Sorry if I expressed myself incorrectly. My excuse is that English is not my native language. I meant to say that I see a lot more, and more detailed, description of sex from female writers. Is "more graphic" the better expression?
But if men are in general more into "visuals" and woman more into the written variant that would be explanation enough.

I don't like to generalize. Preferences differ for every individual. I do not talk sex with my friends nor do my friends talk about it with me. But we are of an older generation. I do not know if this is more common between younger people. I guess if you want to "generalize" you need to add age and maybe some other aspects in the survey.

[Feronia]

English isn´t my native language either

Generalization can only be a generalization, and I count on people knowing that.

I don´t think that woman is more in to written, but more that the movies avalible is made for mens pleasure and not womans. Of the females I´ve talked about it with, most of them agree. It doesn´t matter wyhat kind of sex they have been into. The "issue" is the same all over. Most of us wants more feeling and less technical details. That fact is well enough known that there is some (very few) female porn directors that make pornmovies for female audience. Here is some more insight http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/mar/22/porn-women

I´m in my late 20´s and my friends span from about my age to +20-30 years. The differenses in talking about sex is something I´ve seen more or less my hole adult life. I´ve talked to males about it, and they all say that womans sextalk is alot more graphic then the males (in general). But there is always exeptions that confirm the rule (as we say in Sweden).

Maybe some of the differens lies in culture of the country?

I agree that most porn is made for men, but this has nothing to do with discrimination this is just business. If women are as willing to buy porn (in whatever form) as men, then there would be an equal amount of porn movies made aimed for a female audience.

In the article on Anna Arrowsmith I do not read very clearly what makes her movies different from movies made by male directors. I also find here view on "male" movies prejudiced. There are indeed movies that match her negative view on mainstream movies for males but there are also movies, made by male directors, that match her view of female friendly porn. Apparently there is a (mostly male) audience for both type of movies. Looking at what is offered over the internet there is an audience for any type of sex act you can imagine (or even cannot imagine) including the kind that Anna describes. There is also an investigation I read (cannot find the article anymore) that stated that more males are watching female friendly porn then women.

I think the generalization that men are more in to visuals and women more into reading (=fantasy?) is not a bad one.

I am 50 years old and living in the Netherlands. My friends are within the range of ~40 to 60 years old. We don’t talk sex. I even find it a bit awkward to talk about it in this forum despite the anonymity. Probably more an age thingy. I grew up in a different world (no internet).

I'm new to the forum and ran across this in the first 10 minutes of "poking around". I'm a male and I'm also a reader of erotica but I find myself gravitating away from the BDSM titles like 50 Shades, etc. It's just not my thing. However, I do read erotica and I look for things that are outside my own "norm". Erotica is supposed to be fantasy and while I'm not big into the vampire, werewolf thing, I do like some horror erotica (especially possession, witchcraft, etc.). I also enjoy gender swap stories. I like my heroines and heroes flawed, which does limit the titles I actually like (no billionaires or supermodel types). So, maybe I'm an exception but still I am proof of a guy who does read erotica.

I am glad to hear we men are not all the same

[readaboutit]

I would say that erotica is clearly written for women to read. However, the question is whether it's for women. My husband (and most partners I would guess) would completely disagree since he reaps much benefit from it

On a more serious note, I have read quite a few good erotica books that have made me come to a complete halt while reading because there's just no way a man would say/do what the author describes. Generally it's the author ascribing a female thought process to a man. Note to all women reading this-Men do NOT think like women, accept this. If you want a man who thinks like a woman, go find a woman. If I, being female, am aware of this, I can't imagine men being able to enjoy reading a lot of these books.

My boyfriend has me send him the good ebooks all the time to read but he doesn't really read them he skips to the 'good' parts if you know what I mean. So yeah I'd say some do but they might not read them the way we do. It's too bad really since I try to send him action type books I think he would enjoy, but I guess if he's willing to read erotica he has other things on his mind them action/adventure.

Well I think the smarter men who are trying to figure out what types of "sexy things" women have rolling around in the back of their minds might try a book or two. Especially if they know which erotic authors their love interest find appealing or do a little research to find out which erotic authors are the most popular.

[dante11]

i studied psychology in college-and i learned that the brains of the males and females react to different stimuli. the brain of the males react more to pictures and things with visual stimuli-which is , in my opinion, why there is so much stereotype about men and porn-that only men like it-but they did so many studies that showed that so many of a mans emotions were attached to and were triggered by visuals-pictures, movies, versus the brains of women-who, were, of course(because it would be too easy if our brains were the same!!!) reacted to emotions by words, reading, physical descriptions.
PLEASE...don't shoot the messenger-i am not saying that women don't like porn, or that men don't react to reading articles...i would never presume to lump everyone into only 1 or 2 categories...these studies were done to show a brains reaction on a basic more reactive level, doing CT scans, EEG's, and on a whole-these were what they discovered with a majority of the genders(not all).
i wonder if there are any statistics about how much of erotica or even romance novels with "racy stuff" is written by women, and how much is written by women, and which of it is considered 'easier reading' -which isn't really the term i want-i wonder which of the gender write erotica that is more appealing-
i don't think that authors that rip off 30 romance novels a year write very original scenes-IMO-they seem to just change a few names, the locations where the sex is being had, and put a new title on it-no wonder we get bored with it!!!!

Playing catch up:

There used to be a market for porn aimed at men, and adult bookstores were full of it. Historically, there was a substantial amount of Victorian porn, with titles like "A Man with a Maid". See also works by the Marquis de Sade (whose name gave us the classification of "sadism"), like "Justine", "Juliette", and "Philosophy in the Bedroom." IIRC, they were composed while de Sade was in an insane asylum. And along that line, we have Leopold von Sacher-Masoch and "Venus in Furs", which got us the classification of "masochism".

For literary stuff, you had Maurice Girodias and Olympia Press in the 40s and 50s. David Moynihan, the proprietor of Blackmask.com (later rebranded as Munsys.com) was reissuing Olympia Press titles as eBooks. He seems to have disappeared, and I have no idea what happened to him.

Other publishers included Midwood Books and Masquerade Press, and California porn houses Brandon House and Essex House. A number of SF/F writers turned their hand to porn. The late Andy Offut write SF/F, but most of his output was porn. Dean Koontz wrote an assortment in his early days. His wife Gerda would do a first draft over the week, he'd do a submission draft over the weekend, they'd send it off, and get $650 a book. In the late 60's, that went a long way to keeping food on the table while Dean worked on serious books. Most were under pseudonyms, but a few he signed his real name to. My copy of Bounce Girl went walk about a long time ago. It was autographed, and I can only imagine what it might fetch on eBay.) Marion Zimmer Bradley commented she'd have no objection to writing porn if she could figure out a way to make it pay well enough. John Norman's Gor series started out as science fantasy, but soon turned into SF BDSM, with a female slavery motif. (viewtopic.php?f=1340&t=1613863&hilit=gor)

Anais Nin did some porn volumes, like Little Birds and Delta of Venus. They were collections of stories written for a wealthy patron The patron wanted only action. The results read like outlines for the stories Nin wanted to write, with things like meaningful characters and plausible motivation. I wish I could have read those stories. (Little Birds' links are dead. Delta of Venus is available on Mobilism among other Nin works. See viewtopic.php?f=1340&t=220159&hilit=Anais+Nin)

Nin was Henry Miller's lover at one point, and appears as Mara (later Mona) in his Rosy Crucifixion trilogy, Sexus, Nexus, and Plexus. (viewtopic.php?f=121&t=1342806&hilit=henry+miller)

What changed was the spread of video, especially when it became available online. Porn rebranded as erotica, and the audience was female. My basic comment is "Men watch porn. Women read it."

I'd actually rather read it and exercise my imagination. Most porn video leaves me cold. And while there are a couple of dead links to some of Alexander Trocchi's work here - "Cain's Book" and "Helen and Desire", I wish someone would post his White Thighs,

Considering how most of the erotica genre is written I got curious if males read them to.

Personally I find most most men are more visual and less emotional witch is why most erotica is targeted towards women who are more emotional and more acceptable to erotica then men are.

Considering how most of the erotica genre is written I got curious if males read them to.

Personally I find most most men are more visual and less emotional witch is why most erotica is targeted towards women who are more emotional and more acceptable to erotica then men are.

I am like most women and prefer to read porn rather than watch it because erotica tends to have more story to it then porn videos do or maybe it's just the ones I end up finding... but over all erotica is intended for women.

I think men just prefer visuals (porn) more than words, honestly. Not even just with this, but in general. I've read men are just very visual creatures.

I think it depends. Though apparently it may seem that male sees porn, so neither they won`t need it nor read it. But then, there are many females who loves to read porn and see them too. So, if a male is an avid reader and erotica fan, he will definitely read the genre.

Came here thinking this might've been about Madonna's Erotica...

I think eroticism is healthy for everyone. A very Freeing way to let go of one's deepest desires through music, poetsey, expression. Don't understand how is it for women when they are the least sexually proclaimous but why is it then said not men because of visuals, maybe few as most are as dumb as rocks but could be endorsed instead of proclaim and pushing men to be such. I've known plenty of interesting men with dark erotic tastes but have noticed this is not promoted by society instead of just blatanted straight up porn, athleticism, steroids, and cheerleaders, a shortcut to thinking.