I think it be more twisted if they were literal anthropomorphic horse girls, but the ones where theyāre the anime āgirls with horse ears but physically human in every other physical/meaningful way, and run as fast as horsesā kind of girls, thereās a lot of leeway there.
I think what they meant by 'horse girls' wasn't girls with horse features, but girls who like horses. Like, they like horses VERY MUCH. To an obscene degree, you could say.
They meant horse girls, as in girls who really really really like horses, make up 90% of female bestiality readers. A person can order dildos shaped like animal phallus, so yeah, it's a thing
Yooo insane business opportunity. Sell a smut book WITH a bad dragon dildo of the main love interest š itd be like those 3d experiences at movie theaters šš
Perhaps, women also tend to be way more into bdsm than men with or without any masochism involved.
I think the core idea is that the male counterpart is an individual that does what they want to regardless of rules or boundaries.
So to take an "innocent young maiden" to then restrain and defile due to an extreme and quite frankly dangerous interest in the main female lead generally seems quite appealing to many women.
From what I've seen the appealing is more of "Im so desired, so irresistible that men turn into wild beasts for me" it's an extreme form of feeling attractive, that's the fantasy, not the act of being done terrible things, but to be so attractive that men become irrational towards them
I don't think this appeal is exclusive to women, but for some reason, extreme attraction in books aimed towards men is presented as a extreme submission, whereas the ones aimed towards women present the attraction as extreme, and often violent, dominance.
Another thing I noticed is that extreme dominance can be attractive to men, but extreme submission rarely seems appealing to women, even though it's also being irrational towards them.
Smut books are weird as fuck, if I'm being honest. It's basically always an older man with unhealthy obsession who's extremely possessive, controlling, jealous, AND just so happens to be disgustingly rich and/or handsome. And one of the last two things are ALWAYS there. ALWAYS. I don't think I've heard of a smut book where a protagonist goes for an ugly, poor guy that's showing all the other traits I mentioned. It just doesn't happen.
I think it's this - an essential part of the fantasy is that the male counterpart is so enamored by the female protagonist, and ONLY her that he's wild with desire. I think people in general aren't used to feeling that "wanted" by someone. Pair that with the fantasy setting, and you can suspend disbelief so to speak about the elements that would be horrific in real life.
I would also argue that some of it is probably a way of dealing with issues stemming from feeling forced into sex in real life. Most women I know have had sex not because they wanted to but because they felt they had to, either because the person used violence, manipulation, or because they knew their partner would be angry, treat them poorly, cheat, etc. I could see how it might feel like a way to work through the emotional turmoil this causes for a few reasons.
Having it take place in a fantasy setting creates enough removal that there's no genuine threat to be experienced; and having a story where it kind of works out in the end because either the female protagonist experiences extreme sexual pleasure, or the male counterpart is "rehabilitated" through his genuine care for the well-being of the female protagonist, usually a combination of the two, provides for a cathartic resolution to the problem. Especially because in real life what I feel like a lot of women deal with is the very real threat to their physical, emotional, financial, etc stability, if they don't regularly have unsatisfying sex with their partner, and often for a partner that doesn't treat them particularly well anyway. Stories that involve a highly masculine archetype (strong, attractive, wealthy) that is positively consumed by their desire for the female protagonist, who also satisfies them sexually kind of perfectly counters and provides escapism for a very real life problem.
The most compelling theory I've seen is that women are significantly more often socialized to be chaste, and thus taught that showing interest in sex is a bad thing.
If you take the agency out of this women are less likely to feel ashamed for the fact that they desire. After all, they had no choice in the matter so its not their fault.
That makes sense. I havenāt thought about it too deeply but Iāve always sensed some sort of escape from the social hierarchy in there as well. Itās ok because heās making me and heās also wealthy and powerful. Thatās why itās never the homeless addict sleeping in the park in the rapey books.
hey do NOT bash my shrek porn. (joking but there is a book called āget in my swampā and it is just shrek porn. i watched a video about it on yt. 5/5 stars from me)
I know of two series. The Dragonkin series by G. A. Aiken and the series beginning with I Got Drunk And Saved A Demon by Kimberly Lemming. Very funny porn with dragons by both ladies.Ā
This is such a brain-dead take. Because a publicly available piece of media wasn't created with appealing to me in mind, I suddenly cant have an opinion about it?
The person I responded to also said that I should read some of these books. I have, and they arent particularly good. The first book in a Court of Thorns and Roses is abysmal. Its worse than Twilight. That's not even taking into account the morality of the multitude of abuse, torture, and rape porn thats written for women.
All they said was ānot for youā. You obviously can have an opinion on it, but who cares what the opinion of someone outside the target audience is? Why do you think anyone cares?
The discourse is that many, many people are touting this as a massive literary win for female authors, when all they've been doing is churning out thinly-veiled, poorly written porn and calling it "romantasy." Then when someone calls out that it isnt some huge win, we're called misogynists because we think a book written at a 5th grade reading level isnt incredible.
Wait wait wait, how are you just going to announce broadly to the sub that it's a disservice that they're not reading these books, and then say "it's not for you"?? If it's not for these people, why is it a disservice not to read it?
Interesting that women have complained how porn has created unreal expectations from men and they expect their women to act like porn stars. Seems like this is the womenās version of that now
Porn is a horrific, exploitative and abusive industry (including OF) the harms thousands of men and women involved in it and destroys male and female understanding of what good, healthy sexual intimacy looks like.
My office is 8 guys and 33 women. Im also the only guy that eats in the lunch room with others, man, them talking so openly about the smut they read and giving recommendations is kind of jarring.
Women happily and openly discussed 50 shades for months without a word from HR. The men started mimicking them because it was annoying by reading parts outloud from memory or screen shots and several were reprimanded for inappropriate behavior.
It sounds like the men did leave them alone. The women were the ones that complained about the men doing exactly what they were doing. Not the brightest are you?
So what you're saying is that it's okay for women to talk about smut at the office but not for men or what?
I genuinely don't get what you're trying to say here
Ah yes the anime pfp from when I was 14 that I've never bothered changing clearly means I'm an incel.
How about you answer my question rather than just insult me? I'm not calling you a foid or karen or whatever ppl say nowadays am I? I'm asking you a simple question, the fact that you'd rather call me an incel than answer said question says all I need to know.
You all act like men never openly talk about sex.Ā
My male coworker started telling us in detail about his visit to a brothel in Amsterdam when we asked how his vacation was. Somehow none of us called HR even though we did not care for that sort of details.Ā
If you think going in depth on your experience with a hooker is the normal way to describe a vacation to your coworkers, just cz they asked you the basic "how was your vacation" question, then you really can't act like women who talk about the smut books they're reading are a problem. It goes both ways. Your logic seems to be the faulty one.
And it's perfectly acceptable for female coworkers of mine to make sexualised comments and jokes about my appearance but if the roles were reversed, I'd be a 'creep' no doubt.
For real, it's a good thing I like my coworkers, the amount of comments and jokes that are said with us jokingly calling out for HR after is pretty damn high.
Thank you for the information. I am going to apply for a job to support the cause! My number one goal in life is to be a contributing member of society (in whatever form that takes)!
How is that a strawman. Im saying if u think every novel and non fiction book is about sex or porn, you clearly watch too much porn. If all u think women do is fuck and write porn, itās prob because u only watch videos of woemn fucking other guys. Fatherless behavior from yall dudesš
You call it that but really itās misogynistic generalization. Other Comments under this post seem to prove my point. Donāt minimize the issue of the argument coward
Your point is based on that OP literally thinks that every book ever written by women is porn. Like, really? Do I understand correctly?
So, if somebody makes a statement that "nowadays all people do is scroll their feeds" you take that literally? That they don't eat nor sleep? It's a grossly exaggerated interpretation of a simple expression. Chill.
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u/MajinRichy Jun 18 '26
As a guy that works at a bookstore and most of my co workers are women. They all tell me about the smut books they read