Male:female readers?

[Zenith77]

Do we have any idea what the ratio of male:female readers is on Lit?

If not, any cicumstantial evidence to suggest your works get read more by one than the other?

Differs by category, no doubt.

 

[onehitwanda]

Of the three categories I've posted stories in:

I&T: Many of the commenters on my works read (or identify) as male.
Romance: A smidge more "male" than "female"
Lesbian Sex: Probably the most commenters identifying as female.

Of course, this is entirely unscientific and largely based on intuition.

 

[lovecraft68]

The only category I could judge with any certainty would be loving wives, that seems to be a mostly male readership. Other than that its hard to say, but look at it that regardless of which you tried harder to appeal to, you could be pushing away just as many.

Best to not worry about it, write the story and whoever likes it likes it

 

[PennameWombat]

This has come up any number of times, and various folks post various numbers. The truth is, no one knows, nor can anyone know, so any numbers are pulled from posteriors.

If readers (commenters, followers) aren't anonymous and you look at their profiles, the vast majority simply leave that section BLANK.

I've had a couple of commenters describe themselves, e.g., one commenter said she identified with a FMC I had who liked wearing butt plugs in public since the commenter stated she liked to do it as well. But, even with that, all I can do is take the comment at face value. And that's one comment across all of my stories.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Gut feel, based on comments from gendered accounts - for my readers, maybe 60/40 - 70/30 male/female. In terms of Lit as a whole, I would think predominantly male, but in what proportion, who knows?

On the other hand, I've had quite a few folk think I'm a woman, so there's a balancing factor .

 

[KeithD]

Do we have any idea what the ratio of male:female readers is on Lit?

No, we don't. The End.

 

[SimonDoom]

There was a study done some time ago about Literotica readers and categories by gender self-identification. I forget where it was published and I don't have the link. Of course, self-identification may not be real identification, and there's really no way to know to what degree people are accurately identifying their gender at Literotica. But it was interesting because it indicated substantial differences in gender preference for one category or another.

 

[ElectricBlue]

There was a study done some time ago about Literotica readers and categories by gender self-identification. I forget where it was published and I don't have the link. Of course, self-identification may not be real identification, and there's really no way to know to what degree people are accurately identifying their gender at Literotica. But it was interesting because it indicated substantial differences in gender preference for one category or another.

Yes, I remember that one - a vaguely academic study based on some data-mining through the Lit accounts, then sorted by category. About 4 - 5 years ago (very vague!), I reckon.

Bramble will find it.

 

[KeithD]

But it was interesting because it indicated substantial differences in gender preference for one category or another.

Based on what verifiable data? Please cite.

Folks are just determined to pull something out of nothing here--and for no particular meaningful purpose.

 

[SimonDoom]

Based on what verifiable data? Please cite.

Folks are just determined to pull something out of nothing here--and for no particular meaningful purpose.

I already said: self-identification. And I made clear in my post that we don't know to what degree self-identification is accurate identification.

But statistically speaking, if there's a significant difference between the gender self-identification of fans for Category A v. Category B, we can say with some confidence that while we don't know the absolute numbers there's likely a significant difference relatively between the two categories.

 

[KeithD]

We do know self-identification on this porn cite isn't accurate. I certainly know it. I'm not female, but I've got female-identifying accounts here. I have no idea why you and others cling to this unknowable nonsense.

 

[SimonDoom]

We do know self-identification on this porn cite isn't accurate. I certainly know it. I'm not female, but I've got female-identifying accounts here. I have no idea why you and others cling to this unknowable nonsense.

As usual, you filter other people's comments through your pre-programmed biases and you don't listen to what they actually say. My comments already have factored in what you are saying, but you can't see that.

 

[KeithD]

The honest answer to the OP's question, without any misleading mealy-mouthing, is no we don't. The End.

 

[Bramblethorn]

There was a study done some time ago about Literotica readers and categories by gender self-identification. I forget where it was published and I don't have the link. Of course, self-identification may not be real identification, and there's really no way to know to what degree people are accurately identifying their gender at Literotica. But it was interesting because it indicated substantial differences in gender preference for one category or another.

This is about authors rather than readers, but it might be the one you're thinking of:

http://markallenthornton.com/blog/sexual-demographics/

(Google found me one of your old forum posts where you referenced it)

 

[SimonDoom]

This is about authors rather than readers, but it might be the one you're thinking of:

http://markallenthornton.com/blog/sexual-demographics/

(Google found me one of your old forum posts where you referenced it)

That's the one. I'd forgotten all the details about it. So it doesn't really tell us anything about readership, although we might be able to infer that if one gender is more interested in writing a certain category of story they might (tentative) be more interested in reading it, too. Obviously we have no idea to what extent people mask their true gender identity, but it doesn't make sense to me that they would mask it significantly more for one category than for another, so the data seems useful in a comparative sense.

 

[KeithD]

You don't think I'd mask my identity in writing to the lesbian or nonerotic categories more than to gay male? I have separate accounts in all--and some in straight erotica categories. Give it up. There's no verifiable stat to have on this.

 

[HeyAll]

The above link seems pretty accurate. Here's the general breakdown from SimilarWeb

https://www.similarweb.com/website/literotica.com/#geography




I tend to think that Sci-Fi and Fantasy have the most female readers.

 

[KeithD]

The above link seems pretty accurate. Here's the general breakdown from SimilarWeb

https://www.similarweb.com/website/literotica.com/#geography


View attachment 2217533

I tend to think that Sci-Fi and Fantasy have the most female readers.

Please cite the evidence that actual gender could actually be verified in this. This really just perpetuates a myth of statistics capability. This is nonsense.

 

[MillieDynamite]

On readers at Lit, we can't even trust the breakdown from self-proclaimed male and female members, much less the sex of nonmembers. At best, it's a guesstimation, worst case it's someone's gut feeling.

 

[Bramblethorn]

That's the one. I'd forgotten all the details about it. So it doesn't really tell us anything about readership, although we might be able to infer that if one gender is more interested in writing a certain category of story they might (tentative) be more interested in reading it, too. Obviously we have no idea to what extent people mask their true gender identity, but it doesn't make sense to me that they would mask it significantly more for one category than for another, so the data seems useful in a comparative sense.

In general I'd agree. I wouldn't be surprised by some differences in masking behaviour for GM and Lesbian, where there may be some incentive for authors to match the gender implied by the category. But outside those two, masking will change the numbers but shouldn't prevent making comparisons at the level of "Category X has a higher % of female authors than Category Y".

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I tend to think that Sci-Fi and Fantasy have the most female readers.

Really? I would have guessed Lesbian Sex and Romance have the best female numbers... The most popular sexual themes in SciFi and Fantasy by far are themes that are classic male fantasies...

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Also the number of visits and estimated website value sure bring certain topics back to the forefront... It's better not to go there though, for some reason, many AH people find the topic inflaming.

 

[jehoram]

I can't think of a reason why readers would mis-identify themselves by gender. Writers may have a reason for it, if they're using multiple pen names like Ogg Bashan in which each pen name is cultivating a different readership. Or, if they're really female, they say they're male to avoid readers from hitting on them. (I obviously have no experience with that, but other female authors have commented on it in other threads.)

As for me, I can remember only a handful of commenters on my stories that have identified themselves as female... maybe four or five percent, if that. So I'm guessing that the readerships (or at least the ones that comment on stories) are overwhelmingly male.

 

[KeithD]

I can't think of a reason why readers would mis-identify themselves by gender.

It isn't just misidentifying. There's a lot of not identfying at all here. Lots of profiles refuse to identify gender and use nongender account names. This is a porn site (Oh, yes it is). There's one big, glaring, plausible reason why anyone using this would disguise who/what they really are as much as they can. Let's be real about that.

 

[AlexBailey]

Also the number of visits and estimated website value sure bring certain topics back to the forefront... It's better not to go there though, for some reason, many AH people find the topic inflaming.

Right?

It baffles me why someone would write “The End” over and over in a seeming effort to get other writers to stop talking about a subject that is obviously of interest to many people.

I don’t see a single post here claiming to have objective and verifiable numbers, just qualified speculation. Having one voice claiming they have all the answers is worthless and insulting to the others who are giving their best answers.

Really, should we just ban any new threads and shame anyone who responds to questions that have been asked and answered before?