Data for new category discussion

[gunhilltrain]

I once suggested Memoir as a category, which, I now understand, is not a good idea because it runs into the problem of people telling true stories about real people.

I think their should definitely be a Bisexual category, I think Science Fiction and Fantasy should each be their own categories. I think there should be Sex Work and Historical Fiction categories.

I do have a memoir in Reviews and Essays that tells stories about real people. A few of them are identified by their real first names, others are not. But it's about events that happened more than forty years ago, so apparently it wasn't a problem getting it approved.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I've never been too chuffed that Trans and CDs are thrown into the same category, but I guess they make searches easier to manage so I'll live with it. If we have too many categories then I could see SciFi-Bi-S&M being a legitimate heading.

I agree with your earlier comment that most Trans stuff is fetishised and readers get squicked by the mention of a vagina.

I'm not sure what is meant by "festishized" in this context. Does that mean that transgenderism is seen only through through a fantasy and not the reality of it? Why would readers be squicked - what are they expecting in a male to female transformation?

 

[KeithD]

I do have a memoir in Reviews and Essays that tells stories about real people. A few of them are identified by their real first names, others are not. But it's about events that happened more than forty years ago, so apparently it wasn't a problem getting it approved.

The next story I'll submit here is what my publisher identified as a segment of a "factional memoir," pretty solidly based but highly fictionalized to emphasize the "good stuff." Bangkok in the late 1970s. Not real names, but some real people doing what they did used as characters.

I've already had at least one story pass submission muster here from the same period that used real people, by name. And one character in this next story has already featured in other stories here and is closely based on a real person.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I'm not sure what is meant by "festishized" in this context. Does that mean that transgenderism is seen only through through a fantasy and not the reality of it?

Pretty much, yeah. Kind of like the IR thing where readers tend to want hypermasculine black guys fucking pristine white girls, and they want the race angle to be constantly emphasised, a lot of trans porn (here and elsewhere) is made for people who fetishise trans women like somebody else might fetishise a leather boot or a rubber glove.

It presents a challenge for stories where a character's trans-ness comes up occasionally but isn't a big feature of the story. People who come to the TG/CD category looking for fetish fodder are going to be disappointed, and readers in other categories sometimes get cranky about encountering trans characters outside TG/CD.

Why would readers be squicked - what are they expecting in a male to female transformation?

A lot of them are there for dickgirls: somebody who's very feminine but still has a big hard dick.

Plenty of trans women do still have a penis, because bottom surgery is expensive and it's a big step. But a trans woman who's taking feminising hormone therapy is likely to have trouble getting an erection or ejaculating; by my understanding trans fetish porn often involves Viagra/etc. to make the actresses perform.

 

[Agiel]

The alphabet mafia is certainly growing (at least in letters) LG became LGBT, morphed into LGBTQ, then LGBTQIA, LGBTQIA + people, and even LGBTTQQIAAP. HUM, where shall it all end?

LGBBQ?…..Cabbibalism?

EDIT. I mean cannibalism, of course, but got caught out by predictive text and didn’t notice until reading the comment a few minutes later. Shyloukd have used an editor.

 

[stickygirl]

I'm not sure what is meant by "festishized" in this context. Does that mean that transgenderism is seen only through through a fantasy and not the reality of it? Why would readers be squicked - what are they expecting in a male to female transformation?

^^ what Brambles said, but to add that being transgender isn't about sexuality in the same way as being lesbian, gay, bi or even being a CD, so a lesbian trans woman is more than some can stomach, especially if they were looking for huge dicks, semen and weepy submissiveness, which the bulk of the story content.

 

[Emirus]

I've never been too chuffed that Trans and CDs are thrown into the same category, but I guess they make searches easier to manage so I'll live with it.

I’ve never been able to understand why TG and CD are in the same category.

As I understand it, and I’m sure StickyGirl will put me right if I get it wrong, a transgender person is someone born with a man’s body, who feels they should have been born a woman, who wants to permanently become a woman in appearance and lifestyle and undertakes medical and surgical treatments to do so, sometimes entailing the removal of a penis and construction of a vagina and sometimes not.

A cross dresser is someone entirely different. They wish to give the appearance of being a woman, sometimes temporarily and sometimes all the time, but don’t wish to undertake a permanent change involving medical and surgical procedures.

NOW to put in a plug for my stories. The first story I submitted here, or anywhere, (Cherry:https://www.literotica.com/s/cherry-22) was about an escort who rapes an unsuspecting client.

I made her a TG hooker (not based on William Shatner - can you imagine that?) rather than a biological woman because I think it must be worse being raped (not that any rape would ever be considered good) by a real penis than an imitation one. Having said which I never considered making the character a cross dresser because, as I’ve already explained, to me TG and CD are very different types of people.

I read Cherry, now and again, to remind myself of how much I’ve improved from that first story and I’m always surprised as to how good its rating is. It’s only got two comments but they are among my favourites. The first is “not my usual cuppa, but it’s better than most of the stuff here” and the second comment “what a wild first ride for the fat little man.”

 

[gunhilltrain]

LGBT is good enough for me.

I think what you've noticed is that sexual orientation (much like COVID-19!) has become extremely politicized in this society. Even talking about it or expressing an opinion, as on this thread, can be controversial. I think I'll leave it at that for the moment.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I’ve never been able to understand why TG and CD are in the same category.

As I understand it, and I’m sure StickyGirl will put me right if I get it wrong, a transgender person is someone born with a man’s body, who feels they should have been born a woman, who wants to permanently become a woman in appearance and lifestyle and undertakes medical and surgical treatments to do so, sometimes entailing the removal of a penis and construction of a vagina and sometimes not.

Roughly, with some caveats.

What you're talking about there is specifically a trans woman. Trans men also exist, and so do non-binary people who may be considered trans.

"Undertakes medical and surgical treatments to do so" is common but not universal. Some trans people can't access medical treatments (legally, financially, etc.), or have pre-existing conditions that make it dangerous to do so. (Also, the surgical options for trans men aren't great.) For some trans people, those medical treatments just aren't a high priority, and social transition is enough. For others, they're literally a life-saver.

A cross dresser is someone entirely different. They wish to give the appearance of being a woman, sometimes temporarily and sometimes all the time, but don’t wish to undertake a permanent change involving medical and surgical procedures.

Yep, but with the complication that some people aren't sure which of those they are. For some people, cross-dressing is an end in itself. For others, it's a step along the road to recognising oneself as trans, or a half-measure for somebody who doesn't feel safe coming out as transgender.

So the two aren't entirely unrelated, but the connection is rather more distant than the fetish material tends to present it.

 

[SimonDoom]

I’ve never been able to understand why TG and CD are in the same category.

”

Reader preferences. That's the probable answer. It's the answer for almost questions about why categories are the way they are. I don't have a crystal ball into the way Laurel thinks, but my guess is that this, plus inertia and convenience, are the two main reasons that explain why Literotica categories, including this one, remain the way they are.

Logic and real-life distinctions, whether scientific, moral, or political, have little to do with it.

People familiar with real-life transgender and cross-dressing issues would be understandably uncomfortable with lumping them together in one category. But it may well make sense in terms of readership preferences. My guess is that a substantial number of the readers of these stories have relatively little real-life experience with either transgender or cross-dressing, but they see them as appealing to the same basic sort of fetish.

 

[KeithD]

I’ve never been able to understand why TG and CD are in the same category.

Similarly, I don't read in the LGBT forum here. Everything that's not straight is just thrown in here as sort of a perfunctory nod to what is a very wide and divergent realm. Most of it is something I'm not at all interested in. It is what it is, though.

 

[stickygirl]

Reader preferences. That's the probable answer. It's the answer for almost questions about why categories are the way they are. I don't have a crystal ball into the way Laurel thinks, but my guess is that this, plus inertia and convenience, are the two main reasons that explain why Literotica categories, including this one, remain the way they are.

Logic and real-life distinctions, whether scientific, moral, or political, have little to do with it.

People familiar with real-life transgender and cross-dressing issues would be understandably uncomfortable with lumping them together in one category. But it may well make sense in terms of readership preferences. My guess is that a substantial number of the readers of these stories have relatively little real-life experience with either transgender or cross-dressing, but they see them as appealing to the same basic sort of fetish.

Yup, I concur. I suspect many Trans & CD story readers like the idea of dick but not on a hairy body... I'll leave it at that or else risk becoming a bore

 

[MillieDynamite]

Yup, I concur. I suspect many Trans & CD story readers like the idea of dick but not on a hairy body... I'll leave it at that or else risk becoming a bore

That thing she said!

 

[Emirus]

“Yup, I concur. I suspect many Trans & CD story readers like the idea of dick but not on a hairy body... I'll leave it at that or else risk becoming a bore.”

That really made me smile.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I'd like the bi and bi-curious category because it gives a more specific area for some of my writing.