A Survey of the BDSM Category

Less common tags are listed below:

6 tags each: 'cock and ball torture', 'ball gags', 'strap-on',

5 tags each: 'cfnm' ('cmfn' had only 2), 'bound' 'butt-plug', 'cum eating/licking/swapping etc', 'rough sex', 'flogging', 'crossdressing/sissification', 'confinement/box bondage/cage'

4 tags each: 'daddy', 'objectification', 'caning', 'teacher', 'nipples', 'student/school girl'

3 tags each: 'enema', 'dildo', 'exhibitionism', 'fucking', 'noir' (all from the same series), 'consent', 'male-hooker/whore', 'face-sitting', 'creampie', 'handjob', 'pet play' 'rope (bondage)', 'squirting', 'loving', 'vampire', 'mature/milf', 'cuckold', 'collar',, 'psychology of submission' (again all from the same series),

It is perhaps interesting that, despite being part of the official name of the category, none of the seven hundred plus tags referred to either sadism or masochism and it may be that many authors in this category do not use these concepts. It's also noticeable that, while a number of more extreme activities are represented in the tags, a possibly surprising number of relatively vanilla activities including oral and anal sex feature more heavily -- although the presence of pegging and strap-on as popular tags suggest that it might not always be the ladies receiving the latter.

4. Conclusion

The data produced a number of interesting results. Not only did it confirm my suspicion that female-dominant stories were significantly rarer than any other gender/role combination, but it also suggested that stories featuring a dominant main character are less common than those featuring submissives. From a personal perspective it did confirm that my stories featuring submissive were scoring higher than average for those types, but my dominant story was rated below the average. That is to say, readers like female-dominants perfectly well, they just didn't particularly like mine -- unfortunate but worth thinking about!

Overall, however, the readers of the category tend to prefer female submissive and especially to like lesbian dominance relationships. A large number of different kinks were represented, but vanilla activities were surprisingly common. The BDSM category seems most closely aligned with Fetish and Non-Consent/Reluctance as well as Erotic Coupling, however many authors tend to stick firmly to writing only or mainly BDSM stories.

Scores tended to mostly increase over the seven-day period, however, whether a story was rated Hot or not was mostly decided by the end of the first day. Getting a Hot rating early however only slightly increased the number of viewers.

I hope to study other categories in a similar manner. At the moment, it is hard to put some of the results into context without knowing what is usual or average in other categories. I plan to use this first study as a comparison when conducting further studies in the future.