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In the time that I've been posting (mostly erotic) fiction on various sites (AFF, Hentai Foundry, and Inkbunny), my experience with male and female readers has been, to me, extremely counterintuitive: --I've written several stories that, at the time I wrote them, I considered "woman-friendly." That is, the female characters have strong roles and are equal partners in sexual activity. Female readers never review these. --Of the first dozen stories I posted on AFF, the only one that any openly female reader (ie, a reader whose username or profile makes her gender obvious) has reviewed was one in which the female protagonist is repeatedly gang-raped. Her comment was "Very good fic." --Only male readers express dislike for my non-con stories. A male reader who reviewed one such story yesterday told me that it was well written but made him want to vomit. --In contrast, the only stories I've written on which women seem interested enough to comment (always positively) are stories that involve rape, incest, or both. Now, I generally don't talk to my female friends about their tastes in erotica, so my only RL source of info about what women want to read is my wife. So when I think "woman-friendly," I'm thinking "something that won't make my wife smash the computer screen and run away screaming." But then, I can't imagine my wife visiting AFF, so maybe she's not a good representative of what women who like erotic fiction enjoy. Anyway, I've blathered long enough. I'd love to hear what other AFF users--male and female--have to say on this subject.

Being female myself (though I'll admit that my username doesn't necessarily convey that), I will say that I agree with the points BW, DG and PW noted. I can and do read rape; that tag is not going to turn me away from a good story. This doesn't mean that I like it, but I'm not utterly revolted by stories that didn't happen to real people. For actual people, I tend to muster more empathy; my own mother has been raped and traumatized by it, so I learned a number of methods to help with what I could. Personally, what I find most off-setting is fluff. Yes, that's right: fluff. I have never once in my life had a moment that could qualify as fluff, and I have an aversion to reading it. I don't mind angst as long as it's not overdone, supernatural creatures are usually successful lure on me, and a good action/adventure/fantasy gets me every time. SciFi is great, steampunk is awesome if done right, and romance is okay. Comedy is perfect if the author can use it right; I don't care if the story is dark or light or tense with action/drama. But sheer drama? If I want drama, I will go see my family before I read it or watch it on television. And dark stories tend to get looked at two out of three times. I'm not into F/F; just not my thing. I like males too much. Sometimes I read het, but I don't generally go out of my way to look for it. Slash is much more to my tastes. I agree, too--tags are as much ads as they are warning labels. And part of the issue with readers/reviewers is probably that most of the people who come here appear to be looking either in specific fandoms or for PWPs. Frankly, I'm not much into original PWP stories; I want time to get to know the character. In fandoms, I don't have to, so PWP is fine there. Still not my favorite, but acceptable.

While I might argue the "socially conditioned" portion of the above, I do agree. And it is very true that we insist on trigger tags specifically so that people CAN avoid rape fics and other things they find objectionable. (Like scat, thankyouverymuch.)

I put it to you that if a female does dislike rape content in your stories, she has been socially conditioned not to state it in a review and to instead just abandon reading it without confrontation. This may be why it has not occurred yet - although I'm sure if you exposed it to a large enough number of females it would be inevitable that would would comment against it, but don't forget that all stories on this site are very clearly tagged and if a woman doesn't want to read rape, she won't.

I like a good plot. Pairing honestly doesn't make as much of a difference as a good plotline. Non-con stuff is definitely not my cup of tea.

Not surprisingly, Bronxwench and I share a lot of the same tastes. Oddly, it seems, for a woman, I like a strong female lead. She doesn't necessarily have to be the dominant partner but I certainly avoid the wishy washy women. I do not do rape stories. If it is essential to the plot of the story, well, I can tolerate it but I find nothing even remotely erotic in rape. There are those who do though. I like strong male characters as well. But the most important part of what I like is the actual story, whether it's multi-chaptered or a PWP - it should be well-written, planned out and at least plausible.

The first thing I look for (unsurprisingly) is the summary. I don't read a huge number of fandoms, and those I do read tend to lend themselves to serious amounts of plot mixed in with the erotica. I like plot as opposed to PWP. I both read and write slash and het. I'm not overly fond of femmeslash, but I will read it if it's well done, and not just an excuse to parade girls in strap-ons or futanari. And at the first sign of one female calling another her "ass-bitch" or "anal slut," i'm gone. Sorry, but I don't care for women who emulate the worse of male behavior. I don't like rape when it's presented as enjoyable, or an excuse for a character to decide to fall for their rapist. Really? I'd be much more likely to want to see the son of a bitch dead in a dozen really creative and hideously painful ways. I can accept rape as a plot device, I prefer it to be presented as the bad thing it is, and I certainly don't squeal with happiness when I encounter gang rape. Same thing with incest, for the most part, although I will happily make an exception for Elladan and Elrohir because that is just too delicious a bit of twincest to ignore. So what DO I like? I like characters that have flaws, characters that are complex and interesting, and plot. Lots of plot. I like women who aren't always beautiful, who don't have every man lapping at their feet, and who can take care of themselves for the most part. I like men who can look a woman in the eye, or who can have a relationship with another man without turning into a queen who cries during sex. (There is NO crying during sex.) That's a bit, anyway, of what I like.