazillion psychological reasons that could be put forth for slashing and HoYay! and even non-canonical het relationships, but something that occurred to me today was that it might have just a little bit to do with the quality of romantic relationships as written on the TV shows themselves.
[Un-]Simply put, friendships are better written and therefore more compelling than the romantic relationships, which are not very well written.
In general, the romantic relationships as written have all the appeal of a shriveled up lima bean, and tend to feel as though they're being foisted upon us (or maybe just me). Whereas when writing friendships, writers don't have to worry about the will-they-or-won't-they nonsense, or "what will we do once we've finally put them together" blah blah blah because they're already together, as friends, and there's not that pressure for it to be perfect or not so perfect-- it just is what it is.
And then because the friendships are so much more interesting, so much more dynamic, so much better written, people watching the show gravitate towards them, and make that pairing into the romantic one because the pairing that the show and/or network wants to propagandize as the best thing ever is as boring as all get out.