Main characters, commenters and gender

[GuiltyCowboy]

Have you noticed any correlation between the gender of the people who comment on your stories and the gender of your main characters?

I tend to write 1st person, purely heterosexual stuff and, when my MC is a man, I notice that I tend to get more comments from women - and more comments from men when the MC is a woman.

Not surprising when you think about it.

I wonder if the 1st person POV quality has something to do with that, and whether any correlation might be less pronounced for 3rd person stories. What do you think?

I’m sure different categories would see different dynamics too - non-heterosexual stuff most obviously. I write stories with the same, consistent kink and men comment more on the female POV and women more on the male POV.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Screen names tend to be a coin flip as far as guessing gender. Bigbootylvr69 could be a man or woman. I've rarely bothered to check the bios on commenters.

 

[PennyThompson]

Bigbootylover69 is actually a 57-year-old non-binary pirate.

 

[onehitwanda]

non-binary pirate.

Damn those pesky Ternary Buccaneers!

 

[StillStunned]

I don't think I've noticed much correlation. Looking back, I probably get more male-presenting usernames commenting than female-presenting. Maybe the balance shifts a bit with E&V, and with contest or challenge stories.

But there are several female-presenting usernames who loyally comment on almost all my sword & sorcery stories.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I wonder if the 1st person POV quality has something to do with that, and whether any correlation might be less pronounced for 3rd person stories. What do you think?

I don't see much correlation between point of view and gender commentary - where you can pick the gender of the commenter, or unless they explicitly say. I think it's more to do with the basic theme of the story and the category you put it in.

 

[Writer61]

Have you noticed any correlation between the gender of the people who comment on your stories and the gender of your main characters?

Never even thought about it.

Even if usernames were a reliable indication of gender, what would you do with the information? And how the fuck do you deal with Anonymous, who I believe to be a fifth gender alien from the planet Zog?

 

[GuiltyCowboy]

Maybe the balance shifts a bit with E&V, and with contest or challenge stories.

I think it's more to do with the basic theme of the story and the category you put it in.

What seemed vaguely noteworthy to me is that the dynamic in mainstream lit - where readers gravitate to 1st person POV characters of their own gender - gets flipped for erotica. Lots of asterisks on that obviously. But the sexual nature of erotica would be the obvious reason for this.

I wrote two very similar stories, one from the POV of a man in his early twenties, and one from the POV of a nineteen year old woman. Lots of comments from women for the man’s story and lots from men for the woman’s.

(Gender was easily identifiable from either what they revealed in their comment or in their bio).

The stories had a strong E/V quality, which is surely a big factor, but I suspect it also has a lot to do with the interiority of the characters and readers (straight ones, especially) wanting to know what the opposite gender is thinking and feeling - which is, of course, a big part of sex and trying to connect through sex.

 

[PennyThompson]

Just write futanari stories, and you can cater to both sets of commenters

 

[GuiltyCowboy]

Just write futanari stories, and you can cater to both sets of commenters

Right!

To be fair though, I’m not trying to attract or cater to any particular sort of reader. This dynamic is just something that I noticed in comments on my own stories the other day.

I take it as a reminder that writing and reading erotica is a form of sex in itself. Not just the business of being aroused but also the desire to share oneself and know the other.

 

[UnexpectedLuggage]

I've never really given thought to the gender of commenters. I suppose I assume male predominantly based on the amount of "the female lead should have gotten pregnant!" comments I get.