 The predominant demographics of slash fiction readers are female compared to other gender demographics the majority of whom identify as other than heterosexual.Science fiction writer Joanna Russ (herself a lesbian), author of "How to Suppress Women's Writing", was one of the first major science fiction writers to take slash fiction and its cultural and literary implications seriously.In her essay "Pornography by Women for Women, with Love," Joanna Russ describes that, in regards to the Kirk/Spock relationship, slash fiction provides a sense combining both the masculine sides with feminine traits of emotional vulnerability.