I wish I could remember where I saw it, but sometime in the last couple of years I read a very thoughtful, well-written article on the slash fanfiction phenomenon. It offered the theory that it’s so popular because it's a way for female writers to not have to see their crushes with another woman, which ruins the fantasy (I'm sure we've all been there; hey, I'm the first one to admit that I've hated the TOC episode "Shore Leave" for years because they paired McCoy up with a woman who wasn't me--although I was only about 10 years old the first time I thought that
). Seeing them with another man, though, isn't quite as threatening, and that's where the age-old female fantasy that they are the only woman who can change or "turn" a man comes in. Whether it's true or not, I thought it was a fascinating and logical explanation. I wish I had bookmarked the article!
Off-topic but not really: It's probably very similar to what happened with the show "Bonanza"--they kept trying to pair up the Cartwright boys with women, but viewers (mostly female) would complain so loudly that they ended up killing them off or sending them away. They tried to marry off Adam (sigh--another of my big crushes...RIP Pernell Roberts) and actually had a three-episode arc that I believe was supposed to lead up to an honest-to-gosh Cartwright wedding, but there were too many complaints and producers winky-wanked the scripts so Adam's fiancee Laura (played by Kathie Brown) ended up with cousin Will (Guy Williams), who was conveniently leaving the show after a multi-episode visit to the Ponderosa.
Anyway, back on topic: I’m in the same court as you ladies; I stay away from the m/m stuff, because it doesn’t appeal to me (I’m still having flashbacks to a Karl Urban/Vin Diesel fic I read out of curiosity not long ago--sorry, but that stuff is creepy; not because of the sex itself, but because it seems like an incredible invasion of privacy to me when people write slash about a real actor, rather than the character he portrays, but that's my own hangup). I personally like my McCoy heterosexual so I can enjoy my fantasies and write my own little squirrelly fanfics that shall never see the light of day. But I’m glad fans of other McCoy pairings have outlets where they can see their particular fantasies about him come to life as well.
And P.S.
mariajl and
Tribbles, on the husband-pissing-me-off thing: that's when my squirrelly fanfics come in handy! Luckily, the pissing-off doesn't happen often, but when it does, I can get pages and pages of stuff written as I turn our good doctor into the perfect--if cranky--life partner. Hmm...maybe I could be a much more prolific writer if I picked fights with
Mr_Whatsit more often...
). She did a google search for an elephant to go with it and found this one. He's been with me ever since 
It's a community where most things are taken in good humor, however, so it's not an all-out shipper war. 
Whenever I write it, I'm trying to tell a story that would fit within the TV series, so I'm not really your standard fan-ficcer. Speaking of, if any of you are looking for something to read, the folks who frequent our own fan-fiction forum here on the BBS are great writers and there's some very good stories down there, ones that I like to read - that are like good published Trek Lit.
