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Slash is, ostensibly, about two men or two women having sex. Yet any slash afficionado can tell you that's not all there is. There are underlying themes that attract them to the genre. Here are a few suggestions, from writers and readers.
"The world will be a better place if two people care about each other."
"Everybody needs somebody sometime."
"This is a world where two people of the same gender can have a sexual encounter without anybody thinking it worthy of comment."
"A roll in the hay won't cure interpersonal problems, but it's a good way tokill a long night watch."
"Two heads are better than one." But if you get tired of sixty-nining in stories...It depends, a bit, on the universe you're slashing: you're much more likely to get Love Conquers All in Starsky & Hutch than B7, for instance, and far more likely to get "hate is another word for love" in B7 than anywhere else--and I love stories that explore the links between love and hate, respect and contempt, power and need, weakness and strength, etc..
Some of my favourite themes to read are explorations of how much or if the characters are defined/changed/controlled by their sexuality or if it's the other way around. What difference emotions (positive, negative, mutable) make to sex, the characters' self-worth, their world view. How much impact does the world around them really have on their core identity.
Of course, I adore power issues. Sex used to explore power, particularly the disparity in emotional power (who needs whom more and for what) and social power (Avon/Vila. Nuff said!) and good old fashioned domination/submission.
I love stories that deal with the psychology of sex and emotion, and stories that delve into what is "healthy"--what "society" says is healthy, what the medical profession declares is healthy, or what makes the characters feel whole, or at least a bit less wounded?
Basically, I think my favourite theme and story is one where the character(s) are unpeeled like an onion, till we get right down to the core of them, and the story uses sex and emotion to do that. (External plot is just something I skip when it gets in the way of the bits I want to read, or something I nod at in passing since it's the framework upon which the internal plot is hung.)
For a darker approach:
"You always love the one you hurt."
"No matter how black things look, how terrible your situation is...things can always get worse."
"A twisted psychopath who is really good in bed is still a twisted psychopath."
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