Het male "sensibilities"

[ofhabit2]

I am debating including some male-male contact in either a bisexual or homosexual context in one of my stories. I have found that a fair percentage of the readership seems to react fairly strongly and negatively to gay-male content in stories.

Some questions --

- Have any of you not included male-male content because of feared community reaction?

- Should I post some kind of "lead in" post that intimates such content is forthcoming?

- Should I just not worry about it, and toss in what I want, when I want?

Mostly, I'm just curious as to whether or not any of the rest of you have thought about this before. Male-female, female-male, and female-female content seems to be widely loved and written, but male-male content is limited at best, so I don't think I'm the only one who wonders about this.

 

[amalgam]

I wouldn't sweat it, unless your story is primarily about MM sex, in which case it belongs in the gay male section, where no one should be complaining.

Otherwise, I don't see any reason you should provide a "disclaimer" of sorts. If you don't mention anything about homosexuality in your guidelines, then no one should assume otherwise. If I run into MM in a story, I might scan it and move on or just turn to a different story branch.

I, myself, don't write or read MM, but I don't mind if someone adds it into my stories. What's the big deal?

 

[Zingiber]

I have a fair amount of male-male activity in my stories in the context of bisexuality. Less so in contributed threads, but some.

I haven't noticed any negative reaction to that (perhaps down-rating?), though no doubt some fraction of readers look elsewhere.

As to giving notice -- The alt.sex.stories guide presumes that the default story pose is male-hetero, female-bi, and vanilla as to variations, any differences to be called out in story codes or otherwise warned. Literotica's and Chyoo's categories provide some preparation in this regard, though cross-category stories might be worth some notice. I'm guessing the "average" reader might prefer to be cautioned. (Hello average reader?)

So put it in your story guidelines, and maybe a note in the introductory thread. If you feel inclined, drop a broad hint in a lead-in thread.

I haven't worried about announcing male-male or other "minority" content in my own stories. For others', I've followed their guidelines and tried to stick with the characters and situations. I haven't had any threads rejected on that basis.

-Z

 

[24ward]

This runs into questions about the categorization of the stories, specifically what if the story fits into multiple categories, especially in different threads? I always assumed that "Erotic Couplings" was the refuge of straight vanilla, and other categories handle stories with more domination (BDSM, mind control) or homosexuality or incest or whatever.

I would suggest that "EC" stories imply the stories aren't going to delve into the fetish categories: otherwise why would there be other categories?

The problem is stories in other categories get ghettoized... if you aren't "into" BDSM or mind control or whatever you're not likely to look there, even though they might be good stories.

 

[horny-oz]

- Should I just not worry about it, and toss in what I want, when I want?

This one.

Give it a go and see how it pans out, worst case scenario, the story never makes it into the top 20, but on the plus side, you get to write what you enjoy!