Warrior Lovers : Erotic Fiction, Evolution and Female Sexuality

Romance novels and pornography are multi-billion-dollar global industries. This book explores how the stark contrasts between these erotic genres reflect the very different selection pressures that forged women’s and men’s sexual psychologies during human evolutionary history. In particular, a new erotic sub-genre is analysed, written by and for women: ‘slash fiction’. ‘Slash’ depicts romantic and sexual relationships between heterosexual males, fictional characters from television and film, such as Star Trek ’s K/S (Captain Kirk and Mr Spock) – the term ‘slash’ denoting the punctuation mark that unites the pair. The heroes of romance novels and slash fiction alike are ‘warrior lovers’ who embody the qualities that our female ancestors valued in a mate. But, whereas romance novel readers fantasize about being ‘Mrs Warrior’, slash fans prefer to fantasize about being a co-warrior.’ By separating the essential features of female erotic fantasy from the variable, the authors get to the heart of what women really want.