For a lot of us, the best thing about the Internet is all the free porn, but when you're a minority, it can be hard to see yourself represented in an accurate, respectful and sexy way. And unless it's your thing, nothing kills a boner faster that feeling fetishized. It's not surprising considering that most porn is made by and for white cisgender men, and who can blame them for wanting to make porn that stars a stand-in for themselves? But the problem occurs when their position of privilege prevents anyone else from getting a turn at producing a big-budget, well-lit, HD porno. So without creative control, minorities end up misrepresented or ignored completely, which just serves to further marginalize us. As a trans man, I cannot find one video anywhere on the Internet of someone with a body like mine using it sexually the way that I do. Can you imagine not being able to find porn of your sexual preferences? You know porn, the thing that brought us "Two Girls, One Cup"? It can make you feel really alone sometimes, which is a scary thing in a community with an unacceptably high suicide rate. So, for the rest of us searching for other types of media to get off, luckily there's always fanfiction.
Because of social media and sites like Fanfiction and AO3, anyone can publish their fanfiction for free online, which means more porn is being created by and for minorities. The great thing about fanfiction porn, or slash fanfiction, is that we can interpret famous characters any way we want. We can have transgender Avengers, a gay Sherlock Holmes, an Asian president and a woman Darth Vader, and we can read about them having sex. All of them. Together. And also Harry Potter's there watching in the corner.
Fanfiction is also more accessible to people who are not professional writers because it can be easier to write than starting from scratch. When you use existing stories to write your own, the world building is already done for you. You and your readers already know the characters' history, what they look like and what their motivations are, which means you don't have to invest a ton of time into the introduction if you don't want to. Reading and writing fanfiction is a great way to explore or express your sexuality and can also make you feel like a part of a community. When you read fanfiction you get a connection with the author that you can't get from watching porn videos. It's comforting to know you're not alone in your sexual preferences, and it's a luxury that shouldn't just exist for people of privilege.
As minorities, we don't often get to be the stars of blockbuster movies. I will never get to see a trans Iron Man anywhere in my lifetime outside of fanfiction, but at least in fanfiction he's being double-teamed by Black Widow and Iron Patriot, and in some ways that kind of makes up for it.
