Getting Down and other challenges

[LargoKitt]

I'm writing a story set in a senior home where there are some people with different abilities. I have created a character who is a woman with Down syndrome who lives there. She is very capable and doesn't find partners in that situation, so she is horny and wants to have sex with my lead character who has a 'problem' with a persistent erection. Does anyone know if Literotica discourages or prohibits this kind of story? Another character is in a wheelchair and I'm pretty confident that is okay. I imagine there are at least a few Down syndrome people who read literotica, people with Asberger's or identify as neuroatypical. Does one follow the #ownstories trend and only write from first person experience?

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

I am not aware of any official Literotica rule against it, so long as it's consensual.

You may find that if it's 'insensitive' that you could get some low scores or negative comments. My best suggestion is to find a good editor who can help, and do plenty of research.

I wouldn't worry about #ownstories here. If people could only write about sex they'd actually had themselves, this site would be a lot more disappointing.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I'm writing a story set in a senior home where there are some people with different abilities. I have created a character who is a woman with Down syndrome who lives there. She is very capable and doesn't find partners in that situation, so she is horny and wants to have sex with my lead character who has a 'problem' with a persistent erection. Does anyone know if Literotica discourages or prohibits this kind of story?

There's no prohibition, but it would be wise to write with sensitivity.

Another character is in a wheelchair and I'm pretty confident that is okay.

That's fine. One of my best received stories is about a woman with a broken spine, and the able-bodied man who falls for her.

I imagine there are at least a few Down syndrome people who read literotica, people with Asberger's or identify as neuroatypical.

Suggest you drop Asperger's, and keep to neurodiversity. Plenty of those folk around this forum.

Does one follow the #ownstories trend and only write from first person experience?

Why? What's the point of view got to do with any of this?

 

[StillStunned]

I wouldn't worry about #ownstories here. If people could only write about sex they'd actually had themselves, this site would be a lot more disappointing.

I confess that I've never actually experienced sex with vampiric space demons, Celtic river goddesses, my childhood bully, elven sorceresses, my sister or a six-breasted cat-woman.

 

[Jorunn]

I suggest you place a short intro (disclaimer) in front of each story. This may help screen off any readers who have objections to your content. You may avoid some useless comments and low scores.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

I think the question would be, is the person with Down's able to consent? Many trisomy 21 people are intellectually perfectly able to understand sex and agree to it (and want it).

--Annie

 

[lovecraft68]

You can do anything as long as it falls within the basic rules

I'd warn that no matter how you portray the characters you'll get people telling you it was tasteless to do it, because it will take some people out of sexy story jack off mode, but others will see it as being even more erotic in that it shows all manner of people still have the same desires.

But I would be careful in how I write it to not denigrate the characters, their issues, or the situation.

It's a notch above the usual ideas we get suggested here so go for it.

 

[EmilyMiller]

people with Asberger's

Hi,

I’d echo @ElectricBlue in saying only write people - like me - with ASD if you know autistic people, or maybe have done more research that watching The Big Bang Theory.

Dr. Mel King in The Pitt is not specified as having a particular neurodivergence, but she says her sister is autistic and needs support. So it’s not a stretch to say Mel is L1 ASD (again like me). The way the character was portrayed made me feel seen.

I didn’t write explicitly ND characters until I had published a lot of stories. I wanted to be a good enough writer to do the subject some justice. One thing that has been gratifying is other ND people (or those with ND relatives) commenting that they saw themselves or others in my characters.

I’d never tell people not to try to reflect the diversity of human experience in their fiction. But tread carefully. The reaction you want is the one I describe above.

If you want to include a character with trisomy (something I know little about) then please look into it and try not to make them a caricature.

Good luck writing!

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Interesting. I have a character in the story I just finished the first draft of who is neurodivergent. He's also over 30 and very smart, so he has developed some pretty effective coping strategies. One thing we see in the story is that certain sounds can really distress him. I certainly hope I'm not offending anyone. (He's actually one of the nicest people I've ever written, to the point that another minor character ends up asking him out by the end, even though he isn't "her type.")

--Annie

 

[EmilyMiller]

One thing we see in the story is that certain sounds can really distress him.

Sound sensitivity is quite common. Though the ND experience is very broad.

But please make him empathetic. If one thing annoys the fuck out of me it’s ND people being portrayed as non-empathetic robots. It’s total BS. Some of us empathize so viscerally that we struggle to cope with our feelings. We may not always get some nuances of meaning, but we have big feelings.

Sorry - I didn't mean for this to be a lecture .

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Sound sensitivity is quite common. Though the ND experience is very broad.

But please make him empathetic. If one thing annoys the fuck out of me it’s ND people being portrayed as non-empathetic robots. It’s total BS. Some of us empathize so viscerally that we struggle to cope with our feelings. We may not always get some nuances of meaning, but we have big feelings.

Sorry - I didn't mean for this to be a lecture .

I was implicitly asking for a lecture.

Bobby is actually stated to be the kindest, gentlest person in the story. He's (this is not that secret a plot point) getting therapy because he's afraid to do sexual things because he might unintentionally harm his partner.

--Annie

 

[EmilyMiller]

He's (this is not that secret a plot point) getting therapy because he's afraid to do sexual things because he might unintentionally harm his partner.

I don’t know about that type of worry / therapy, and I can’t speak for all autistic people, there is a lot of variability. But I spend a significant amount of time IRL worrying about what other people think and how they might react. I actually do less of this on-line (not least as it can get tiring).

 

[Bramblethorn]

I'm writing a story set in a senior home where there are some people with different abilities. I have created a character who is a woman with Down syndrome who lives there. She is very capable and doesn't find partners in that situation, so she is horny and wants to have sex with my lead character who has a 'problem' with a persistent erection. Does anyone know if Literotica discourages or prohibits this kind of story?

Related from five years ago: https://forum.literotica.com/thread...ly-challenged-person-child-sex-abuse.1527371/

I would recommend PMing Laurel, explaining what you're doing, and asking her whether this is going to fly. Personally I would not assume that people with Down syndrome are automatically incapable of giving informed consent, but it'd take a deft hand to write it here without somebody seeing it as exploitative.

Another character is in a wheelchair and I'm pretty confident that is okay. I imagine there are at least a few Down syndrome people who read literotica, people with Asberger's or identify as neuroatypical. Does one follow the #ownstories trend and only write from first person experience?

I am autistic (what used to be "Asperger's syndrome", though I'm pretty happy not to have to keep on using the name of a guy who collaborated in mass murder of disabled people). Just my personal thoughts:

I am very happy to see non-autistic people writing about autism, provided that they make the effort to do it right and responsibly. As I understand it, the point of #ownvoices is less "people should only write their own experience" than "the conversation about autistic people shouldn't be dominated by non-autistic people" [substitute group of choice].

This is a bigger issue in traditional publishing - where there's only so much "shelf space", figuratively speaking - than somewhere like Literotica, but even here I'd encourage authors to do their homework and make sure they're not spreading harmful myths/etc.

 

[LargoKitt]

Related from five years ago: https://forum.literotica.com/thread...ly-challenged-person-child-sex-abuse.1527371/

I would recommend PMing Laurel, explaining what you're doing, and asking her whether this is going to fly. Personally I would not assume that people with Down syndrome are automatically incapable of giving informed consent, but it'd take a deft hand to write it here without somebody seeing it as exploitative.



I am autistic (what used to be "Asperger's syndrome", though I'm pretty happy not to have to keep on using the name of a guy who collaborated in mass murder of disabled people). Just my personal thoughts:

I am very happy to see non-autistic people writing about autism, provided that they make the effort to do it right and responsibly. As I understand it, the point of #ownvoices is less "people should only write their own experience" than "the conversation about autistic people shouldn't be dominated by non-autistic people" [substitute group of choice].

This is a bigger issue in traditional publishing - where there's only so much "shelf space", figuratively speaking - than somewhere like Literotica, but even here I'd encourage authors to do their homework and make sure they're not spreading harmful myths/etc.

Thanks Bramblethorn, I will throw out the Asberger's label. People with autism or people 'on the spectrum' are pretty complex to write sexual stories about. I once recorded Oliver Sacks who wrote about Temple Grandin, someone who brought the challenges and victories of people with autism to light. if intimacy, sensual overload, communication, and touch can be issues then clearly a story about people learning to make love to one another, as we all do (no one is really 'neurotypical') would take some experience and sensitivity. My experience with people with Down syndrome is that many are very affectionate people. Horny like the rest of us. Not so into being a 'player'. Taking things literally so in a real position to be hurt.

 

[LargoKitt]

Hi,

I’d echo @ElectricBlue in saying only write people - like me - with ASD if you know autistic people, or maybe have done more research that watching The Big Bang Theory.

Dr. Mel King in The Pitt is not specified as having a particular neurodivergence, but she says her sister is autistic and needs support. So it’s not a stretch to say Mel is L1 ASD (again like me). The way the character was portrayed made me feel seen.

I didn’t write explicitly ND characters until I had published a lot of stories. I wanted to be a good enough writer to do the subject some justice. One thing that has been gratifying is other ND people (or those with ND relatives) commenting that they saw themselves or others in my characters.

I’d never tell people not to try to reflect the diversity of human experience in their fiction. But tread carefully. The reaction you want is the one I describe above.

If you want to include a character with trisomy (something I know little about) then please look into it and try not to make them a caricature.

Good luck writing!

Emily, I'm grateful for your comment and I want to add your stories to my reading list. I don't assume that will qualify me to write ND characters myself. (Sometimes I wonder where the 'edges' of ND are. I can be a person who absolutely needs downtime from noisy input. I don't really have 'ritual' behaviors that comfort me, or maybe I do and they're just more neurotypical. My brain and mouth can go a mile a minute and miss social cues that say, 'beyond the tipping point'.) I also realize there is a good joke in: "What do you call a person who constantly hears voices in their head who insist on being heard or seen?" "A writer." Happy you are you.

 

[iwatchus]

Be aware that the ND community is very diverse, more diverse than almost anyone thinks. I wrote a story with someone with MC describing himself as "probably on the spectrum" and I got a handful of complaints that no autistic person would act like that and I should get to know the community better before I write about it. But that aspect of that character was very much based on someone on the spectrum I know very well. Any generalities about the community are probably wrong.

That said I second @EmilyMiller ask to fight the stereotypes in your story where you can.

 

[EmilyMiller]

That said I second @EmilyMiller ask to fight the stereotypes in your story where you can.

I don’t want to put anyone off of including ND characters, and there are all sorts of ND people. The word salad of ‘conditions’ we have come up with is in some ways unhelpful. Some common ND traits also overlap with trauma response.

Also please don’t treat ND as a super power. There are some things I am better at than average which might relate to my ASD, but they also might not. And I do struggle with some things as well. As with most people, we are a complex mixture of strengths and weaknesses. Being ND is a central part of who I am, but it’s not the only part.

 

[StillStunned]

I don’t want to put anyone off of including ND characters, and there are all sorts of ND people. The word salad of ‘conditions’ we have come up with is in some ways unhelpful. Some common ND traits also overlap with trauma response.

Also please don’t treat ND as a super power. There are some things I am better at than average which might relate to my ASD, but they also might not. And I do struggle with some things as well. As with most people, we are a complex mixture of strengths and weaknesses. Being ND is a central part of who I am, but it’s not the only part.

I think the movie "Rain Man" brought autism into the public awareness - honestly, when I was a kid nobody was tested for any ND - but it also created a very stereotypical picture that's probably done more harm than good over the decades.

If I was to write about an ND character, I'd just write them as a normal character and let certain traits shine through. Let the reader figure it out for themselves.

Except if it's specifically about their condition, like Pod's introversion in my story "Fairytale of New York". But I felt comfortable writing that - or if not comfortable, at least qualified to write it - because it's a big part of my life, and a big part of my relationship with my wife.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Being ND is a central part of who I am, but it’s not the only part.

So you are a complex human being who can't be condensed into a single two-letter description? Who would have thought?

--Annie

 

[EmilyMiller]

I think the movie "Rain Man" brought autism into the public awareness - honestly, when I was a kid nobody was tested for any ND - but it also created a very stereotypical picture that's probably done more harm than good over the decades.

If I was to write about an ND character, I'd just write them as a normal character and let certain traits shine through. Let the reader figure it out for themselves.

Except if it's specifically about their condition, like Pod's introversion in my story "Fairytale of New York". But I felt comfortable writing that - or if not comfortable, at least qualified to write it - because it's a big part of my life, and a big part of my relationship with my wife.

I think it’s important to connect something in our own experience to our characters, even if they are otherwise different to us. The idiot savant (savant syndrome now) - portrayed in Rain Man was an exaggerated version of some ND people, but not others.

Some people with ASD need full time help, others are fully independent. I manage a team, something it would be hard to do if I was closed off with no understanding of social interactions. But I know I’m different and my head is often a whirl trying to behave ‘normally,’ or at least how people expect others to behave.

I have coping mechanisms, but it can be very tiring employing them sometimes. I’m super grateful to be able to drop the mask in my domestic environment, and with a group of friends and relatives. Though you don’t ever turn masking off, it’s a part of you, you just dial it down.

 

[EmilyMiller]

So you are a complex human being who can't be condensed into a single two-letter description? Who would have thought?

--Annie

Precisely

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Precisely

You can't even be condensed into one pen name.

My EmilyMiller stories

My RolloJTomasi stories

 

[EmilyMiller]

You can't even be condensed into one pen name.

RJT was an experiment, as per:

https://www.literotica.com/s/the-writing-of-rollojtomasi

 

[EmilyMiller]

RJT was an experiment, as per:

https://www.literotica.com/s/the-writing-of-rollojtomasi

I just reread my essay and it chimes with two aspects of my (not necessarily other people’s) experience. It’s quite analytical, and it reflects a personal obsession with fairness and unfairness.