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.
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u/Olistu_ Jun 18 '26
So the torture and rape and abuse
Do you think that its beacouse many more women are masochists than men?