Story categories

[UKguy1959]

Am I alone in thinking anal sex has grown as a category in porn, and thus in Literotica over the past 15-25 years ?

I am near 60 and have viewed porn for many, many, years but remembering back into the 80s and 90s there seemed to be far less anal content. Now on the various porn video clips web sites the anal category has grown but there's no equivalent 'no-anal' or 'vaginal' category.


OK, so consider me old fashioned, if you wish, but while it is a turn on for many, it's not for me (and I guess some others) so just a question to see if others would like such a category, or am I the only one ?

 

[ElectricBlue]

Am I alone in thinking anal sex has grown as a category in porn, and thus in Literotica over the past 15-25 years ?

I am near 60 and have viewed porn for many, many, years but remembering back into the 80s and 90s there seemed to be far less anal content. Now on the various porn video clips web sites the anal category has grown but there's no equivalent 'no-anal' or 'vaginal' category.


OK, so consider me old fashioned, if you wish, but while it is a turn on for many, it's not for me (and I guess some others) so just a question to see if others would like such a category, or am I the only one ?

You can desire as many new categories as you want, but it ain't happening. Folk have been asking for a bi category for a decade, and what we have is what we have. All you can do is check story tags, or just back click if a bit of anal turns up unexpectedly.

But yes, it's certainly more mainstream than it was. It used to be a taboo back in the seventies/eighties, nowadays it's lost that edge.

 

[Lindsay_O]

How common is anal sex in categories outside of Anal?

 

[Valint]

Even aside from the fact that it's unlikely for us to ever see a new category, this seems like a particularly ill-thought-out one.

'No anal zone' would be pretty near the bottom of the priority list of categorizing stories (I mean, no one is going to put a vaginal-sex-only Incest/SF/BDSM/etc story there instead of the specific category), so what you're basically asking for is for 'Erotic Couplings' to be split into 'Erotic Couplings (no anal allowed)' and 'Erotic Couplings (anything goes)'.

I can't think that that many people care that it would be worth the work, even if the site admins were interested in new categories, and they're not.

If we're ever going to get a new category (and I doubt it), I'd expect it to be a heavy trump category like 'Bisexual', not this.

Do what everyone does when someone writes a story with elements they dislike, and just complain in the comments.

To be honest, I think anal is sufficiently mainstream these days that it almost surprises me that we have the category. Unless the story is focused on ass sex and nothing but ass sex, I'd expect it to end up in a more specific category.

 

[KeithD]

That's in the realm of "there isn't enough category capacity to get down to that level of restriction." If "anal" was included in the keyword list, it's your responsibility to understand that you faint when that element is there and just not read it. It's your responsibility to check the keyword list first if you have such self-imposed restrictions. If anal isn't in the keyword list, you could note that in a comment on the story and just leave and go someplace else without further response.

 

[Valint]

To be fair, tags are essentially worthless for exclusionary purposes. You only see them at the very end of the story, where it's too late. If they were at the top of the first page, they'd be much more useful.

 

[KeithD]

To be fair, tags are essentially worthless for exclusionary purposes. You only see them at the very end of the story, where it's too late. If they were at the top of the first page, they'd be much more useful.

I don't think that is relevant to someone with quirk problems where they appear unable to take responsibility for themselves and just back out of stories when they encounter elements that give them the vapors and just move on. This is an adult site. If an author has included an element in the available warnings, it's the readers responsibility to take care of themselves. If they have such "vapors quirks" they jolly well can go look at the tags first. They are responsible for what they read. I don't buy into the "I should have a babysitter on an adult porn site" theory that seemed to have come in with helicopter parenting.

 

[SimonDoom]

"Non-anal" makes no sense as a category, any more than "non-incest" or "non-gay" would make sense. What would go in it? Nothing. It's not a kink. No author would ever put a story in that category.

My guess is that in most anal stories the tag "anal" is used, so someone who really wants to avoid anal should just check the story to see if the tag is there.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Do what everyone does when someone writes a story with elements they dislike, and just complain in the comments.

Bad advice. If someone has a personal dislike, that's their issue, not a fault of the story, and they should have the sense to either close their eyes or move on. They're meant to be adults, not children.

If a writer has tagged a story, they have a bit of a right to expect someone who dislikes that particular kink vehemently to not bother reading - but I agree, the tags should be up front, not at the end of the story. Such a layout change would solve many gripes from nervous Aunt Nellies.

 

[SimonDoom]

Bad advice. If someone has a personal dislike, that's their issue, not a fault of the story, and they should have the sense to either close their eyes or move on. They're meant to be adults, not children.

If a writer has tagged a story, they have a bit of a right to expect someone who dislikes that particular kink vehemently to not bother reading - but I agree, the tags should be up front, not at the end of the story. Such a layout change would solve many gripes from nervous Aunt Nellies.

This would be such a technically easy fix, and you are right that it instantly would remove whatever questionably legitimate grounds readers have to claim to be unpleasantly surprised (so long as the author uses the right tags).

The one downside: as a reader, just speaking for myself, I don't necessarily want to be spoon fed a preview of all the erotic kinks and elements of the story beforehand. I like to be surprised. If I'm really curious I suppose I can always go to the back of the story and check the tags, but I rarely do that in practice, nor does it add any value for my reading experience, most of the time.

 

[KeithD]

The one downside: as a reader, just speaking for myself, I don't necessarily want to be spoon fed a preview of all the erotic kinks and elements of the story beforehand. I like to be surprised. If I'm really curious I suppose I can always go to the back of the story and check the tags, but I rarely do that in practice, nor does it add any value for my reading experience, most of the time.

I agree and I never put content warning slugs on my stories. If a reader needs to be babysat on Literotica, they really shouldn't be on an adult site to begin with.

 

[Lindsay_O]

Bad advice. If someone has a personal dislike, that's their issue, not a fault of the story, and they should have the sense to either close their eyes or move on. They're meant to be adults, not children.

If a writer has tagged a story, they have a bit of a right to expect someone who dislikes that particular kink vehemently to not bother reading - but I agree, the tags should be up front, not at the end of the story. Such a layout change would solve many gripes from nervous Aunt Nellies.

Exactly.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Am I alone in thinking anal sex has grown as a category in porn, and thus in Literotica over the past 15-25 years ?

Literotica didn't exist 25 years ago, but this snapshot, dated exactly 15 years ago today, shows 564 stories in Anal vs. 8604 in the biggest/default category, Erotic Couplings. As of today, that count is 4986 vs. 53270.

So, yes, it looks as if the proportion of anal on Literotica has significantly increased in the last 15 years: from about 6.6% of the EC number in 2003, to 9.4% today. I have heard that it's also become more popular in porn generally, but I don't know whether the Literotica numbers are related to that.

(Not that all anal is posted in the Anal category; in particular, I assume there's quite a bit in Gay Male too, but it's a handy measure.)

OK, so consider me old fashioned, if you wish, but while it is a turn on for many, it's not for me (and I guess some others) so just a question to see if others would like such a category, or am I the only one ?

The site owners aren't likely to add another category, and frankly, adding categories would just exacerbate the existing problems in finding stories.

Many stories on this site overlap multiple categories. One of mine hits at least six of the listed story categories, but when I posted it, I had to choose just one. As a result, many readers who would have loved the lesbian romance elements never saw it, because they don't look for lesbian romance over in SF/F.

The real solution here would be to improve search capability to make more use of the existing tag system, so that you can search for EC stories without the "anal" tag or similar.

 

[Lindsay_O]

Literotica didn't exist 25 years ago.

There are stories (and member registration dates) from 1999. Look up Kip Carson, DixionLeeCarter, HulloNurse, Siren, and more.

 

[Valint]

Bad advice. If someone has a personal dislike, that's their issue, not a fault of the story, and they should have the sense to either close their eyes or move on. They're meant to be adults, not children.

If a writer has tagged a story, they have a bit of a right to expect someone who dislikes that particular kink vehemently to not bother reading - but I agree, the tags should be up front, not at the end of the story. Such a layout change would solve many gripes from nervous Aunt Nellies.

That advice was mostly tongue-in-cheek. I suppose I should I have included a smiley to make it clear.

But I think the idea that tagging is a warning is kind of silly. If I hit a story element that's a hard no, I just nope the hell out of the story. I have a few, mainly m/m sex outside of a story good enough for me to skim past it and keep going, but the idea of paging to the last page of every story to check their tags seems too much like work to me. Is that a thing people actually do?

So, yes, it looks as if the proportion of anal on Literotica has significantly increased in the last 15 years: from about 6.6% of the EC number in 2003, to 9.4% today.

I'd make the opposite argument: To me, Anal is just a sub-category of Fetish, and if we look at Anal's numbers vs. Fetish's, we go from 35.5% in 2003 to 34.7% now, which is either essentially a wash or a slight decrease, but definitely not a significant increase.

I also found interesting the changes in category names/descriptions that archive showed:
* Incest to Incest/Taboo: I've always wondered what the non-incest taboo stories are that are supposed to be in this category, and the fact that this second category was a later addition makes it even stranger to me. Was there a thing where someone got pissy about step-sibling stories not technically being incest or something?
* Nonconsent to Nonconsent/Reluctance: Similarly curious. Were there people arguing that some stories weren't really rape-y enough for the category?
* LW: "These girls know how to please their men" is even less helpful than the current description. Is this category cursed?
* Mature: "Sexy older folks" to "May/December lust & love affairs" is interesting, because I'd consider those two completely separate categories: The first requiring old/old and the second needing old/young.

 

[SimonDoom]

If a reader needs to be babysat on Literotica, they really shouldn't be on an adult site to begin with.

Well said. It boggles my mind that so many readers who come to an erotic story site to read dirty stories have such delicate sensibilities and are so prone to take offense. Ah, humanity.

I had a story with a mom who put her finger in her butt and a rabidly anti-anal reader took offense at that. Real moms don't do that, or something like that, he said.

I just checked the story again and noted that I failed to include "anal" as a tag. Didn't seem like it warranted it. Someone who wanted real anal would have been disappointed, I think.

 

[GrandTeton]

Valint said:
I also found interesting the changes in category names/descriptions that archive showed:
* Incest to Incest/Taboo: I've always wondered what the non-incest taboo stories are that are supposed to be in this category, and the fact that this second category was a later addition makes it even stranger to me. Was there a thing where someone got pissy about step-sibling stories not technically being incest or something?
* Nonconsent to Nonconsent/Reluctance: Similarly curious. Were there people arguing that some stories weren't really rape-y enough for the category?
* LW: "These girls know how to please their men" is even less helpful than the current description. Is this category cursed?
* Mature: "Sexy older folks" to "May/December lust & love affairs" is interesting, because I'd consider those two completely separate categories: The first requiring old/old and the second needing old/young.

As to Taboo being added, the category has become overrun with in-law pairings, step-family groups, teacher-student and doctor-patient, all of which can be categorized as taboo but are certainly not incest. Reluctance has apparently been added as a description because the site technically doesn't support rape - unless the rapee liked it. I don't support rape at all, so I can't explain further. Loving Wives was, I think, originally supposed to be about women who were adventurous for the sake of their husbands, swingers and swappers. Dreamcloud had a story of that type, where a dying wife finds her replacement. Possibly in reaction to the trolls, BTB has become de rigeur for straying wives, or the cuck story, neither of which appear to meet the definition of the category, but that's almost all there is these days. You're probably right that it is a cursed category, but there are occasionally some decent stories in there that do reasonably well. I'd agree that the current description of Mature is for a different category, but such is Lit.

 

[Bramblethorn]

There are stories (and member registration dates) from 1999. Look up Lip Carson, DixionLeeCarter, HulloNurse, Siren, and more.

1999 is less than 25 years ago.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I'd make the opposite argument: To me, Anal is just a sub-category of Fetish, and if we look at Anal's numbers vs. Fetish's, we go from 35.5% in 2003 to 34.7% now, which is either essentially a wash or a slight decrease, but definitely not a significant increase.

Or, put another way: both "Fetish" and "Anal" are increasing as a proportion of Literotica content, at roughly the same rate.

OP didn't ask whether Anal was increasing relative to Fetish; he asked whether it had grown "as a category", to which the answer is clearly yes.

(A better analysis would've been to calculate numbers as a proportion of all stories, but I didn't see a convenient count of all stories and adding up all the categories seemed a bit too tedious.)

I also found interesting the changes in category names/descriptions that archive showed:
* Incest to Incest/Taboo: I've always wondered what the non-incest taboo stories are that are supposed to be in this category, and the fact that this second category was a later addition makes it even stranger to me. Was there a thing where someone got pissy about step-sibling stories not technically being incest or something?
* Nonconsent to Nonconsent/Reluctance: Similarly curious. Were there people arguing that some stories weren't really rape-y enough for the category?
* LW: "These girls know how to please their men" is even less helpful than the current description. Is this category cursed?
* Mature: "Sexy older folks" to "May/December lust & love affairs" is interesting, because I'd consider those two completely separate categories: The first requiring old/old and the second needing old/young.

If you go to earlier snapshots you'll see some other changes, too. I picked 2003 because it was exactly 15 years ago, and because it had enough stories to get a good idea of early proportions, but I think the "Extreme" category had already been removed by then. I wasn't around then, so I can't comment on why the category changes happened, though removal of "Extreme" is probably obvious.

 

[Lindsay_O]

1999 is less than 25 years ago.

Yes, I realize that. In my sleep-deprived state I read your comment as if you thought Lit started in 2003. That's my mistake.

 

[Lindsay_O]

I think the "Extreme" category had already been removed by then. I wasn't around then, so I can't comment on why the category changes happened, though removal of "Extreme" is probably obvious.

Extreme was removed in 2002 when the Yahoo eGroups had their cop/kiddie porn sting. Lit claimed that was why they broke ties with their sister site allextremese.com - even though they've never allowed kiddie porn in the first place.

 

[Valint]

OP didn't ask whether Anal was increasing relative to Fetish; he asked whether it had grown "as a category", to which the answer is clearly yes.

(A better analysis would've been to calculate numbers as a proportion of all stories, but I didn't see a convenient count of all stories and adding up all the categories seemed a bit too tedious.)

Eh, I picked Fetish because I consider Anal simply a sub-category of it: If Anal didn't exist as a category, I would expect anal-specific stories to end up in Fetish, so comparing the percentage of anal-fetish stories to all-other-fetish stories seems like a useful metric.

Erotic Couplings is such a catch-all that I wouldn't consider it a useful comparison. There's ~2.3k EC stories with "anal" as a tag, and without knowing whether that percentage has gone up or down, using the category numbers as a proxy for Anal vs. non-Anal isn't really useful.

If you want to compare overall numbers, it's more-or-less a wash: Anal is 1.22% of all stories now; 1.21% in 2003.