Basic Question

[LuckOfTheDraw]

While reading a sex scene involving a man and a woman:

1. Do female readers focus more on the woman or the man in the scene?
2. Do male readers focus more on the woman or the man in the scene?

The question has more to do with "focus relatively more" rather than absolutely more, obviously.

 

[KeithD]

So, you're thinking that people are mentally wired in only two configurations, one for all women and one for all men?

 

[pollyannaowt]

Like the listener in Rashōmon, each is, "a bandit calling another a bandit."

 

[ElectricBlue]

It's a bit of a silly question. It depends on each reader, surely: their taste, their kinks, their inclination, their mood, their fantasies, etc. etc.

 

[LuckOfTheDraw]

The question is not with regard to a "specific reader", but rather " on the average, is your impression that women focus more on the Male character, or the Female?"

And likewise for the reaction of men.

 

[SamScribble]

On Lit, there are no averages. Well, there are; but they are irrelevant.

 

[KeithD]

This sort of question comes up periodically on the board. There is no universal male or female Literotica reader. There is no average male or female Literotica reader. There aren't 30 universal or average readers here. There aren't 300 universal or average readers here. There aren't just 30,000 discriminate universal or average readers here. Every reader is a large, separate mix of infinitely different likes/dislikes/kinks/experience/background--on and on, ad nauseum.

The premise of this question is faulty. Sorry, that's the way it is.

 

[oggbashan]

Whatever you write for Literotica, as long as it is reasonably competent, is likely to find a sympathetic audience among the hundreds of thousands of people who visit the site.

Don't worry. Don't obsess.

Just write.

 

[LuckOfTheDraw]

It's a great privilege to receive a comment from one of Literotica's most respected writers !

You are, of course, completely correct. Writing an erotic story is not like writing copy for an ad - at least not for me.

My interest, however, was piqued by some research which showed that hetero women actually like watching gay porn. Hence my questions for this thread.

 

[oggbashan]

...

My interest, however, was piqued by some research which showed that hetero women actually like watching gay porn. Hence my questions for this thread.

Statistics can lie particularly if the parameters are not quoted.

I would expect that the research actually showed that some women, probably a few, liked gay porn as well as heterosexual porn, just as some men like lesbian porn.

Changing what you write on such a premise might be counterproductive.

Write what you like and you might find hundreds of others who like that too.

 

[Vix_Giovanni]

My interest, however, was piqued by some research which showed that hetero women actually like watching gay porn. Hence my questions for this thread.

Statistics can lie particularly if the parameters are not quoted.

I would expect that the research actually showed that some women, probably a few, liked gay porn as well as heterosexual porn, just as some men like lesbian porn.

Changing what you write on such a premise might be counterproductive.

I agree that there’s no need to change premises of your storytelling simply based on statistics. The spectrum of sexual interests and fantasies of both genders is immeasurable, and there’s not a particular genre of porn or erotica that’s going to be universally more attractive to any one person solely based on their gender.

That being said, yes, there’s a longstanding history of commercial and amateur pornographic content aimed at straight women that features gay male sex; the most universally known of this phenomenon is yaoi manga and anime—many gay men do read yaoi, but its primary worldwide audience (including this girl) is women.

And as Ogg pointed out, statistics mean nothing if the data is faulty: for example, here’s a study promoted by Pornhub that seems, on its surface, to support the conclusion that gay male porn is highly viewed by women.... The problem of course is that Pornhub viewers—like Literotica readers—are anonymous, and so there’s no confirmation that the sample pool are actually women.

 

[SimonDoom]

I don't think there is an "average" in any meaningful sense, but the question is an interesting one if we recast it a bit differently. Rather than ask what the nonexistent "average" is, just ask what do people focus on, how, and why.

I can't speak for female readers, so I'll speak for male readers. Or, this male reader.

The answer is it depends. I'm straight so I like thinking about women. The female body is endlessly fascinating. I don't feel the same way about the male body. I don't get aroused thinking about penises. On the other hand, I know what it's like to have a penis, and what it's like to use a penis, and it's easier for me when reading erotica to project myself into the male character and experience his sensations. So, I guess I would say that when I read erotica I think about both men's bodies and women's bodies, but I think about them in different ways.

Something I like about a really good erotic story is its ability to expand my way of seeing. I don't know what it's like to be a woman, or to have a woman's body, but it's thrilling to experience the sensation of having a woman's body vicariously in a well-written story, and also to experience sexual activities as a woman. A big part of my enjoyment in writing erotic stories is this process of erotic projection.

Even rarer, but more interesting still, is when a well-written, usually gay male, story enables me to think about the male body the way I think about the female body. One of the reasons I'm working on a gay male story with no women characters in it is to try to see if I can write about men the way I write about women. Can I write a hot story about penises? I don't know, but I want to find out.

 

[DarkWhispers2U]

While reading a sex scene involving a man and a woman:

1. Do female readers focus more on the woman or the man in the scene?
2. Do male readers focus more on the woman or the man in the scene?

The question has more to do with "focus relatively more" rather than absolutely more, obviously.

My focus depends on the point-of-view character. If the story is written from one gender's perspective, that's how I'll process it. Multiple perspectives, if done well, won't draw my attention toward one particular gender and their experiences over another. Don't think I'm unusual in this regard. Perhaps there are some people too rigid to enjoy a diverse sexual perspective.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I myself think it depends on the story, indeed the scene, in question. If it's very well-written, the reader is enabled to experience both. Not necessarily both at once, of course, but with interest shifting as the scene shifts.

I do agree with the general answer above - don't write to theoretical norms or a non-existant 'average'. Write what you write best and the right readers will come. (No pun intended.)

Look forward to seeing your stuff.

 

[8letters]

It's a great privilege to receive a comment from one of Literotica's most respected writers !

You are, of course, completely correct. Writing an erotic story is not like writing copy for an ad - at least not for me.

My interest, however, was piqued by some research which showed that hetero women actually like watching gay porn. Hence my questions for this thread.

I don't think what's true for porn videos translates well to stories. For example, the vast majority of porn videos I've seen have very little build up and the sex is much, much longer than the build up to the sex. There's an audience for such stroker stories like that at LitE, but such a story will typically get a much lower rating than a story that has a lengthy build up before sex.

To me, there are lots of variables in determining if a sex scene in a story is hot. Whether it is male-focused or female-focused would be way down my list of things. Probably top of my list would be the length of the sex scene.

Edited: Changed "porn" to "porn videos" per Keith's suggestion

 

[KeithD]

My interest, however, was piqued by some research which showed that hetero women actually like watching gay porn. Hence my questions for this thread.

As a writer of gay male porn both here and in the marketplace, my observation from postings and communications traffic is that a significant percentage of both readers and writers of gay male porn are women, yes (although I have no idea how many of them are hetero other than quite a few preference their comments with the claim that they both are women and hetero). That noted, I don't know what that has to do with leading to a useful answer to your OP question.

On your OP question, I, for one, am bi, and I'll look at whichever of the two of a female/male couple I instantly find more attractive (subject to a change of view on that beyond the initial instant). I imagine I check out the man first. But again, I don't see how that tells you anything useful about the OP question beyond the OP question not likely to find a useful answer.

 

[KeithD]

I don't think what's true for porn translates well to stories.

You are misusing the word "porn." It doesn't just apply to videos. Stories can be pornographic too. "Porn" applies to the nature of the content, not to the mode of presentation.

 

[dp4shelly]

The gender factor in a readers focus

As often happens here, the OP raised a question and rather than get an answer there was the typical knee-jerk pounce at being critical of the person asking a question.

It could be a dumb question or it could be a good question. There is so little background that it seems rash to jump to the conclusion that it is a dumb question or a good question.

So, back to the question itself. I do think that it is an interesting questions. The question is a little vague and therefore gets a nebulas response in my mind. There are just too many variables. So, to hone the question I recommend taking a particular story and asking both men and women to answer the question based on that particular story.

For example, some years ago my husband had me read a story that he found in the “loving wives” category. I think it was called, “Three days of watching my wife fuck.” At that point my husband had never shared me and I had not even heard the term, “hotwife.” But the story had triggered him to start being curious about the concept and that is why he wanted me to read it.

The story is written from the male perspective. I know that when my husband read it he imagined it from his male perspective and imagined what it would be like to watch me fuck other guys.

But even though it was writing from the male perspective when I read it I did imagine it from a female perspective. So much so that I had to pause several times during the reading to masturbate because I kept thinking what it would be like to have my husband watching several young studs take turns with me. When the story got to the part where for the first time one of the guys slide his cock into her I had an orgasm just imaging my pussy being penetrated under those circumstances.

So clearly in that story as a female I imagined it from my female perspective and my husband imagined it from a male perspective. So it is easy to be more definitive with the answer if there is a specific base-line for the question.

 

[Vix_Giovanni]

While reading a sex scene involving a man and a woman:

1. Do female readers focus more on the woman or the man in the scene?
2. Do male readers focus more on the woman or the man in the scene?

The question has more to do with "focus relatively more" rather than absolutely more, obviously.

This was a fairly introspective question for me, and not an easy quick answer. I have no idea what readers in general focus on. But I'm back to add my two cents as a bisexual woman that if I'm reading a hetero MF sex scene for my own enjoyment, I personally care more about the description of what the man is thinking and feeling.

 

[KeithD]

"As often happens here, the OP raised a question and rather than get an answer there was the typical knee-jerk pounce at being critical of the person asking a question."

The only pouncing on a poster personally done here was by you--pouncing on those responding to the OP question. All the others responded to the question, not personally to the poster, that there's no credible answer achievable to an often-posed question. They gave an answer--a correct one.

The premise that it would have an answer on a Web site with many hundreds of thousands readers reading a broad spectrum of genres is faulty. Giving it more than a glancing thought would allow one to figure that out for her/himself.

 

[eroticstoryspinner]

While reading a sex scene involving a man and a woman:

1. Do female readers focus more on the woman or the man in the scene?
2. Do male readers focus more on the woman or the man in the scene?

The question has more to do with "focus relatively more" rather than absolutely more, obviously.

I am hoping the reader, regardless of gender, focuses on my story and is captured by it. I think Og said it best to not over think it. Tell the story as best you can. Let the reader take it where he,she or prefers not to say will.

Good luck!

 

[yukonnights]

While reading a sex scene involving a man and a woman:

1. Do female readers focus more on the woman or the man in the scene?
2. Do male readers focus more on the woman or the man in the scene?

The question has more to do with "focus relatively more" rather than absolutely more, obviously.

My answer: Both sides.

To be honest, I don't think I've ever pondered the question. As a male reader; I prefer to vicariously be able to experience both sides of the coupling (or even all sides if it is more than two people). For the most part, this is also my mindset as I write my own erotic stories.

 

[Hypoxia]

For whatever any LIT author churns out and posts, some readers will love it, some will hate it, some will scan it and forget it, very few will bother to vote and even less will comment, and vastly most will never notice. Write what you want to write without payment. Have fun.