slash

To cut with sweeping strokes. In British slang, it means to urinate. A famous guitarist. A genre of fanfiction in which two characters are engaged in a homosexual love affair. The name comes from the slash between the two characters featured; Kirk/Spock, Sam/Frodo, Pippin/Merry, and so forth. Gay male pairings are usually referred to as yaoi, and especially with anime. Femslash or femmeslash is used when the couple is a lesbian couple; Arwen/Eowyn, Galadriel/Luthien, et cetera. Yuri is the term used for femmeslash in anime. Slash ranges in subject matter from innocent crushes to passionate, endearing love to explicit erotica. The story can also range from perky and humorous to dramatic and angsty to heartbreakingly tragic, and have a sweet to harsh quality. Although gay males are often thought to be the main writers of slash, young, heterosexual women are the ones who write most of the slash... thus becoming good friends of gay men. Since straight men are often turned on by lesbian erotica, why not straight women being turned on by gay male erotica?