Let's reverse it; with slash, it's largely women writing about the Other. Is there pressure, where you might be denigrated for being female because you write mediocre to bad slash? Is there pressure not to "pander" to the female audience?
Yes and yes, in some circles. Also, slash and BL/yaoi are often ridiculed, mocked, and dismissed for the lack of "authentic" masculinity in the genre, and even among slash fans, works that are written by men or are perceived to be similar to what men would write are often elevated to a higher level among certain groups of fans (and from people outside the slash-loving community). People who read and/or write bad slashfic, especially stuff like mpreg and OOC stories, are Those Fangirls, and Serious Fans look down on them. Not just because their writing is bad or cliche, but because of the kinds of things they like. I see the same thing happening with bara and gei-comi fans looking down on BL/yaoi fans, even though there are some excellent and realistic BL works and some really terrible (and unrealistic) bara works.
I think the situations aren't that different, though the ratio of "writing about the Other" to "writing about people who share one's own sexuality" is different, meaning that the pressure for authenticity manifests in different ways.
I don't see misandry in the observation that bad f/f written by and/or for men can be bad in different ways from bad f/f written for women. To look at commercial examples, bad shoujo yuri is more apt to suffer from over-the-top melodrama, while bad shounen yuri is more apt to suffer from obnoxious fanservice, though they can share flaws like poor characterization, reliance on stereotypes, and cliche villains. I've only read a few yuri works that were specifically aimed at queer women (the ones from queer magazines like Anise and Phryne), so I don't really have enough material to contrast them with all of the works aimed at general audiences. There are a few out queer women who do yuri manga, but again, not enough to really make any observations about their work in general. The excellent stories are excellent regardless of who created them (though the attention and praise they get may depend on who created them, for a whole variety of reasons from supposed authenticity to kyriarchy, as you touched on briefly), but the mediocre and bad stories often share traits with other mediocre/bad stories aimed at the same target audience. I agree with you that it's unfair to assume someone's gender based on the flaws in their f/f writing, but I don't think it's completely out of the question to note that some of those flaws can relate to gender or sexuality--I just think people get carried away applying that sometimes. And some of the stuff aimed at the male gaze is so absolutely repugnant on a fundamental level that I can see why people are bending over backwards to go the other way, though--as you noted--that creates its own share of problems.
no subject
Yes and yes, in some circles.
Also, slash and BL/yaoi are often ridiculed, mocked, and dismissed for the lack of "authentic" masculinity in the genre, and even among slash fans, works that are written by men or are perceived to be similar to what men would write are often elevated to a higher level among certain groups of fans (and from people outside the slash-loving community). People who read and/or write bad slashfic, especially stuff like mpreg and OOC stories, are Those Fangirls, and Serious Fans look down on them. Not just because their writing is bad or cliche, but because of the kinds of things they like. I see the same thing happening with bara and gei-comi fans looking down on BL/yaoi fans, even though there are some excellent and realistic BL works and some really terrible (and unrealistic) bara works.
I think the situations aren't that different, though the ratio of "writing about the Other" to "writing about people who share one's own sexuality" is different, meaning that the pressure for authenticity manifests in different ways.
I don't see misandry in the observation that bad f/f written by and/or for men can be bad in different ways from bad f/f written for women. To look at commercial examples, bad shoujo yuri is more apt to suffer from over-the-top melodrama, while bad shounen yuri is more apt to suffer from obnoxious fanservice, though they can share flaws like poor characterization, reliance on stereotypes, and cliche villains. I've only read a few yuri works that were specifically aimed at queer women (the ones from queer magazines like Anise and Phryne), so I don't really have enough material to contrast them with all of the works aimed at general audiences. There are a few out queer women who do yuri manga, but again, not enough to really make any observations about their work in general.
The excellent stories are excellent regardless of who created them (though the attention and praise they get may depend on who created them, for a whole variety of reasons from supposed authenticity to kyriarchy, as you touched on briefly), but the mediocre and bad stories often share traits with other mediocre/bad stories aimed at the same target audience.
I agree with you that it's unfair to assume someone's gender based on the flaws in their f/f writing, but I don't think it's completely out of the question to note that some of those flaws can relate to gender or sexuality--I just think people get carried away applying that sometimes. And some of the stuff aimed at the male gaze is so absolutely repugnant on a fundamental level that I can see why people are bending over backwards to go the other way, though--as you noted--that creates its own share of problems.