Does every story with guy-on-guy action belong in the "Gay" category?

[CalMaple]

Hello all,

I'm new to these forums, so please forgive me if this has been discussed already. I guess I'm hoping to vent, as well as get other folks' opinions. Anyways, I exclusively write stories with queer male protagonists. As one might expect, these often include various descriptions of sexual interactions with other men. In most circumstances, I categorize my stories as "Gay" when asked to select an option. I do, however, also write some content about Exhibitionism & Voyeurism as well.

I recently wrote a story about a young queer guy exploring urges related to his desire to engage in exhibitionism. The majority of the narrative involves the protagonist recounting memories of being naked in public, making sense of his desires, and experimenting with being naked in public settings; as such, I labeled the story under the "Exhibitionism & Voyeurism" category. The main character does, however, end up giving another guy a blowjob while naked in the hallway of his apartment building. After publishing this story a few days ago, I have already received several messages telling me "wrong category." It feels incredibly frustrating that a narrative about a budding exhibitionist is viewed as not belonging in the Exhibitionism & Voyeurism category because the protagonist is queer. I have a hard time believing that if that main character was a straight guy who got a blowjob from a woman while exploring being naked in public that anyone would think it didn't belong in the category.

Another relevant piece of information is that I always include that I'm writing about queer characters in my titles and/or story descriptions when posting in categories outside of the "Gay" arena. I feel that should be enough to inform readers who aren't interested in that content that they might not want to continue. I guess it feels even more annoying that some people still read these stories anyways just to tell me that I made a mistake in the category I selected.

Are other authors who write content about queer characters that better fits in other categories also getting this feedback? If so, do you find it frustrating, or do you just not let it bother you? I guess I'm just trying to process my mixed feelings about the situation. Thanks in advance for any feedback and/or support.

-Cal

 

[onehitwanda]

I got raked through the coals for daring to submit a Romance entry that contained two girls. Won't be making that mistake again. I can't say I'm "content" but hey ho, there we go.

(The readers in Lesbian Sex are far more discerning and appreciative, anyway. )

 

[John_Vandermeer]

I do not know anything about the gay category, or the exhibitionist one for that matter. Or even the ones I have published in so far (BDSM/Fetish/Incest), since I am a new Lit author myself. But yes, I have learned the hard way if you include something from "another" category in some categories, certainly if it is a theme some consider a strong no-no, you can get raked through the coals for it.
My incest series includes what I consider light-femdom. Some erotic humiliation and denial. But I have had my female lead called a "bitch" repeatedly and my male lead called a "dickhead" for putting up with it. And somewhere between 25% to 33% of my ratings are 1-bombs (not the rest). Totally tanking the scores. Why? I have not figured it out. Especially three chapters in when the haters should have stopped reading by now.
I personally, if something is not my thing, I just move on, and let it go as not my thing. People here who are reading for free apparently get very angry though if you have offended their sensibilities some how. So my point is, I do not know what to advise you, but you have my sympathy.

 

[John_Vandermeer]

My subtitles also always include femdom in them. And yet they read, yes. So I feel you.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

In my series Breeding Bull, the MC finds himself in bed with both the wife and the husband. The series is in Fetish, and I got three yeah comments and one that wasn't too thrilled. This was one of the positive comments:

I for one don’t mind the fact that her husband sucked him off after the breeding. I kind of enjoyed the straight/bi-tolerant take on it. Really enjoying this series as our bullish protagonist breeds… well everyone it seems.

 

[djrip]

I feel like there is no such thing as the wrong category, just the category that will help you get what you want vs the one that won't. Commenters saying wrong category have no authority to police what category you use. But you might weigh scores and comments in your decision. If you get nothing but bad comments and low scores in exhibition, you might decide you'll be better off in gay male. But if scores are doing ok and it's just one or two negative comments complaining about wrong category, who cares? Ignore or delete them.

 

[Euphony]

I got raked through the coals for daring to submit a Romance entry that contained two girls. Won't be making that mistake again. I can't say I'm "content" but hey ho, there we go.

(The readers in Lesbian Sex are far more discerning and appreciative, anyway. )

Women:

Romancing the Stone

Romancing the Stove

signed
-the vocal, sexist readership of Literotica

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Have a look for stories in other categories with gay or mm tags. Fetish and BDSM can be reasonably tolerant of gay male mentions, Anal not so much. I'm currently wondering about Group for a story that's a mmf threesome.

The Gay Male readers don't object to het content, at least.

I tend to list my tags at the top of stories where I suspect the content will turn off readers. Then they can stop reading immediately if they want, and we'll both be happier.

 

[I_Must_Channel_These_Energies]

I personally, if something is not my thing, I just move on, and let it go as not my thing.

Agreed. I'm the same way; and that approach is perfectly logical and civil... neither of which really comes in abundance when anything is offered without cost or consequence.

 

[Djmac1031]

Personally, I wouldn't care if I stumbled across a Gay Male story in the E/V category. I'm not opposed to gay Male stories existing lol. I'm not the target audience for them, and I'd probably skip unless the story itself intrigued me. But I wouldn't bash the author for it.

That said: this place can be...fickle. If you don't warn readers right up front that it's gay men, you'll probably piss some people off.

Even if you do warn them, you'll probably still piss them off. People love to get upset for no reason.

Write your stories, post them where you want to. Just be prepared to hear from the trolls, the category police and the easily offended.

 

[Euphony]

And somewhere between 25% to 33% of my ratings are 1-bombs (not the rest).

99.99% you are undeserving of the score but don't rush to categorize every 1 as a bombing.

Most 1-5 voting systems suffer this extreme voting due to a variety of factors but simplicity/laziness being key among them.

Few use all scores within the range and I had to abandoned doing so myself b/c throwing a legitimate 3 does little to lessen the dragging effects of the "not my thing but I'm not going to put much thought into it beyond that so for ease I vote 1."

I'm comfortable enough my 1 or 2 point bumps aren't reshaping vote totals all that much and, besides, the system is problematic beyond that to the point a singular story's score really shouldn't be trusted beyond a cursory notice.

Best to look at authors full body of work.

 

[tenyari]

Always tag sexualities as they're vital for people reading for arousal purposes.

MF, FF, MM

 

[KeithD]

Most with gay male elements I put in Gay Male, yes. I've put a few bi ones elsewhere. I don't hate mail for doing so, but the scores are lower.

 

[YANKEE DAN]

No. I sometimes put my cross-dressing/sissy stories in gay male since it's you know, guys having sex and someone will come along telling me to get my crap out of their section.

To me, I always dressed as a girl as an expressly gay thing, I was picking up men, but many gay guys are turned off by drag. I've also had people in Trans tell me my stories are sometimes too gay focused, you can't win. Ultimately any given story could probably go in several categories.

 

[Zootonius]

I got raked through the coals for daring to submit a Romance entry that contained two girls. Won't be making that mistake again. I can't say I'm "content" but hey ho, there we go.

(The readers in Lesbian Sex are far more discerning and appreciative, anyway. )

I wrote a MF romance where the woman intimates she has a taste in other women. Got my lowest rating. The idea of a guy getting cuckolded by a woman is beyond the pale, I guess.

(*or as I like to say, beyond the pail)

 

[onehitwanda]

(*or as I like to say, beyond the pail)

eye twitch intensifies.

 

[Blind_Justice]

The readers in Sci-Fi/Fantasy don't seem to mind the occasional m/m scenes. Weird that I get called a homosexual when writing futa content though. Two entirely different kinds of sausage...

 

[Bramblethorn]

I got raked through the coals for daring to submit a Romance entry that contained two girls. Won't be making that mistake again. I can't say I'm "content" but hey ho, there we go.

(The readers in Lesbian Sex are far more discerning and appreciative, anyway. )

I got one "this doesn't belong here" for my F-F story in Romance, presumably for that aspect of it, but overall people were friendly. Maybe I was just lucky there, IDK.

There is a bit of a vicious circle here: if people only submit queer stories to GM and LS, then readers outside those categories get used to thinking of everything else as Straight Romance, Straight Mature, ... and get all the more obnoxious when somebody does submit queer content in those categories.

Part of the reason I posted Loss Function in Romance was to buck against that and assert that queer romance does have a right to go in Romance. Sort of a freedom of navigation exercise.

 

[KeithD]

No. I sometimes put my cross-dressing/sissy stories in gay male since it's you know, guys having sex and someone will come along telling me to get my crap out of their section.

To me, I always dressed as a girl as an expressly gay thing, I was picking up men, but many gay guys are turned off by drag. I've also had people in Trans tell me my stories are sometimes too gay focused, you can't win. Ultimately any given story could probably go in several categories.

No. I sometimes put my cross-dressing/sissy stories in gay male since it's you know, guys having sex and someone will come along telling me to get my crap out of their section.

To me, I always dressed as a girl as an expressly gay thing, I was picking up men, but many gay guys are turned off by drag. I've also had people in Trans tell me my stories are sometimes too gay focused, you can't win. Ultimately any given story could probably go in several categories.

That's a surprise. I haven't received a single comment like that on stories I have written to that category.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I got raked through the coals for daring to submit a Romance entry that contained two girls. Won't be making that mistake again. I can't say I'm "content" but hey ho, there we go.

(The readers in Lesbian Sex are far more discerning and appreciative, anyway. )

I have a chapter (the first) of my Lesbian awakening serial in romance. It’s below par at 4.34, but not horrendous. Once the clothes come off, I moved later chapters to LS.

Em

 

[EmilyMiller]

eye twitch intensifies.

It’s interracial as well. So Zoo was right

 

[ElectricBlue]

I got one "this doesn't belong here" for my F-F story in Romance, presumably for that aspect of it, but overall people were friendly. Maybe I was just lucky there, IDK.

There is a bit of a vicious circle here: if people only submit queer stories to GM and LS, then readers outside those categories get used to thinking of everything else as Straight Romance, Straight Mature, ... and get all the more obnoxious when somebody does submit queer content in those categories.

Part of the reason I posted Loss Function in Romance was to buck against that and assert that queer romance does have a right to go in Romance. Sort of a freedom of navigation exercise.

Yes. For similar reasons I posted my Mickey Spillane tribute story in Erotic Couplings rather than GM, where a story with a bi-sexual male lead possibly "should go", if one listens to "the real men of Lit". That was deliberate, to see what reaction a story would get with a M - M central sex scene instead of a hetero centrepiece - the story also had a strong M - F relationship, so I could have eliminated the GM scene entirely.

I reckon, with no science at all, but knowing the quality of writing in the story is no different to any other story of mine from that period, that the difference was about 0.25 of a point. No one objected violently in comments, but I had a sense that what might have been fives turned into fours given. Cudos to one AH writer who quietly commented as to his preference, but slung the story a five regardless.

I'm firmly of the belief, though, that those guys who complain vociferously about "wrong category" are actually protesting a little too much, and they've read the "offending sequence" twice, just to check their own reaction .

 

[CalMaple]

I just wanted to thank everyone for taking the time to share your experiences and offer feedback. I really appreciate all of the support and validation. I'm leaning towards continuing to publish stories with queer characters and guy-on-guy action in categories outside of the "Gay" domain, if these other categories better describe the content. I'm not too worried about getting poor ratings, so that isn't a big factor in my decision-making process. I'll keep making it clear in my story descriptions that the characters are queer. I may also start adding a short "Author's Note" with a brief description as well. If certain readers want to criticize me for publishing in the "Exhibitionist and Voyeur" category when I feel its the best fit, I'm just not going to let it bother me.

On a side note, I wanted to say that it is cool to finally post on here after lurking. I've never viewed myself as being a talented enough writer to post on these forums. I guess I had it in my head that it was only for Literotica's top talent. Something to talk about with my therapist next week, lol. Getting all of your feedback has made me realize that, regardless of my experience or skill, it feels nice to be a more active part of this community since I enjoy the sense of connection. I'll stop blathering now. Hope you all have a good evening.

 

[Zootonius]

It’s interracial as well. So Zoo was right

To @EmilyMiller and @onehitwanda

From another generation,

a whiter shade of pale​

 

[PastMaster]

The problem often is that categories are not that easy to navigate - they are not wholly objective - if you have a mind control story - that contains interracial, gay, non consensual, and incest? where do you put it?
Tags are a better indicater as to what is in the story than categories.