Is Literotica a 'Male Centric' site?

[Infernalcock]

I read a comment indicating such on another thread, and it got me thinking.

I've always assumed that traditional pornography was consumed mainly by men, whilst the fairer sex tended to go for the slightly more subtle (in some cases ) written word. Not even sure why I assume this, just something I read years ago.

I'd already picked up that my 'work' wasn't likely to appeal to the female audience as much as the male, and this appears to be loosely confirmed when browsing comments and the names of those who follow me.

I suspect that there is a core of females on here, both the audience and the creators. But are there any actual metrics anywhere to give us an idea of just what the ratio between men/women (and other) may be?

 

[lovecraft68]

This is all going to fall under generalizations because we can't speak for all men and all women. I'm sure there are men here who like a slower burn more sensual story, and women who like pure stroke pieces.

But like the discussion some time back about male gaze went, the site definitely leans towards the male perception of porn where women are all cum hungry porn star sluts and every guy is a super stud. I always thought the written form would appeal more to women, and I'm sure it does, but this is man town. You can certainly see that in the behavior on the various forums here just as easily.

Going further-and I am not saying this is most guys on this site, but there's more than a few- That can be seen in the negative sense of how male commenters trash femdom stories, cheating wives stories, yammer about how any male character that doesn't act like "Bitch get on your knees" is a wimp. Etc...

So, yeah, in a simple answer without exact reliable numbers (and you're not getting that on the net) it seems a lot more male driven than female.

 

[StillStunned]

There's probably a difference between anonymous readers and readers/forum members who come here to interact. I suspect plenty of women just browse the stories anonymously, without feeling any urge to create an account and join in the various roleplaying forums, or the endless threads about AI or underage sex.

 

[AchtungNight]

There’s plenty of women here in addition to men. I’ve dealt with women who don’t like things I’ve said on the forums and made negative comments about me or other people and our stories. I’ve also made friends with a few great female authors here. Heck, the site is owned by a female supportive of sex positivity, so to say Lit only caters to men is blatantly wrong.

I can’t speak for other’s stories, but in my work I don’t make every man a super stud or every woman a complete slut. All characters have their types and personalities to whom they are attracted and they’re not into fucking anything that moves. They’re polyamorous but they still have standards and tastes. I’m more attracted to that than those who fuck indiscriminately and more attracted to intelligent people than vapid ones. So my stories are a bit different than the stereotypical pornographic works. There are many authors here who are similar.

 

[Bramblethorn]

According to this 2015 study: "Of those [Literotica] authors, 33% were female, 44% were male, 2% were a couple sharing an account, .5% were transsexual (Literotica's term), and the rest [about 20%] did not report their sex."

That's based on profile data; it's anybody's guess how truthful that data is.

 

[KeithD]

I suspect that there is a core of females on here, both the audience and the creators. But are there any actual metrics anywhere to give us an idea of just what the ratio between men/women (and other) may be?

No, because posters self-identify, and in erotica there's a lot of lying about that.

The single me, for instance, has multiple accounts at Literotica of claimed male, claimed female, and undisclosed. No way to get any meaningful metrics out of that.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I suspect that there is a core of females on here, both the audience and the creators. But are there any actual metrics anywhere to give us an idea of just what the ratio between men/women (and other) may be?

Many years ago a sociologist researcher or journalist (I can't recall which) did some data mining on the gender tags account holders give themselves, and suggested 40% - 50% (edit: refer Bramble's post above) identified as male. I'd take that with a very big grain of salt, because people don't declare or misleadingly declare their gender for all sorts of reasons. As for anon readers, there's absolutely no way of knowing.

I suspect the gender mix here in the AH - with a fairly high representation of women - isn't typical of the rest of Lit. But no-one can ever know, only speculate.

 

[TheLobster]

According to this 2015 study: "Of those [Literotica] authors, 33% were female, 44% were male, 2% were a couple sharing an account, .5% were transsexual (Literotica's term), and the rest [about 20%] did not report their sex."

That's based on profile data; it's anybody's guess how truthful that data is.

Considering that women in general are known to be less likely to reveal their gender on the internet, this would actually suggest the split is pretty close to even.

 

[SimonDoom]

Considering that women in general are known to be less likely to reveal their gender on the internet, this would actually suggest the split is pretty close to even.

That's possible, although there are male authors like Keith who have profiles as women, so it's difficult to know how it all shakes out. But based on the study Bramblethorn cited, it seems plausibleto suppose that the readership is over 33% female.

 

[Trionyx]

With the hassle and outright abuse which females are victims of on the internet, it wouldn’t surprise me to hear that a large portion of women remain anonymous or register with male names/characteristics. How many is anyone’s guess.

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

With the hassle and outright abuse which females are victims of on the internet, it wouldn’t surprise me to hear that a large portion of women remain anonymous or register with male names/characteristics. How many is anyone’s guess.

Clearly this is just anecdotal, but the only offline person whom I know uses Literotica is female, but she doesn't have an account and bookmarks her favourite stories using her web browser's bookmarks function. I think anonymity counts for a lot for women.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Regardless of the precise demographics, I don't think it's a male-centric site.
There is something here for everyone. The AH tends to obsess a bit over the comments posted in LW, but they really aren't representative of the readership as a whole.

 

[SimonDoom]

Regardless of the precise demographics, I don't think it's a male-centric site.
There is something here for everyone. The AH tends to obsess a but over the comments posted in LW, but they really aren't representative of the readership as a whole.

I would agree. If somehow you could get absolutely accurate data about readers and authors, my guess is that you'd find that men outnumber women, but the overall numbers are so big that as you say there "is something for everyone."

The most popular author here, by far, is Silkstockingslover, a woman, and she has written hundreds of stories in different categories, some of which I would describe as catering to male fantasies and some that don't.

Another difficulty is classifying stories as "male" or "female" centric. For instance, I write many mom-son incest stories. I think of these stories as appealing more to men, but I know from comments that I've received that there are women who love them. The Oedipal fantasy goes both ways. So do E/V fantasies, dominant-submission fantasies, nonconsent fantasies, interracial fantasies, gang bang fantasies, you name it. There's a stereotype that women want stories that delve deeper into romance and internal motivation, but there's plenty of evidence of women who want stories that are just as down and dirty as what men want.

 

[alohadave]

Another difficulty is classifying stories as "male" or "female" centric. For instance, I write many mom-son incest stories. I think of these stories as appealing more to men, but I know from comments that I've received that there are women who love them. The Oedipal fantasy goes both ways. So do E/V fantasies, dominant-submission fantasies, nonconsent fantasies, interracial fantasies, gang bang fantasies, you name it. There's a stereotype that women want stories that delve deeper into romance and internal motivation, but there's plenty of evidence of women who want stories that are just as down and dirty as what men want.

I'd be curious if women-in general-prefer the mother's viewpoint or the son's, or if there is a difference.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

According to this 2015 study: "Of those [Literotica] authors, 33% were female, 44% were male, 2% were a couple sharing an account, .5% were transsexual (Literotica's term), and the rest [about 20%] did not report their sex."

That's based on profile data; it's anybody's guess how truthful that data is.

From the same study:
"Women seem to have a preference for BDSM, Erotic Couplings, Erotic Horror, Interracial Love, Lesbian Sex, NonConsent/Reluctance, NonHuman, Romance, and Toys & Masturbation stories. Meanwhile men are more interested in stories featuring Anal, Fetish, First Time, Gay Male, Group Sex, Humor & Satire, Incest & Taboo, Loving Wives, Mature, Mind Control, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, and Transsexuals and Crossdressers. Stories involving Celebrities and Exhibitionist & Voyeur appear to be relatively equally appealing to both sexes.

In general, men write about 2/3rds of the stories,"

The very-short stories that are basically an author having a wank in verbal form tend to be from a male POV, which might explain the discrepancy in numbers of stories vs number of authors by/of each sex.

My impression is that the Politics and General boards and several other forums are very male dominated, while AH is much less so. But that's just an impression.

 

[KeithD]

But clearly these stats are built on sand. There's no control over the true mix of users by gender.

 

[kathyisgr65]

I read a comment indicating such on another thread, and it got me thinking.

I've always assumed that traditional pornography was consumed mainly by men, whilst the fairer sex tended to go for the slightly more subtle (in some cases ) written word. Not even sure why I assume this, just something I read years ago.

I'd already picked up that my 'work' wasn't likely to appeal to the female audience as much as the male, and this appears to be loosely confirmed when browsing comments and the names of those who follow me.

I suspect that there is a core of females on here, both the audience and the creators. But are there any actual metrics anywhere to give us an idea of just what the ratio between men/women (and other) may be?

Hmmm...I'm not sure u really want to know just how much the cards are stacked against y'all.
And porns for everyone....

 

[BareAmy83]

I read a comment indicating such on another thread, and it got me thinking.

I've always assumed that traditional pornography was consumed mainly by men, whilst the fairer sex tended to go for the slightly more subtle (in some cases ) written word. Not even sure why I assume this, just something I read years ago.

I'd already picked up that my 'work' wasn't likely to appeal to the female audience as much as the male, and this appears to be loosely confirmed when browsing comments and the names of those who follow me.

I suspect that there is a core of females on here, both the audience and the creators. But are there any actual metrics anywhere to give us an idea of just what the ratio between men/women (and other) may be?

It would be very interesting to see. I think you're right, for sure... and would guess that at most, this site is 15% female and 85% male. But, like you said, men are more drawn to porn (especially visually), but words are often womens' domains (romance novels.... do men have an equivalent that's so widely printed? And Playboy does NOT count). So, you would THINK more women would be on here, but unfortunately, sites like Literotica have to be discovered, usually. Maybe with the younger generations this will change.

Until then, feel free to read MY stories on here!

xo, amy

 

[Escierto]

It would be very interesting to see. I think you're right, for sure... and would guess that at most, this site is 15% female and 85% male. But, like you said, men are more drawn to porn (especially visually), but words are often womens' domains (romance novels.... do men have an equivalent that's so widely printed? And Playboy does NOT count). So, you would THINK more women would be on here, but unfortunately, sites like Literotica have to be discovered, usually. Maybe with the younger generations this will change.

Until then, feel free to read MY stories on here!

xo, amy

I think you summed it up pretty well.

 

[TheLobster]

Maybe with the younger generations this will change

The blog/study that has been cited here indicates that females are actually predominant in the younger demographic (below 30), so it definitely already happening. Over time, the user base may thus skew more and more female.

 

[nice90sguy]

The OP, whether Lit is "Male Centric", is slightly different that asking about percentages of readers or writers, of course.

I think it isn't, based on the healthy proportion of clearly female-centric stories here. If it wasn't, I'd probably not have hung around reading and writing and hanging out on the forums for so many years.

 

[Britva415]

I read a comment indicating such on another thread, and it got me thinking.

I've always assumed that traditional pornography was consumed mainly by men, whilst the fairer sex tended to go for the slightly more subtle (in some cases ) written word. Not even sure why I assume this, just something I read years ago.

I'd already picked up that my 'work' wasn't likely to appeal to the female audience as much as the male, and this appears to be loosely confirmed when browsing comments and the names of those who follow me.

I suspect that there is a core of females on here, both the audience and the creators. But are there any actual metrics anywhere to give us an idea of just what the ratio between men/women (and other) may be?

I think it's like almost anyplace - no matter what the male/female user ratio is, the males are the loudest, hog all the attention, always have the last word, and establish the atmosphere.

Besides that, there's no possible way to ever reliably measure the ratio because the number of G.I.R.L's ("Guy In Real Life" who has a female online profile) is so significant. There's a perception that it's even greater than the number of real-life women here.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

The blog/study that has been cited here indicates that females are actually predominant in the younger demographic (below 30), so it definitely already happening. Over time, the user base may thus skew more and more female.

I wonder if we're still seeing a difference in the sexes when it comes to older generations being online? Government policy claims that many 'elderly' struggle to use the internet because they've never had to, especially women. I suspect we're now getting past that, seeing as even my mum in her 80s now loves her iPad (having previously been the type to phone up and demand IT support from the penis-wielding spouse, along the lines of 'where have all my little pictures gone? What do you mean, minimised?'), but it's probably still relevant.



Fanfic on large sites seems to skew mostly female-produced and female-read, with huge variation in age and education level depending on which fandom you look at (Peter Wimsey vs Harry Potter fic are very different... and K-pop fic often makes the HP stuff look erudite). I can't recall ever once tripping over a fanfic that's hugely misogynistic, even though a leading fic site permits all sorts of abuse and also underage stuff to be written about. There's probably other sites that would have potential readers of such material.

 

[Escierto]

I wonder if we're still seeing a difference in the sexes when it comes to older generations being online? Government policy claims that many 'elderly' struggle to use the internet because they've never had to, especially women. I suspect we're now getting past that, seeing as even my mum in her 80s now loves her iPad (having previously been the type to phone up and demand IT support from the penis-wielding spouse, along the lines of 'where have all my little pictures gone? What do you mean, minimised?'), but it's probably still relevant.



Fanfic on large sites seems to skew mostly female-produced and female-read, with huge variation in age and education level depending on which fandom you look at (Peter Wimsey vs Harry Potter fic are very different... and K-pop fic often makes the HP stuff look erudite). I can't recall ever once tripping over a fanfic that's hugely misogynistic, even though a leading fic site permits all sorts of abuse and also underage stuff to be written about. There's probably other sites that would have potential readers of such material.

OMG the K-pop fanfic was crazy. In a good way of course!

 

[Infernalcock]

Interesting responses, and lots of them. Thanks for replying. My own thoughts, having considered the above, is that this pretty much confirms what I'd thought.

I guess my own fantasy world features loads of women getting hot and bothered with what I'm writing, but I'm realistic enough to understand this is very unlikely given the nature of what I write, stories which always seem to end up the same way - however much I try to steer things in a different direction.

If men are getting off to my words it's better than going unnoticed, sure. I'll be looking to dabble in different genres though, and see if I can grab any attention from those who menstruate