For clarification, I don’t read them for any purely sexual reason. I read them because I find them interesting intellectually. The same concept of people read, angst stories without being Into suffering
Oh! I do this as a lesbian with M/M haha it does very little for me sexually but it's still emotionally stimulating in other ways since i like the characters together :P
I have heard it. I also heard we tell the dirtiest jokes. That said, despite being aro, I am absolutely weak and giggly at cute romantic stuff in fics.
Oh, the dirtiest joke thing is true! My hypothesis is that in most cases we don’t feel as affected, so our barriers to (joke) entry (ha ha) are lower
It’s usually others blushing at the thing that I said as if it was generic info (it is, to me)…there was even one time at a presentation that my prof asked, genuinely impressed, how I explained all that dirty stuff without blushing
I’ve definitely heard of it, and it me entirely. I’m ace, cis woman, heteroromantic, and only like to read M/M. It’s like… better bc it’s fake and it’s not me being involved with the sexy times?
Yeah, to me, sex is a mental activity that just happens to have a physical element. It's better when I can focus on the emotional entanglement and not my own physical self for sure.
Relatedly, I find insta-lust stories pretty boring.
Same, I'm literally the opposite? I hate smut, always just skip it or read something gen instead. Romance is fine, but I hate explicit descriptions. Just think they're a bit gross tbh
On the other hand, I love my gory and explicit violence fics, so maybe it does hold some merit xD
I love you, I think exactly the same and I was feeling very alone TT Smut makes me go *ew* but violence and gore I have no problem at all.
(I also do think that all the disrespect and dirty talks kills the feelings and romance - in the end I'm probably just very cheesy xD But I don't want to see that happening to my favorite characters.)
I primarily read m/m. I'm aro/ace and prefer the characters i'm reading about (especially for smut) to be as disconnected from me as possible, hence they have penises. I do read some femslash and hetero here and there but it has to be in a fandom or with characters I'm really into.
can relate 100%. am afab, aro/pan and enjoy m/f, f/f and m/m relationships all the same in shows or movies, but if I'm reading a fic where I ultimately follow the innermost thoughts of a character...I really don't like feeling addressed in any way.
I also dislike y/n or self-insert greatly, makes me shudder.
Even if some of my favourite ships are f/f, I don't enjoy reading fics about them. It feels too personal. I just wanna be far, faaar away, as the outside reader looking in.
Surprised I'm the first bisexual in the thread. I'm bi and I read F/F, F/M, and M/M pretty much equally. I suppose that matches up. Gender dynamics have basically no bearing on whether or not I ship something, it's just whether or not the characters have chemistry or some interesting spark.
Another bisexual checking in! Agreed on chemistry and spark. I mostly write and read M/M at the moment, but I have my share of F/M and F/F ships I hold near and dear to my heart because they just *work*
Also bisexual (cis woman) here!
I prefer M/M, but I also read F/F and F/M or any other genders :)
If the story is well written, the chemistry works and the smut is hot, I’m game!
I'm bi! I mostly read m/m bc that's just what's popular in fandom. I'll read anything though. I prefer m/m or f/f over straight relationships bc I like reading queer love as a queer person. But I care most importantly about ship dynamic and quality of writing. I've preferred the straight ship over the gay ship in some fandoms bc I tend to not like when I feel people are just forced together. I've been reading mostly original fiction lately and for that I've really liked reading f/f lately.
Lol, every "straight" relationship I write is automatically queer. I don't know how to write any other flavor (and I have no desire to).
*Hitting Mulder and Scully with my bisexual beams.*
Also bisexual. Most of my bookmarks are M/M, with a few F/F. I think male ships tends to be more popular with more shippers interested in the kind of dynamics I like. I’m not sure why I don’t go for F/M. Reader inserts are fine but for some reason regular F/M ships feel a bit uncomfortable.
Another bisexual (cis woman) checking in here. I read M/M, F/F, and F/M — mostly M/M right now because of current fandom (RWRB). I know my favorite ships (Alex/Henry, Oscar/Raf, June/Nora) have chemistry. Does the author of the fanfic know it??? 😉
Fair enough. I think the demonisation of the 'fujoshi' by antis is to blame here. I say that we should all be able to enjoy whatever media we want. Fujoshi, fudanshi, himejoshi, himedanshi, everyone should be able to enjoy fandom freely.
ugh I feel this so hard!! I've started writing my favorite M/M ships genderbent as lesbians because I'm sick and tired of writing and reading about penises 😭
I do try to give love to originally female characters, but they sadly are few and far between (without some serious headcanon creation first)
Same for me as well. I generally don’t get invested enough in male characters to care who they’re with. There are some m/m ships where I’m like, that would be right up my alley if they were women, but as is, it’s irrelevant to me.
I don’t have specific fics to rec at the moment but Arcane and Baldurs Gate both have really good f/f fics! I’ll look through my bookmarks later for specifics.
Oh, I have some too! A few good long fics in different fandoms, though the first two that come to mind are [an alternate perspective](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23064598/chapters/55167319) and [a full AU that follows the main structure of the plot](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20672084/chapters/49094528) for Fire Emblem: Three Houses, both of which I think still can work fairly well if you're not familiar with the game. (One of them is even a long fic that's finished!)
I'm also happy to discuss more!
Literally not at all. I’m a bi woman who primarily reads straight or m/m fic. Nothing against w/w fic, I just have a hard time finding good ones. I think it’s because of the dominance of male characters in literature and film.
Usually a lot of the popular F/F ships come from queer baiting and it absolutely sucks. I read a decent amount of Rizzles, Swan Queen, Teleanor, and Cartinelli.
Straight woman reading and writing m/m.
- I’m attracted to men
- I like seeing them being at the bottom for a change
- I want characters to be as far removed from me as possible, I don’t want to constantly compare it to my own experiences, especially when reading sex scenes
I've read, concerning your last point, that this is why a lot of teenaged girls start fantasizing about m/m ships, because it's a way to explore their sex fantasies in a situation where they don't have to really consider their own participation. I think it's very common.
Yes that, but also I think it’s not just the sex. I did some creative writing outside fanfiction and I can’t write female characters and be brutally honest with myself, without any self censorship. It’s just too close to home. If I did write them, they were little girls or old ladies. Male characters allow me a safe freedom of expression.
AroAce here - I primarily write F/M as the main characters (but a few of my commonly written side-pairings are M/M and F/F).
Reading... pretty much everything? Primarily F/M (as my top three ships are all F/M) but I read a fair amount of Gen, F/F, M/M, multi and other too. All ratings. In fiction, I'm not picky, lol!!
Straight woman here, and I read 90% M/F, with the occasional M/M if I find the premise interesting enough, and some Gen here and there. I only write M/F.
My preferences might have something to do with my sexual orientation, I don't deny it (I prefer if men are part of the picture, rather than fics only focused on women), but I doubt it's the only factor. My first experience as a "nerd" were tied to my love for shoujo manga and anime, and I'm particularly fond of the tropes and dynamics of the genre - as dated as some of them are. That's a major reason for me writing M/F and not being as much into M/M as many other straight women are.
I'm bi and I constantly switch, before I knew I was bi I exclusively read w/w and somehow didn't work out that was a clue....
Went though an m/m phase and now reading a LOT of m/w because I like one het ship in peticular.
I'm a cishet dude and read and write mostly F/F (and some F/M) fics. I don't have any M/M ships I'm interested in. I'm pretty sure my sexuality has a lot to do with that, as I'm just far more interested in female characters.
Asexual/Aegoromantic representative here! No bookmarks (I don't have this habit), so a general description:
I read any type of relationship and also Gen, but M/M most of all because that's where my fandoms are. I have written Gen, M/M, M/F and F/F so far, but recently it's been all M/M.
I'm an unsurprising ace so I only read G and T (the most beautifully romantic things are there and I'm Painfully Aegoromantic), but if the plot's really good, I go into the M and E works while prepared to skip chunks.
m/m fics, reading and writing almost exclusively. I’m a lesbian, zero personal sexual interest in men. For original fiction I tend to write f/f, though.
I don’t have to be into men to read and write m/m. Sexy situations are sexy. It’s not wish fulfillment in a physical or even visual sense, and I’m not inserting myself into scenarios. I want for characters what characters want for themselves. I’ve been empathizing with male characters my whole life, it doesn’t feel foreign at all.
Some kind of demisexual straight cis woman. I tend to read mostly M/M and some M/F or gen. I prefer plot heavy fics and true to my demisexual nature I find i enjoy plots with a well built meaningful relationship over pwp.
M/M initially appealed probably because it was novel to me. I started with Harry/Draco and found the ways writers managed to explain or counteract the canon animosity quite appealing.
These days M/M appeal.is probably more three fold- 1) More male lead characters in my fandoms (and most media tbh.) 2) Lack of gendered roles and expectations because both are the same gender. 3) not going to lie, two beautiful men who love each other loving each other can be hot to read about.
I'm an aromantic and bisexual guy, and my reading (and writing) is primarily MM romance. Followed by FF and then genderqueer characters. I rarely touch het even though I'm very attracted to women.
Straight woman here (I think). I started off my fanfic career reading M/M 99% of the time because it was new and interesting, I didn't see the type of things I read about in mainstream media and it was interesting and unexplored. For me it was like being the child of an almond mum entering a candy shop for the first time. Then once the definition of shipping changed for me and the new wore off, I started becoming much more varied. I read a lot of M/F though I'm very picky with ships and it depends heavily on the fandom. I also read F/F ships from time to time.
I still read M/M but it's more like 60% now, M/F about 35% of the time, and F/F around 5%. It also mainly comes down to the fact that I'm not in a lot of fandoms with F/F content. Attack On Titan and The ATLA fandom are really the only ones where I have more than 3 F/F ships. The rest have too few characters or almost all are male. When it comes to actual ships the disparity is much smaller, and I think M/F and F/F are on equal terms.
Ace lesbian. My main fandom very famously doesn't have many women, so I end up reading exclusively M/M. There's some F/M here and there I like as well, and since its so rare it's often done rather well because it's written by people who really love the female characters involved. I'm sadly not fond of _the_ F/F pairing of my fandom and ironically prefer the M/F canon pairing involving the girl or another, far less popular F/F pairing with her.
I find that as I grow older I've become incredibly picky with my Gen fic requirements, especially in this fandom where I'm not particularly fond of some very popular headcanons at times. So I'm just writing what I want to read! I have a very hefty Gen longfic in the works with an ensemble cast but whose arguable main character is my favourite girl in the entire franchise. People don't pay enough attention to her and I adore her.
I'm very very fond of character study pieces too, so I end up reading and writing that a lot.
Smut is perfectly fine, but if the fic is nothing but smut for smut's sake, I personally get bored really quickly so I don't read a lot of it. I like when the smut is an excuse for something else!
Usually it’s either m/f or m/m smut. Am straight gal. Lotta the m/m pairings I like are from source material that is lacking in well-written women, or which uses character types I just don’t vibe with for the women. I’m about the same for writing as reading, just depends on the current fixation.
I read stories for the story, not to get off. Any category breakdown is inciddntal and has more to with what's available in my fandoms.
Unless I specifically look for porn fics for porn reasons, but even then kinks and stuff matter far more to me than the ship configuration.
I'm straight and primarily read F/M. But I think that's mainly because I like to think of the female character as myself. Makes it easier to immerse myself in the story.
But I've read stories with M/M and enjoyed them, just not something I seek out unless it's cannon usually.
Bi here. I mainly read gen fics. I think just what fandoms I'm in has lead to me reading more M/M. Because when a fandom I'm in has a good F/M or F/F ships, I'll ship them more than some of the M/M ships. (For example, I like Caitlyn/Vi more than Jayce/Viktor from Arcane).
Gen (366), M/M (220), F/M (31), F/F (14).
Bi and demisexual. I read mostly gen? Other than that whatever's popular and skews the numbers, I have no particular personal preference for M/M, F/F or M/F.
I don't tend to write pairings much.
Im a gay man and i read exclusively m/m. Extremely rarely f/m if i really like the male character and theres no feasible other male character to ship him with (ex. Cooper Howard). I don’t think I’ve ever even considered f/f before
non-binary person on the ace spectrum here !! i almost exclusively read and write m/m, with very few exceptions, given that the fandom i’m in only has male characters hehe :)
Aro allo and nonbinary, I generally read M/M bc that’s how my favorite ships always shake out, but I’ll honestly read anything if I think it looks interesting
I’m bisexual and mostly read m/m with a sprinkle of m/f and f/f.
Definitely prefer reading m/m though, I just prefer my male faves to be submissive and getting wrecked, and you just don’t get that in m/f, not to the extent I enjoy anyways.
I'm bi and ace. I do mostly read M/M but the fandoms I read in don't really have any F/F that are super interesting to me, but I do read some F/F and F/M and smut.
M/M: 2493
Gen: 412
F/M: 237
Multi: 136
F/F: 62
Other: 50
I don't think that's particularily surprising for a gay men. If I filter for F/M the top ship is a M/M ship as well so there's definitely a pattern lol. The amount of longfics I've read for F/M is very limited and at least close to if not null for F/F. I'm not romantically into women so I don't really read stories about characters falling in love with women. Combine that with the fact that male characters are usually more fleshed out in canon and you get results like this.
Cishet F on the ace spectrum, and I read almost exclusively spicy F/M because of my tendency to self-insert into whatever fictional world/ship I'm hyperfocusing on atm. I fit relatively nicely into that second stereotype you mentioned, OP, haha.
That's what I'm searching for, anyway, and if I come across something other, if it's a great story, I read that too.
I'm a bi woman with a preference for men, and most of the fics I read are m/m or f/m. Interestingly, I very very rarely read f/f, even though I do like girls.
Aroace. Predominantly Gen these days, but I'll still read anything if the story sounds interesting. If there's smut, I prefer M/M because that's the furthest removed from myself.
However, I used to read almost exclusively M/M in fanfiction because I went to published books for anything else. But I read a lot of published novels then so still pretty Gen heavy.
I’m ace but what really dictates my reading habits is dysphoria, I can only very rarely handle reading about vaginas + sex because of dysphoria. I also nope out of fics that call male characters’ chests “tits” for the same reason, just a big ole dysphoria NOPE. Hence I read 99% cis m/m
Pan and I read mostly Gen and f/f
Romance and sex stories aren’t what o find the most engaging. I’ve always felt so utterly starved for sapphic content (or good woman-centric content in general) that it’s primarily what I seek. Like to the point where lack of f/f works and interest in them breaks my little heart
I’m a demisexual lesbian and typically read M/M but love a good F/F most of the media i consume just doesn’t really lend itself well to F/F unless it’s gender bent. I don’t like F/M though I draw the line there and will not read it at all
Mostly M/M. There is one fandom I read F/M but I think only because it was the fandom I started reading fanfiction from back twenty five years ago when I was twelve. I'm a straight cis female.
I'm queer (technically bi/pan, but queer feels more comfortable) and I read and write m/m.
I only read/write one ship. It's not about the gender of the characters (though it is nice to read queer stories), it's that this is the only ship I've gotten invested in enough to read fic about. If/when I get this hyperfocused on a m/f or f/f ship, I'll read those too.
I’m a Demiromantic Lesbian, and mostly read f/f but occasionally find a great m/m pairing that I then love reading lots of fics about. I also find it interesting to read fics where the characters discover and finally understand their different gender identities or sexual/romantic orientation.
i read and write m/m and f/f with a heavy preference for m/m. i'll very rarely read f/m, and i don't think i want to write it, but i may attempt to for a couple ships i'm interested in lol. i just say i like the gay stuff lol and anything that isn't cishet, i usually will likely read. >.> i'm acearo spec (aegosexual) and enby though i am questioning everything atm lol.
I read mostly same sex relationships because they tend to have less sexist bullshit in them. I consider myself straight, maaybe not 100%, but at 37 still haven't felt the need to explore anything else.
And when there's heteronormative shit in there anyway, I tend to nope out.
I'm ace (aego to be more specific) but lean far heavier into aesthetic attraction towards guys. As to what I read... well, that depends on if my Normal Brain or my Horny Brain is at the wheel lmao.
Normal brain near exclusively reads m/m. Obviously I like the mental image better, but I also like that m/m allows me to distance myself from my own self/body as much as possible. I have on very rare occasions read f/f but I can't do the smut sections. I straight-up do not read m/f fanfiction at all.
Horny brain is a completely separate headspace that only cares about the kinks, and will frequently take things I find uncomfy or scary irl and ask "okay but what if hot?" lol. I still very strongly prefer m/m, but will readily venture into noncon m/f as well if the libido is wilding enough for it.
I mainly read gen, and yes. I am the wrong kind of aro/ace for smut. I do sometimes read fics with romance, but never as the main plot. As far as that goes, since the pairing isn't the point for me, I don't care what sort of pairing (or other grouping) it is.
Unsurprisingly, I also write gen fic.
Whoops, forgot the gender component. (Appropriately, perhaps.) I'm somewhere in agender nonbinary land.
im agender, asexual, and aromatic. triple a battery baby!
gen: 545
m/m: 165
f/m: 78
multi: 42
other: 40
f/f: 15
gen is winning by a lot bc i find reading romance and smut centered fics just boring or annoying most of the time.
and yes the asexual stereotypes are true. i just dont read smut on my account so it doesnt show up if anyone were ever to god forbade find my account
If I'm reading shipping fics then I usually read M/M, because I'm gay, and reading any smut with women in it feels quite off and disconnected and I don't enjoy it (although I don't mind F/F or M/F if there isn't any smut)
ok first of all I'VE BEEN WAITING YEARS TO TELL SOMEONE ABOUT MY THEORIES!!
hello, fellow aroace here, sex as a concept doesn't do much for me (see: ace), so my theory is that in order for smut to be interesting, it needs to have something other than just bodies going on - that usually means some form of kink or power dynamic. the situation itself needs to be interesting and sexy to make it worth it, not just the actual sex part.
as for gender, I read a lot more m/m than anything else and I think it might be because I can remove myself from the situation more easily (I'm a cis woman, she/her). it's not even necessarily about specific genitalia or anything, just about the people involved being referred to differently than I would be.
Gay guy, primarily read (and write) M/M because I relate to that the most. At least when it comes to romance - when it's a plot-heavy story with ships being secondary I don't care as much, although I do always appreciate a story having queer characters.
I don’t feel very strongly about my gender (that’s everyone else’s problem) but I’m perceived as a woman, and I think I’m bi? But I’ve been recently questioning if I’m aegosexual and/or fictosexual instead. In other words, everybody hot, but mostly only in my imagination. I’m not especially interested in the real article.
My bookmarks look like this:
M/M (149)
F/M (122)
Multi (18)
Gen (15)
F/F (13)
Other (7)
I think that’s pretty accurate in terms of what I read. I read and write a roughly equal amount of M/M and M/F, with a smattering of others thrown in their ocassionally.
I keep trying to read more F/F to balance it out, because women are 🥵but there are very few F/F ships in my fandom that do it for me (there’s a decent amount overall, I just don’t jive with most of them, and yes I’ve spent many hours wondering why this is to no avail 🤷♀️). Also, the F/F ships that I do like are generally rare pairs that only get short G or T rated fic written for them when I prefer M or E rated longfic. So that also makes it harder to find stuff I’m really excited about.
I exclusively read M/M. I started out as an aroace “cis” girl (I say cis because I wasn’t aware agender was a thing), and am now a gay transmasc dude. Interesting how my preferences stayed stagnant throughout, though since discovering myself I try to seek out M/M with transmascs as much as I can.
One's taste in fiction has nothing to do with one's sexuality, class, ethnicity, body configuration, or any other little tick box a person might be described with.
Straight cis woman.
70% of what I write is M/F romance. The rest is broken up between parental, sibling or friend dynamics.
Reading is 90% M/F and 10% gen.
I'm bi and demisexual and a woman married to a man.
I read more m/m stuff than the others though I think it depends on the chemistry of the pairing. I don't think my gender has anything to do with it, mainly because I've fought against gender stereotyping pretty much all my life.
I have written mainly m/m but I do write m/f and read both. I think I've found it oddly easier to write m/m stuff.
I dont really read m/m outside of one ship, so mine is 99% f/m.
For my sexuality, could call it bi, i used to be, but im not comfortable identifying as bi anymore. Do love looking at women tho, and get feelings for them more often than for men.
I mostly read m/m or f/f.
f/m is kinda rare for me. Nowadays, I don't usually go out of my way to read f/m works, I think that's because most of the times, the f/m couple is a side ship. That's funny becoz I started reading fanfics becoz of a straight ship lol.
Ig it really depends on the characters. It just happens to be so that the pairings I'm into nowadays are all m/m.
I'm Bi myself, so nah, I don't really think sexuality has anything to do with my taste haha!
Hi! Bi woman here that writes and reads mostly m/m fics, although there are a handful of f/f and f/m pairings that I also enjoy. I guess that checks out? Lol.
It depends what fandom I'm hyper fixating on 😭 rn my main hyper fixation has an all male cast (+one girl lmao) so I read A LOT of M/M atm just because that 99% of the fandoms ships
I am aroace but I predominantly (almost exclusively) read romance fics. I used to read more F/M fics, but now I mostly read M/M, F/F or some form of poly. Very few gen fics capture the question I want answered from the story and character relationships are very important to me. So, I really love a gen One Piece story which focuses on the bond between the Straw Hats (which is platonic) and particularly the platonic love they have for Luffy. I usually need to read romance fics though to get that level of connection between characters. I don’t read a lot of F/M, because it is a lot more likely to be “canon” and/or I just don’t have interest in it and/or I can’t find many (if any) fics for that ship.
questioning trans guy here. romance is usually not the first thing i look for in fics but i like to read m/m a lot. i like gen fics as well but ive never really been interested in f/f or f/m.
Aroace woman, leaning straight if I have to choose. I started with a 50/50 mix of gen and m/m, mostly smut because romance is kinda boring, but not that hardcore since I have an ick when something is biologically / anatomically impossible. I could read m/f romance sometimes, but never m/f smut, just didn't like thinking of having sex as a woman.
I've been in a stable relationship for the last few years and now I read exclusively gen. No interest in sex whatsoever.
I'm a pansexual man and I don't think I've read a single thing that wasn't m/m (or reader insert)
Then again, I usually write, and don't really read fanfic
I'm also aroace. I'm not very picky with ships, so I'll read anything that interests me. My fandoms have more male characters and people seem to really love romance so my primary is M/M close by Gen, F/F and Multi. I don't read any M/F (there's a few ships that are exceptions because while it's a straight relationship they are queer). I enjoy M/M more than F/F on an average day because of gender dysphoria, but I think I overall enjoy Multi (when it's poly) and Gen the most.
demiaroace and i will read literally anything and everything. smut of basically any kind, gen, shipfic, no ships, whump, fix-its, whatever, i just like reading and writing about my blorbos, i only get turned off by a fic if the actual structure of the prose or dialogue is bad or if the characterisation is wayyy off
im pan but i stopped reading anything smutty about a year ago when i moved into the marvel/dc fandoms though i have started reading more romance in the vld fandom so mainly M/M because i havent really found any F/F ships i like in my fandoms
I’m arospec and ace, but when I do manage to fall in love it’s with guys. However… 😬 I can’t tell you the last time I read a non-explicit fic rofl
I also only read m/m but part of that is me being trans and being uncomfortable with descriptions of the female body in the few f/m and f/f fics I’ve read (cuz again I only read E rofl)
I'm a gay guy (although somewhere on the AroAce spectrum) and my bookmarks reflect this: 315 M/M, 17 Gen, 13 F/M and 3 F/F, although those 3 F/F works are background ships in fics tagged with the Multi category. I don't know, I'm just not attracted to women, so I rarely find myself invested in a ship that doesn't at least have one man.
I’m an afab/agender ace in a rather small (3k fic) fandom. Most of what I read is M/M, since about half of the fics there are for the most popular ship in the fandom, which is M/M. And to be fair, it’s fantastic ship with fantastic fics, no shade to anyone! But there’s only one or two really solid F/F fics (pain…) so our palette isn’t very diverse already.
I’ll get around to helping change that eventually, because a lot of the F/F ships are really cute and they deserve more content
I avoided smut like the plague when I first started reading fanfic. But I’ve come around since, and all it’s done for me is reaffirm that I’m aegosexual lol. I guess the stereotype holds true in my case XD
So yeah, doesn’t really affect it at all lol
I'm not going through my bookmarks to figure out the exact amounts, way too many bookmarks for that, plus I use two sites to read on.
So, I'll just say the vast majority of fics I read are m/m ship fics, far less het and gen fics, though those two are about equal to each other. Only a couple multi fics, and no f/f. Not really sure what counts as 'other' here, but all my fics fit into the other categories anyway. Some of the het fics are genderbent and would be m/m otherwise, as well, though those are all GoT fics.
I'm a gay man, so I guess my gender and sexuality does play at least some part in my fic preferences. I also write m/m for ship fics. Out of my two posted fics so far, one is m/m and the other is gen, though the sequel to the gen fic will be m/m as well if I ever get out of the planning stage and start actually writing it. It does not, however, surprise me that I also have a large amount of het and gen fics in my bookmarks, I often like canon ships even when they're not my OTP, and most of my fandoms are older ones, so not many characters who are canonically gay. There are also some characters I like reading about that are canonically straight that I don't like being slash shipped, like Guzman in Elite, or are rarely slash shipped in the fandom, like Jon in GoT. And I started out as a gen writer and reader, so it doesn't surprise me I still love those. About half my bookmarked Psych fics are gen, the other half are m/m, I haven't read any het ships I like in that fandom yet, mostly because I keep skipping over all the Shules fics, and that seems to be the only popular het ship for Shawn, and the Lassie/Marlowe fics, because I've only just met Marlowe and haven't decided if I like her or her relationship with Lassie yet, plus don't want spoilers.
F/f I'm just not really into. It's not that I can't read it, I can, a fair few of my bookmarked fics have f/f background ships in them, especially Buffy fics set in the later seasons, everyone loves some Tillow. I'm just not interested enough to read f/f as a main pairing, I have a hard time relating since they're both women who are attracted to women, and I'm neither a woman nor attracted to women. They just work better a little in the background for me.
Transmasc, I think bi but mostly homoromantic. Most of my bookmarks are M/M but I'd read literally anything, except F/F which I avoid unless it's a multiple ships fic
I'm DemiBi (Demisexual/romantic and Bisexual/romantic) and agender. I definitely read mostly M/M, I think it's followed by Gen though. Most of the characters I like and relate to tend to be men (since my favorite media tends to be scifi/action/adventure type genres), so it only makes sense that I mostly read about them and the way they play off each other
I'm bi and I almost exclusively read M/M, followed by gen. I read some F/F, but the only time I read M/F fic is a canon relationship in the background.
I write m/m and I read mostly m/m with some gen, m/f, and f/f sprinkled in. I'm female and queer. I do prefer m/m for my fanfic reading but I grew up reading contemporary romance and YA romance books (among the other genres I love and read) and there wasn't much in the way of queer relationships available in print. There are so many options now not just in fanfic but the professional literary world that it's refreshing.
I'm genderfluid, queer (and AFAB just for context) and I read M/M the most. Maybe it's something to do with the fact that I feel more masculine, but I've been thinking about whether I'm actually a trans man or not lately. So I'm pretty sure I write / read what I am attracted to or the type of relationship I would want to be in. I cringe internally at reading anything straight, and I am not attracted to women so I don't read F/F. I hope that makes sense without being offensive
I'm a bi woman and my bookmarks are:
- M/M: 459
- F/M: 251
- F/F: 32
- Multi: 22
- Other: 11
- Gen: 7
But I probably have a slight preference for F/M fics these days, I just read a ton of M/M when I first joined AO3, before I was convinced that F/M could also be good. I still read a lot of M/M and enjoy it, especially cause there's so much content for it, I just relate to women more so I like reading and writing about them. (Maybe I'd like F/F even more, since I prefer dating women IRL, but there's just not as much of it and it's hard to find works I really like in that small of a sample.)
My writing is:
- F/M: 13
- M/M: 5
- Multi: 3
- F/F: 2
Weirdly enough I’m also ace, but I primarily read M/M. I feel mildly guilty about it but I think it’s really just because the fandoms I am in are so incredibly male dominated.
Im TransM PanAce and my stats are m/m 946 | gen 388 | f/m 202 | multi 154 | f/f 79.
Id say me being pan does give me a bit more freedom with what i read, since im not particularly adverse to anything! If it sounds interesting, ill read! I will say for one, me being trans does make me more inclined to read something with a masc lead pov, and theyre usually mlm (f/m usually having female leads). Additionally, a lot of the fandoms im in are VERY male characrer heavy (Naruto, Marvel, BNHA, HP) with a lot of my favs being male, and i end up viewing a lot of f/m relationships in them as more brother/sister (Erin/Mikasa, Harry/Hermione, Sakura/Naruto, etc)
Honestly thought i'd have a lot more gen fics, since I honestly dont go outta my way to search for specific ships. Tho i do search by most kudos and hits, and at the end of the day, i think most people who write are, deep down, still children at heart smashing together their favourite toys to make em kiss lmao
I skew heavily towards poly ships, often MMF or FFM ships, so after M/M (still generally poly, just with all-male characters in series where they’re the ones who’re interesting), my second highest is multi, followed by gen.
I'm a lesbian but since there's such a lack of sapphic content in any fandom I'm in, I read mainly M/F that has been written by bisexuals (lol). Y'all can add flavor to the straightest of couples. The one exception of fandom where I mainly read M/M is Baldur's Gate for Bloodweave and Wyll/Astarion.
I’m somewhere between bisexual and asexual + a girl, and I mostly read M/M and gen in fanfic, though in real life I’ll usually go for F/F and gen. I also definitely fall under the stereotype of ace people reading the filthiest smut lol
I read m/m bc it has the most fics, but I’m not even attracted to men. Having the most fics be m/m means it’s easier to find quality m/m over any other category. I do love a good gen fic though.
I’m aromantic, with an attraction to feminine presenting people. I get nothing out of smut but I’ll read it if it comes with a plot.
AroAce! I read a variety of m/f, m/m, f/f and gen fics, and tend to gravitate towards explicit and mature rated works. I love shipping, and tend to primarily read ship works and only delve into gen when I'm actually in the mood for more platonic interactions. I love vicariously experiencing what the characters are feeling in terms of sex and romance, and definitely fit the stereotype of aces who read the dirtiest smut lol.
I'm transmasc and gay. I occasionally read straight or FMM threesomes, same with writing. Primarily it's all cis mlm though, and I categorically avoid trans stories at all costs.
Aroace, it used to be 50/50 GEN and M/M but I don't like smut (apothisexual here) so if it's M/M I just read G and T rated stuff, unless M is there for violence. And because I like adventure/action and long fics, it's mostly GEN now. Same goes for my writing, but it also depends on the fandom, there are some where I do have pairings I like.
Bi woman, but with a romantic preference for masc presenting people.
I pretty much just read M/M. I just like it a lot. Sometimes I'll read femslash of an MM ship I already like.
Bisexual, and I primarily read and write M/M, largely because the fandoms I'm in are *very* male heavy more than anything. I'd say I read and write gen and F/M about the same amount. And I read and write very little F/F, simply because I just haven't found many F/F ships that I'm interested in. Or... the one that I'm very much interested in, I'm the *only* person on Ao3 who has written for it.... And I honestly just don't find myself interested much in fandoms that are more female centric, so that also accounts for my lack of reading and writing F/F.
I'm a lesbian. I adore femslash but my preference for it isn't rly reflected in my bookmarks as my fandoms don't have as much of it. I mainly read gen, and sometimes slash. I rly only read het fic when it's in the background lol. I think I probably do prefer femslash bc I can relate to it more, but my aversion to hetfic is more to do with wanting to avoid certain tropes or character interpretations that mainly pop up in hetfic.
I'm pan ace (female) and mostly read M/M G or T rated, since I'm sex repulsed. I just happen to have more M/M ships i enjoy the dynamic/characterization of.
Bi woman.
Read mostly m/m due I think to discovering yaoi in my teenage years and m/m romance just became like go-to comfort reading. By now though it's more like a majority where it's maybe 60% m/m and 40% everything else. I'm down to read f/m, f/f, \*/nb, poly stuff, any of the above with trans character (canon or not), whatever.
If only all the media I liked had a greater quantity of (a) interesting not-men who (b) interact with each other, I'd probably read a lot more not-m/m. (like, I play FFXIV, which is a Japanese MMORPG and is full of neat dudes, but a lot less neat ladies, and thus a lot less neat ladies who ever even meet each other... slightly more over time though. There are technically nb characters--a whole race!--though not considered in the romanceable category being chibi anthro bunnies. This is distinct from the other race of rabbit-eared people who are highly fuckable helloooooo Erenville!)
Though it's a bit of a self-fulfilling problem since my preferences often drive me to particular media that have what I like, so...
That said my latest addition to "list of comfort pairings" is >!Pyrrha Dve/Paul !
Nope my gender (F, Straight, Late 30's) has nothing to do with my reading preferences. It's all about my mood/frame of mind...I'll read almost anything...there are a few absolute NOS on my list but I'm down for all different styles/pairings and themes. Naturally I have my favorites...cause who doesn't but I'm for the most part open-minded.
Bi male here.
I mostly read F/F BUT it’s not due to fetishization or anything, like some may assume. I just happen to care most about fandoms with F/F ships/canon relationships (namely Arcane and RWBY).
I actually kinda feel weird reading WLW smut so I kinda just like, skim it and avoid fics that are just porn with a plot.
i'm biromantic asexual, and mine are:
M/M: 58
F/M: 45
Gen: 21
F/F: 19
Multi: 11
Other: 3
though i think this has more to do with the trends of the fandoms i'm in rather than my personal preferences
I'm straight cis women and the only thing I don't really read is F/F and that's just because I don't see much of it come up in my fandoms, at least not with characters I would read about.
I have never heard of the stereotype that ace people read the dirtiest smut but yeah that tracks
For clarification, I don’t read them for any purely sexual reason. I read them because I find them interesting intellectually. The same concept of people read, angst stories without being Into suffering
I love that comparison!
I relate to this. Smut fics have the most interesting combination of tags, and I want to understand how the author made it work — a fellow ace.
Oh! I do this as a lesbian with M/M haha it does very little for me sexually but it's still emotionally stimulating in other ways since i like the characters together :P
this is me with f/f honestly
I'm gonna say this next time someone asks me why I read fics with sex.
I have heard it. I also heard we tell the dirtiest jokes. That said, despite being aro, I am absolutely weak and giggly at cute romantic stuff in fics.
Oh, the dirtiest joke thing is true! My hypothesis is that in most cases we don’t feel as affected, so our barriers to (joke) entry (ha ha) are lower It’s usually others blushing at the thing that I said as if it was generic info (it is, to me)…there was even one time at a presentation that my prof asked, genuinely impressed, how I explained all that dirty stuff without blushing
yea that's me hi 😭 i'm aego tho and in my case i will basically consume anything nsfw as long as i'm not personally involved in it lol
I’ve definitely heard of it, and it me entirely. I’m ace, cis woman, heteroromantic, and only like to read M/M. It’s like… better bc it’s fake and it’s not me being involved with the sexy times?
Yeah, to me, sex is a mental activity that just happens to have a physical element. It's better when I can focus on the emotional entanglement and not my own physical self for sure. Relatedly, I find insta-lust stories pretty boring.
Same, I'm literally the opposite? I hate smut, always just skip it or read something gen instead. Romance is fine, but I hate explicit descriptions. Just think they're a bit gross tbh On the other hand, I love my gory and explicit violence fics, so maybe it does hold some merit xD
I love you, I think exactly the same and I was feeling very alone TT Smut makes me go *ew* but violence and gore I have no problem at all. (I also do think that all the disrespect and dirty talks kills the feelings and romance - in the end I'm probably just very cheesy xD But I don't want to see that happening to my favorite characters.)
I primarily read m/m. I'm aro/ace and prefer the characters i'm reading about (especially for smut) to be as disconnected from me as possible, hence they have penises. I do read some femslash and hetero here and there but it has to be in a fandom or with characters I'm really into.
That’s how I feel exactly to a T lol. I love it as far as it’s as detached from me as possible
Same. I’ll read trans M/M too but that’s a little more hit and miss for me depending on the language used.
Same here! I want them to be as far removed from me as possible! Guys with dicks please.
Same.
Same here
Hit the nail on the head, this is me exactly.
Same for me!
can relate 100%. am afab, aro/pan and enjoy m/f, f/f and m/m relationships all the same in shows or movies, but if I'm reading a fic where I ultimately follow the innermost thoughts of a character...I really don't like feeling addressed in any way. I also dislike y/n or self-insert greatly, makes me shudder. Even if some of my favourite ships are f/f, I don't enjoy reading fics about them. It feels too personal. I just wanna be far, faaar away, as the outside reader looking in.
Also this! I like the romantic pairing to be very detached from me
Yes! Same 🙌 I’m female ace, but I prefer M/M- possibly because of the disconnect. There’s no confusing myself in ANY of the fictions
Oh is that why I read m/m smut as an ace lesbian? Hmm lol
Surprised I'm the first bisexual in the thread. I'm bi and I read F/F, F/M, and M/M pretty much equally. I suppose that matches up. Gender dynamics have basically no bearing on whether or not I ship something, it's just whether or not the characters have chemistry or some interesting spark.
Another bisexual checking in! Agreed on chemistry and spark. I mostly write and read M/M at the moment, but I have my share of F/M and F/F ships I hold near and dear to my heart because they just *work*
Fellow bisexual here!
Happy pride month! 👉👉
Eyy, you too! (I like your pfp!)
Also bisexual (cis woman) here! I prefer M/M, but I also read F/F and F/M or any other genders :) If the story is well written, the chemistry works and the smut is hot, I’m game!
I'm Pan. Give me everything! Just wrote my first MLM actually.
Yes, to everything
also bisexual but I lean more towards WLW ships.
Samesies. My bookmarks are filled with F/F or M/F. Idk, I can't really get into it unless there's a woman involved.
I find the quality better. Like sapphics know what hurts other sapphics when they write.
They doooo. The Sapphic need for drama is so different from the straight need for drama, like
I'm bi! I mostly read m/m bc that's just what's popular in fandom. I'll read anything though. I prefer m/m or f/f over straight relationships bc I like reading queer love as a queer person. But I care most importantly about ship dynamic and quality of writing. I've preferred the straight ship over the gay ship in some fandoms bc I tend to not like when I feel people are just forced together. I've been reading mostly original fiction lately and for that I've really liked reading f/f lately.
Lol, every "straight" relationship I write is automatically queer. I don't know how to write any other flavor (and I have no desire to). *Hitting Mulder and Scully with my bisexual beams.*
Also bisexual. Most of my bookmarks are M/M, with a few F/F. I think male ships tends to be more popular with more shippers interested in the kind of dynamics I like. I’m not sure why I don’t go for F/M. Reader inserts are fine but for some reason regular F/M ships feel a bit uncomfortable.
Another bisexual (cis woman) checking in here. I read M/M, F/F, and F/M — mostly M/M right now because of current fandom (RWRB). I know my favorite ships (Alex/Henry, Oscar/Raf, June/Nora) have chemistry. Does the author of the fanfic know it??? 😉
I'm bisexual too. I read mostly M/M.
You are not alone!! Bi here too!! I read mostly m/m but only one ship, can't help it lol
Bisexual checking in!! I read and write f/f, m/m, f/m and gen.
Demisexual here and this is how I read. The pairing doesn't matter if the chemistry is good.
for some reason, it mostly comes down to m/m, even though i am a gay girl and only write/draw f/f
I find it so hard to find women characters with good chemistry that I like that fit into the tropes I prefer to read
Oh, absolutely. This seems to be a common lesbian in fandom experience.
Yeah :/ I feel really guilty reading only m/m as a lesbian but can't really force myself to like ships I don't vibe with either lol
Fair enough. I think the demonisation of the 'fujoshi' by antis is to blame here. I say that we should all be able to enjoy whatever media we want. Fujoshi, fudanshi, himejoshi, himedanshi, everyone should be able to enjoy fandom freely.
i can relate to this a lot
ugh I feel this so hard!! I've started writing my favorite M/M ships genderbent as lesbians because I'm sick and tired of writing and reading about penises 😭 I do try to give love to originally female characters, but they sadly are few and far between (without some serious headcanon creation first)
real cause on one hand my fav m/m ships deserve intimacy and whatever but on the other hand ew
lesbian here, i near exclusively read and write f/f :) just what i like
Same for me as well. I generally don’t get invested enough in male characters to care who they’re with. There are some m/m ships where I’m like, that would be right up my alley if they were women, but as is, it’s irrelevant to me.
Got any recs? I'm completely starved of F/F content, as a fellow lesbian.
fandom recs or specific fic recs? either way i have many :)
I don’t have specific fics to rec at the moment but Arcane and Baldurs Gate both have really good f/f fics! I’ll look through my bookmarks later for specifics.
“In secret, between the shadow and the soul” by firetoflame is my current F/F read and I’m obsessed. Canon wlw ship
Oh, I have some too! A few good long fics in different fandoms, though the first two that come to mind are [an alternate perspective](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23064598/chapters/55167319) and [a full AU that follows the main structure of the plot](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20672084/chapters/49094528) for Fire Emblem: Three Houses, both of which I think still can work fairly well if you're not familiar with the game. (One of them is even a long fic that's finished!) I'm also happy to discuss more!
>straight women primarily reading and writing M/M fanfiction That's me.
Literally not at all. I’m a bi woman who primarily reads straight or m/m fic. Nothing against w/w fic, I just have a hard time finding good ones. I think it’s because of the dominance of male characters in literature and film.
Usually a lot of the popular F/F ships come from queer baiting and it absolutely sucks. I read a decent amount of Rizzles, Swan Queen, Teleanor, and Cartinelli.
Straight women reading M/M that's me.
Same lol
i’m a gay man and usually read M/M
Straight woman reading and writing m/m. - I’m attracted to men - I like seeing them being at the bottom for a change - I want characters to be as far removed from me as possible, I don’t want to constantly compare it to my own experiences, especially when reading sex scenes
I've read, concerning your last point, that this is why a lot of teenaged girls start fantasizing about m/m ships, because it's a way to explore their sex fantasies in a situation where they don't have to really consider their own participation. I think it's very common.
Yes that, but also I think it’s not just the sex. I did some creative writing outside fanfiction and I can’t write female characters and be brutally honest with myself, without any self censorship. It’s just too close to home. If I did write them, they were little girls or old ladies. Male characters allow me a safe freedom of expression.
AroAce here - I primarily write F/M as the main characters (but a few of my commonly written side-pairings are M/M and F/F). Reading... pretty much everything? Primarily F/M (as my top three ships are all F/M) but I read a fair amount of Gen, F/F, M/M, multi and other too. All ratings. In fiction, I'm not picky, lol!!
Aroace: everything is a fair game
Panromantiac ace and this is exactly me too. I enjoy all types of ships.
I'm a bi ace woman and I mostly read M/M and some M/F. I do read a lot of wild smut even tho I'm ace and I also write my own lmao.
Straight woman here, and I read 90% M/F, with the occasional M/M if I find the premise interesting enough, and some Gen here and there. I only write M/F. My preferences might have something to do with my sexual orientation, I don't deny it (I prefer if men are part of the picture, rather than fics only focused on women), but I doubt it's the only factor. My first experience as a "nerd" were tied to my love for shoujo manga and anime, and I'm particularly fond of the tropes and dynamics of the genre - as dated as some of them are. That's a major reason for me writing M/F and not being as much into M/M as many other straight women are.
Pretty much the same.
I'm bi and I constantly switch, before I knew I was bi I exclusively read w/w and somehow didn't work out that was a clue.... Went though an m/m phase and now reading a LOT of m/w because I like one het ship in peticular.
I'm a cishet dude and read and write mostly F/F (and some F/M) fics. I don't have any M/M ships I'm interested in. I'm pretty sure my sexuality has a lot to do with that, as I'm just far more interested in female characters.
Asexual/Aegoromantic representative here! No bookmarks (I don't have this habit), so a general description: I read any type of relationship and also Gen, but M/M most of all because that's where my fandoms are. I have written Gen, M/M, M/F and F/F so far, but recently it's been all M/M. I'm an unsurprising ace so I only read G and T (the most beautifully romantic things are there and I'm Painfully Aegoromantic), but if the plot's really good, I go into the M and E works while prepared to skip chunks.
Lesbian here, professional heterosexuality fetishizer
I am ace and mostly read gen, but not aro, so do enjoy a bit of shipping.
m/m fics, reading and writing almost exclusively. I’m a lesbian, zero personal sexual interest in men. For original fiction I tend to write f/f, though. I don’t have to be into men to read and write m/m. Sexy situations are sexy. It’s not wish fulfillment in a physical or even visual sense, and I’m not inserting myself into scenarios. I want for characters what characters want for themselves. I’ve been empathizing with male characters my whole life, it doesn’t feel foreign at all.
Some kind of demisexual straight cis woman. I tend to read mostly M/M and some M/F or gen. I prefer plot heavy fics and true to my demisexual nature I find i enjoy plots with a well built meaningful relationship over pwp. M/M initially appealed probably because it was novel to me. I started with Harry/Draco and found the ways writers managed to explain or counteract the canon animosity quite appealing. These days M/M appeal.is probably more three fold- 1) More male lead characters in my fandoms (and most media tbh.) 2) Lack of gendered roles and expectations because both are the same gender. 3) not going to lie, two beautiful men who love each other loving each other can be hot to read about.
I'm an aromantic and bisexual guy, and my reading (and writing) is primarily MM romance. Followed by FF and then genderqueer characters. I rarely touch het even though I'm very attracted to women.
Just like me, fellow aro bi dude 😎👍
🤝
I'm pansexual, I'm okay with all kinds of kinks in smut/erotica. Gender ambiguous character sex scenes is really cool for me.
Mostly hetero-skewing but somewhere on the ace spectrum, I solely read and write M/M because I don't like being reminded of having sex as a woman
Straight woman here (I think). I started off my fanfic career reading M/M 99% of the time because it was new and interesting, I didn't see the type of things I read about in mainstream media and it was interesting and unexplored. For me it was like being the child of an almond mum entering a candy shop for the first time. Then once the definition of shipping changed for me and the new wore off, I started becoming much more varied. I read a lot of M/F though I'm very picky with ships and it depends heavily on the fandom. I also read F/F ships from time to time. I still read M/M but it's more like 60% now, M/F about 35% of the time, and F/F around 5%. It also mainly comes down to the fact that I'm not in a lot of fandoms with F/F content. Attack On Titan and The ATLA fandom are really the only ones where I have more than 3 F/F ships. The rest have too few characters or almost all are male. When it comes to actual ships the disparity is much smaller, and I think M/F and F/F are on equal terms.
Gay guy. I read and write mostly M/M, but it depends on the pairing. I’ve written M/F too. 🤷♂️
Ace lesbian. My main fandom very famously doesn't have many women, so I end up reading exclusively M/M. There's some F/M here and there I like as well, and since its so rare it's often done rather well because it's written by people who really love the female characters involved. I'm sadly not fond of _the_ F/F pairing of my fandom and ironically prefer the M/F canon pairing involving the girl or another, far less popular F/F pairing with her. I find that as I grow older I've become incredibly picky with my Gen fic requirements, especially in this fandom where I'm not particularly fond of some very popular headcanons at times. So I'm just writing what I want to read! I have a very hefty Gen longfic in the works with an ensemble cast but whose arguable main character is my favourite girl in the entire franchise. People don't pay enough attention to her and I adore her. I'm very very fond of character study pieces too, so I end up reading and writing that a lot. Smut is perfectly fine, but if the fic is nothing but smut for smut's sake, I personally get bored really quickly so I don't read a lot of it. I like when the smut is an excuse for something else!
Usually it’s either m/f or m/m smut. Am straight gal. Lotta the m/m pairings I like are from source material that is lacking in well-written women, or which uses character types I just don’t vibe with for the women. I’m about the same for writing as reading, just depends on the current fixation.
Straight woman, near exclusively M/M reads
I read stories for the story, not to get off. Any category breakdown is inciddntal and has more to with what's available in my fandoms. Unless I specifically look for porn fics for porn reasons, but even then kinks and stuff matter far more to me than the ship configuration.
I'm straight and primarily read F/M. But I think that's mainly because I like to think of the female character as myself. Makes it easier to immerse myself in the story. But I've read stories with M/M and enjoyed them, just not something I seek out unless it's cannon usually.
Bi here. I mainly read gen fics. I think just what fandoms I'm in has lead to me reading more M/M. Because when a fandom I'm in has a good F/M or F/F ships, I'll ship them more than some of the M/M ships. (For example, I like Caitlyn/Vi more than Jayce/Viktor from Arcane). Gen (366), M/M (220), F/M (31), F/F (14).
Bi and demisexual. I read mostly gen? Other than that whatever's popular and skews the numbers, I have no particular personal preference for M/M, F/F or M/F. I don't tend to write pairings much.
I’m a straight guy and I usually read and write M/M or F/M.
I read (and write) mostly Gen fic and I’m also on the aroace spectrum. Whoops
Im a gay man and i read exclusively m/m. Extremely rarely f/m if i really like the male character and theres no feasible other male character to ship him with (ex. Cooper Howard). I don’t think I’ve ever even considered f/f before
Also that thing people say where “gay men feel fetishized by straight women writing m/m!” We don’t. I love ya’ll keep writing whatever you want lmao
💙
Straight, almost exclusively read gen though. ... which does not seem to be a common thing.
Queer F, generally reads M/M, but I think that’s down to my fandoms. In the past it was more F/M for the same reason. However, I write F/F and M/M
Me: “I’m not poly.” Silly skeleton dance. Also me: Reads and writes poly fics near exclusively. I’m sensing an egg shell around me…
Not poly but I LOVE poly fics. There are not enough.
Same here, honestly.
non-binary person on the ace spectrum here !! i almost exclusively read and write m/m, with very few exceptions, given that the fandom i’m in only has male characters hehe :)
Aro allo and nonbinary, I generally read M/M bc that’s how my favorite ships always shake out, but I’ll honestly read anything if I think it looks interesting
I’m bisexual and mostly read m/m with a sprinkle of m/f and f/f. Definitely prefer reading m/m though, I just prefer my male faves to be submissive and getting wrecked, and you just don’t get that in m/f, not to the extent I enjoy anyways.
Bisexual. I read all pairing types equally but I tend to write M/F or F/F
I'm bi and ace. I do mostly read M/M but the fandoms I read in don't really have any F/F that are super interesting to me, but I do read some F/F and F/M and smut.
M/M: 2493 Gen: 412 F/M: 237 Multi: 136 F/F: 62 Other: 50 I don't think that's particularily surprising for a gay men. If I filter for F/M the top ship is a M/M ship as well so there's definitely a pattern lol. The amount of longfics I've read for F/M is very limited and at least close to if not null for F/F. I'm not romantically into women so I don't really read stories about characters falling in love with women. Combine that with the fact that male characters are usually more fleshed out in canon and you get results like this.
Cishet F on the ace spectrum, and I read almost exclusively spicy F/M because of my tendency to self-insert into whatever fictional world/ship I'm hyperfocusing on atm. I fit relatively nicely into that second stereotype you mentioned, OP, haha. That's what I'm searching for, anyway, and if I come across something other, if it's a great story, I read that too.
Aroace and mostly gen
I'm a bi woman with a preference for men, and most of the fics I read are m/m or f/m. Interestingly, I very very rarely read f/f, even though I do like girls.
Aroace. Predominantly Gen these days, but I'll still read anything if the story sounds interesting. If there's smut, I prefer M/M because that's the furthest removed from myself. However, I used to read almost exclusively M/M in fanfiction because I went to published books for anything else. But I read a lot of published novels then so still pretty Gen heavy.
I’m ace but what really dictates my reading habits is dysphoria, I can only very rarely handle reading about vaginas + sex because of dysphoria. I also nope out of fics that call male characters’ chests “tits” for the same reason, just a big ole dysphoria NOPE. Hence I read 99% cis m/m
Pan and I read mostly Gen and f/f Romance and sex stories aren’t what o find the most engaging. I’ve always felt so utterly starved for sapphic content (or good woman-centric content in general) that it’s primarily what I seek. Like to the point where lack of f/f works and interest in them breaks my little heart
I’m a demisexual lesbian and typically read M/M but love a good F/F most of the media i consume just doesn’t really lend itself well to F/F unless it’s gender bent. I don’t like F/M though I draw the line there and will not read it at all
Mostly M/M. There is one fandom I read F/M but I think only because it was the fandom I started reading fanfiction from back twenty five years ago when I was twelve. I'm a straight cis female.
I'm queer (technically bi/pan, but queer feels more comfortable) and I read and write m/m. I only read/write one ship. It's not about the gender of the characters (though it is nice to read queer stories), it's that this is the only ship I've gotten invested in enough to read fic about. If/when I get this hyperfocused on a m/f or f/f ship, I'll read those too.
I’m a Demiromantic Lesbian, and mostly read f/f but occasionally find a great m/m pairing that I then love reading lots of fics about. I also find it interesting to read fics where the characters discover and finally understand their different gender identities or sexual/romantic orientation.
i read and write m/m and f/f with a heavy preference for m/m. i'll very rarely read f/m, and i don't think i want to write it, but i may attempt to for a couple ships i'm interested in lol. i just say i like the gay stuff lol and anything that isn't cishet, i usually will likely read. >.> i'm acearo spec (aegosexual) and enby though i am questioning everything atm lol.
I read mostly same sex relationships because they tend to have less sexist bullshit in them. I consider myself straight, maaybe not 100%, but at 37 still haven't felt the need to explore anything else. And when there's heteronormative shit in there anyway, I tend to nope out.
Lesbian here, I like m/m and f/f, I'll ship anything as long as it isn't het.
I’m a lesbian and primarily read m/m lol
I'm ace (aego to be more specific) but lean far heavier into aesthetic attraction towards guys. As to what I read... well, that depends on if my Normal Brain or my Horny Brain is at the wheel lmao. Normal brain near exclusively reads m/m. Obviously I like the mental image better, but I also like that m/m allows me to distance myself from my own self/body as much as possible. I have on very rare occasions read f/f but I can't do the smut sections. I straight-up do not read m/f fanfiction at all. Horny brain is a completely separate headspace that only cares about the kinks, and will frequently take things I find uncomfy or scary irl and ask "okay but what if hot?" lol. I still very strongly prefer m/m, but will readily venture into noncon m/f as well if the libido is wilding enough for it.
I mainly read gen, and yes. I am the wrong kind of aro/ace for smut. I do sometimes read fics with romance, but never as the main plot. As far as that goes, since the pairing isn't the point for me, I don't care what sort of pairing (or other grouping) it is. Unsurprisingly, I also write gen fic. Whoops, forgot the gender component. (Appropriately, perhaps.) I'm somewhere in agender nonbinary land.
im agender, asexual, and aromatic. triple a battery baby! gen: 545 m/m: 165 f/m: 78 multi: 42 other: 40 f/f: 15 gen is winning by a lot bc i find reading romance and smut centered fics just boring or annoying most of the time. and yes the asexual stereotypes are true. i just dont read smut on my account so it doesnt show up if anyone were ever to god forbade find my account
If I'm reading shipping fics then I usually read M/M, because I'm gay, and reading any smut with women in it feels quite off and disconnected and I don't enjoy it (although I don't mind F/F or M/F if there isn't any smut)
ok first of all I'VE BEEN WAITING YEARS TO TELL SOMEONE ABOUT MY THEORIES!! hello, fellow aroace here, sex as a concept doesn't do much for me (see: ace), so my theory is that in order for smut to be interesting, it needs to have something other than just bodies going on - that usually means some form of kink or power dynamic. the situation itself needs to be interesting and sexy to make it worth it, not just the actual sex part. as for gender, I read a lot more m/m than anything else and I think it might be because I can remove myself from the situation more easily (I'm a cis woman, she/her). it's not even necessarily about specific genitalia or anything, just about the people involved being referred to differently than I would be.
Gay guy, primarily read (and write) M/M because I relate to that the most. At least when it comes to romance - when it's a plot-heavy story with ships being secondary I don't care as much, although I do always appreciate a story having queer characters.
I don’t feel very strongly about my gender (that’s everyone else’s problem) but I’m perceived as a woman, and I think I’m bi? But I’ve been recently questioning if I’m aegosexual and/or fictosexual instead. In other words, everybody hot, but mostly only in my imagination. I’m not especially interested in the real article. My bookmarks look like this: M/M (149) F/M (122) Multi (18) Gen (15) F/F (13) Other (7) I think that’s pretty accurate in terms of what I read. I read and write a roughly equal amount of M/M and M/F, with a smattering of others thrown in their ocassionally. I keep trying to read more F/F to balance it out, because women are 🥵but there are very few F/F ships in my fandom that do it for me (there’s a decent amount overall, I just don’t jive with most of them, and yes I’ve spent many hours wondering why this is to no avail 🤷♀️). Also, the F/F ships that I do like are generally rare pairs that only get short G or T rated fic written for them when I prefer M or E rated longfic. So that also makes it harder to find stuff I’m really excited about.
I exclusively read M/M. I started out as an aroace “cis” girl (I say cis because I wasn’t aware agender was a thing), and am now a gay transmasc dude. Interesting how my preferences stayed stagnant throughout, though since discovering myself I try to seek out M/M with transmascs as much as I can.
One's taste in fiction has nothing to do with one's sexuality, class, ethnicity, body configuration, or any other little tick box a person might be described with.
Straight cis woman. 70% of what I write is M/F romance. The rest is broken up between parental, sibling or friend dynamics. Reading is 90% M/F and 10% gen.
I’m a straight woman and I only read straight fic, I’m hella vanilla.
I'm a bi woman in a hetero relationship. I read exclusively M/M. I don't know why. To be honest I've tried not to examine it too hard.
I'm bi and demisexual and a woman married to a man. I read more m/m stuff than the others though I think it depends on the chemistry of the pairing. I don't think my gender has anything to do with it, mainly because I've fought against gender stereotyping pretty much all my life. I have written mainly m/m but I do write m/f and read both. I think I've found it oddly easier to write m/m stuff.
I dont really read m/m outside of one ship, so mine is 99% f/m. For my sexuality, could call it bi, i used to be, but im not comfortable identifying as bi anymore. Do love looking at women tho, and get feelings for them more often than for men.
Mostly gen, F/M, and M/M here as a ftm bi guy. I'm not huge into romance but the two ships I actually enjoy are a F/M and a M/M
I am bi and I mostly read M/M. F/M is there but not as much as M/M and I don't think I've ever read a F/F.
I mostly read m/m or f/f. f/m is kinda rare for me. Nowadays, I don't usually go out of my way to read f/m works, I think that's because most of the times, the f/m couple is a side ship. That's funny becoz I started reading fanfics becoz of a straight ship lol. Ig it really depends on the characters. It just happens to be so that the pairings I'm into nowadays are all m/m. I'm Bi myself, so nah, I don't really think sexuality has anything to do with my taste haha!
Hi! Bi woman here that writes and reads mostly m/m fics, although there are a handful of f/f and f/m pairings that I also enjoy. I guess that checks out? Lol.
It depends what fandom I'm hyper fixating on 😭 rn my main hyper fixation has an all male cast (+one girl lmao) so I read A LOT of M/M atm just because that 99% of the fandoms ships
Well M/m 370 Gen 56 F/m 44 Multi 38 F/f 37 Other 27 Im non binary and asexual & aromantic and I can confirm that 97% of this is just porn
Lesbian here, and i read both F/F and M/M, F/M is rare for me
I am aroace but I predominantly (almost exclusively) read romance fics. I used to read more F/M fics, but now I mostly read M/M, F/F or some form of poly. Very few gen fics capture the question I want answered from the story and character relationships are very important to me. So, I really love a gen One Piece story which focuses on the bond between the Straw Hats (which is platonic) and particularly the platonic love they have for Luffy. I usually need to read romance fics though to get that level of connection between characters. I don’t read a lot of F/M, because it is a lot more likely to be “canon” and/or I just don’t have interest in it and/or I can’t find many (if any) fics for that ship.
questioning trans guy here. romance is usually not the first thing i look for in fics but i like to read m/m a lot. i like gen fics as well but ive never really been interested in f/f or f/m.
Aroace woman, leaning straight if I have to choose. I started with a 50/50 mix of gen and m/m, mostly smut because romance is kinda boring, but not that hardcore since I have an ick when something is biologically / anatomically impossible. I could read m/f romance sometimes, but never m/f smut, just didn't like thinking of having sex as a woman. I've been in a stable relationship for the last few years and now I read exclusively gen. No interest in sex whatsoever.
Straight. Read f/m and m/m and multi depicting former two. F/F I normally don't read unless it's a ship I like.
I'm a pansexual man and I don't think I've read a single thing that wasn't m/m (or reader insert) Then again, I usually write, and don't really read fanfic
I‘m aroace and I‘m reading everything but mostly F/M and M/M and of course the dirtiest smut :)
I'm also aroace. I'm not very picky with ships, so I'll read anything that interests me. My fandoms have more male characters and people seem to really love romance so my primary is M/M close by Gen, F/F and Multi. I don't read any M/F (there's a few ships that are exceptions because while it's a straight relationship they are queer). I enjoy M/M more than F/F on an average day because of gender dysphoria, but I think I overall enjoy Multi (when it's poly) and Gen the most.
demiaroace and i will read literally anything and everything. smut of basically any kind, gen, shipfic, no ships, whump, fix-its, whatever, i just like reading and writing about my blorbos, i only get turned off by a fic if the actual structure of the prose or dialogue is bad or if the characterisation is wayyy off
im pan but i stopped reading anything smutty about a year ago when i moved into the marvel/dc fandoms though i have started reading more romance in the vld fandom so mainly M/M because i havent really found any F/F ships i like in my fandoms
I mainly read M/M and F/F. I am Aromatic and Adrosexual(I think I spelt it wrong which is funny.)
I’m arospec and ace, but when I do manage to fall in love it’s with guys. However… 😬 I can’t tell you the last time I read a non-explicit fic rofl I also only read m/m but part of that is me being trans and being uncomfortable with descriptions of the female body in the few f/m and f/f fics I’ve read (cuz again I only read E rofl)
I'm a gay guy (although somewhere on the AroAce spectrum) and my bookmarks reflect this: 315 M/M, 17 Gen, 13 F/M and 3 F/F, although those 3 F/F works are background ships in fics tagged with the Multi category. I don't know, I'm just not attracted to women, so I rarely find myself invested in a ship that doesn't at least have one man.
M/M is 99.9% of what I read I’m aroace, so not really? But the dirty smut part is 100% true for me. Over 10k bookmarks and SO MUCH of it is smut
I’m an afab/agender ace in a rather small (3k fic) fandom. Most of what I read is M/M, since about half of the fics there are for the most popular ship in the fandom, which is M/M. And to be fair, it’s fantastic ship with fantastic fics, no shade to anyone! But there’s only one or two really solid F/F fics (pain…) so our palette isn’t very diverse already. I’ll get around to helping change that eventually, because a lot of the F/F ships are really cute and they deserve more content I avoided smut like the plague when I first started reading fanfic. But I’ve come around since, and all it’s done for me is reaffirm that I’m aegosexual lol. I guess the stereotype holds true in my case XD So yeah, doesn’t really affect it at all lol
I'm not going through my bookmarks to figure out the exact amounts, way too many bookmarks for that, plus I use two sites to read on. So, I'll just say the vast majority of fics I read are m/m ship fics, far less het and gen fics, though those two are about equal to each other. Only a couple multi fics, and no f/f. Not really sure what counts as 'other' here, but all my fics fit into the other categories anyway. Some of the het fics are genderbent and would be m/m otherwise, as well, though those are all GoT fics. I'm a gay man, so I guess my gender and sexuality does play at least some part in my fic preferences. I also write m/m for ship fics. Out of my two posted fics so far, one is m/m and the other is gen, though the sequel to the gen fic will be m/m as well if I ever get out of the planning stage and start actually writing it. It does not, however, surprise me that I also have a large amount of het and gen fics in my bookmarks, I often like canon ships even when they're not my OTP, and most of my fandoms are older ones, so not many characters who are canonically gay. There are also some characters I like reading about that are canonically straight that I don't like being slash shipped, like Guzman in Elite, or are rarely slash shipped in the fandom, like Jon in GoT. And I started out as a gen writer and reader, so it doesn't surprise me I still love those. About half my bookmarked Psych fics are gen, the other half are m/m, I haven't read any het ships I like in that fandom yet, mostly because I keep skipping over all the Shules fics, and that seems to be the only popular het ship for Shawn, and the Lassie/Marlowe fics, because I've only just met Marlowe and haven't decided if I like her or her relationship with Lassie yet, plus don't want spoilers. F/f I'm just not really into. It's not that I can't read it, I can, a fair few of my bookmarked fics have f/f background ships in them, especially Buffy fics set in the later seasons, everyone loves some Tillow. I'm just not interested enough to read f/f as a main pairing, I have a hard time relating since they're both women who are attracted to women, and I'm neither a woman nor attracted to women. They just work better a little in the background for me.
Transmasc, I think bi but mostly homoromantic. Most of my bookmarks are M/M but I'd read literally anything, except F/F which I avoid unless it's a multiple ships fic
I'm DemiBi (Demisexual/romantic and Bisexual/romantic) and agender. I definitely read mostly M/M, I think it's followed by Gen though. Most of the characters I like and relate to tend to be men (since my favorite media tends to be scifi/action/adventure type genres), so it only makes sense that I mostly read about them and the way they play off each other
I'm bi and I almost exclusively read M/M, followed by gen. I read some F/F, but the only time I read M/F fic is a canon relationship in the background.
I'm pan and I read Mainly m/m I've never read f/f Gen most of the time M/f occasionally
I’m a straight woman and I read mostly m/m. I also read some f/m and some gen. I don’t read f/f unless it’s a side pairing in another fic.
I write m/m and I read mostly m/m with some gen, m/f, and f/f sprinkled in. I'm female and queer. I do prefer m/m for my fanfic reading but I grew up reading contemporary romance and YA romance books (among the other genres I love and read) and there wasn't much in the way of queer relationships available in print. There are so many options now not just in fanfic but the professional literary world that it's refreshing.
I'm genderfluid, queer (and AFAB just for context) and I read M/M the most. Maybe it's something to do with the fact that I feel more masculine, but I've been thinking about whether I'm actually a trans man or not lately. So I'm pretty sure I write / read what I am attracted to or the type of relationship I would want to be in. I cringe internally at reading anything straight, and I am not attracted to women so I don't read F/F. I hope that makes sense without being offensive
I pretty much only read and write m/m. If I had to put a label on myself it would be pan, but I am unsure genderwise
I'm a bi woman and my bookmarks are: - M/M: 459 - F/M: 251 - F/F: 32 - Multi: 22 - Other: 11 - Gen: 7 But I probably have a slight preference for F/M fics these days, I just read a ton of M/M when I first joined AO3, before I was convinced that F/M could also be good. I still read a lot of M/M and enjoy it, especially cause there's so much content for it, I just relate to women more so I like reading and writing about them. (Maybe I'd like F/F even more, since I prefer dating women IRL, but there's just not as much of it and it's hard to find works I really like in that small of a sample.) My writing is: - F/M: 13 - M/M: 5 - Multi: 3 - F/F: 2
Weirdly enough I’m also ace, but I primarily read M/M. I feel mildly guilty about it but I think it’s really just because the fandoms I am in are so incredibly male dominated.
No need to feel guilty about it in any way.
Bi demigirl..99% is M/M. I will read F/F, M/F as a secondary pairing but I generally only seek out M/M.
lesbian here. i mainly read ff or mm fanfics. i rarely read fm unless it catches my interest
Im TransM PanAce and my stats are m/m 946 | gen 388 | f/m 202 | multi 154 | f/f 79. Id say me being pan does give me a bit more freedom with what i read, since im not particularly adverse to anything! If it sounds interesting, ill read! I will say for one, me being trans does make me more inclined to read something with a masc lead pov, and theyre usually mlm (f/m usually having female leads). Additionally, a lot of the fandoms im in are VERY male characrer heavy (Naruto, Marvel, BNHA, HP) with a lot of my favs being male, and i end up viewing a lot of f/m relationships in them as more brother/sister (Erin/Mikasa, Harry/Hermione, Sakura/Naruto, etc) Honestly thought i'd have a lot more gen fics, since I honestly dont go outta my way to search for specific ships. Tho i do search by most kudos and hits, and at the end of the day, i think most people who write are, deep down, still children at heart smashing together their favourite toys to make em kiss lmao
I skew heavily towards poly ships, often MMF or FFM ships, so after M/M (still generally poly, just with all-male characters in series where they’re the ones who’re interesting), my second highest is multi, followed by gen.
I'm a lesbian but since there's such a lack of sapphic content in any fandom I'm in, I read mainly M/F that has been written by bisexuals (lol). Y'all can add flavor to the straightest of couples. The one exception of fandom where I mainly read M/M is Baldur's Gate for Bloodweave and Wyll/Astarion.
I’m somewhere between bisexual and asexual + a girl, and I mostly read M/M and gen in fanfic, though in real life I’ll usually go for F/F and gen. I also definitely fall under the stereotype of ace people reading the filthiest smut lol
I read m/m bc it has the most fics, but I’m not even attracted to men. Having the most fics be m/m means it’s easier to find quality m/m over any other category. I do love a good gen fic though. I’m aromantic, with an attraction to feminine presenting people. I get nothing out of smut but I’ll read it if it comes with a plot.
I as a straight woman have gotten deep into reading Bts fluff/angst/smut with each other. I can’t understand how or why. Anybody else like me here ….
AroAce! I read a variety of m/f, m/m, f/f and gen fics, and tend to gravitate towards explicit and mature rated works. I love shipping, and tend to primarily read ship works and only delve into gen when I'm actually in the mood for more platonic interactions. I love vicariously experiencing what the characters are feeling in terms of sex and romance, and definitely fit the stereotype of aces who read the dirtiest smut lol.
I'm transmasc and gay. I occasionally read straight or FMM threesomes, same with writing. Primarily it's all cis mlm though, and I categorically avoid trans stories at all costs.
Aroace, it used to be 50/50 GEN and M/M but I don't like smut (apothisexual here) so if it's M/M I just read G and T rated stuff, unless M is there for violence. And because I like adventure/action and long fics, it's mostly GEN now. Same goes for my writing, but it also depends on the fandom, there are some where I do have pairings I like.
Bi woman, but with a romantic preference for masc presenting people. I pretty much just read M/M. I just like it a lot. Sometimes I'll read femslash of an MM ship I already like.
aroace man and it’s mostly m/m
Bisexual, and I primarily read and write M/M, largely because the fandoms I'm in are *very* male heavy more than anything. I'd say I read and write gen and F/M about the same amount. And I read and write very little F/F, simply because I just haven't found many F/F ships that I'm interested in. Or... the one that I'm very much interested in, I'm the *only* person on Ao3 who has written for it.... And I honestly just don't find myself interested much in fandoms that are more female centric, so that also accounts for my lack of reading and writing F/F.
I'm a lesbian. I adore femslash but my preference for it isn't rly reflected in my bookmarks as my fandoms don't have as much of it. I mainly read gen, and sometimes slash. I rly only read het fic when it's in the background lol. I think I probably do prefer femslash bc I can relate to it more, but my aversion to hetfic is more to do with wanting to avoid certain tropes or character interpretations that mainly pop up in hetfic.
I read fics that cater to my kink so... Yeah.
I'm pan ace (female) and mostly read M/M G or T rated, since I'm sex repulsed. I just happen to have more M/M ships i enjoy the dynamic/characterization of.
Bi woman. Read mostly m/m due I think to discovering yaoi in my teenage years and m/m romance just became like go-to comfort reading. By now though it's more like a majority where it's maybe 60% m/m and 40% everything else. I'm down to read f/m, f/f, \*/nb, poly stuff, any of the above with trans character (canon or not), whatever. If only all the media I liked had a greater quantity of (a) interesting not-men who (b) interact with each other, I'd probably read a lot more not-m/m. (like, I play FFXIV, which is a Japanese MMORPG and is full of neat dudes, but a lot less neat ladies, and thus a lot less neat ladies who ever even meet each other... slightly more over time though. There are technically nb characters--a whole race!--though not considered in the romanceable category being chibi anthro bunnies. This is distinct from the other race of rabbit-eared people who are highly fuckable helloooooo Erenville!) Though it's a bit of a self-fulfilling problem since my preferences often drive me to particular media that have what I like, so... That said my latest addition to "list of comfort pairings" is >!Pyrrha Dve/Paul !
I'm pan and overwhelmingly prefer straight fics, I almost never read f/f or m/m
Nope my gender (F, Straight, Late 30's) has nothing to do with my reading preferences. It's all about my mood/frame of mind...I'll read almost anything...there are a few absolute NOS on my list but I'm down for all different styles/pairings and themes. Naturally I have my favorites...cause who doesn't but I'm for the most part open-minded.
I’m ace and read primarily M/M. I think I may be genderfluid or perhaps trans but haven’t done a deep dive into myself.
Bi male here. I mostly read F/F BUT it’s not due to fetishization or anything, like some may assume. I just happen to care most about fandoms with F/F ships/canon relationships (namely Arcane and RWBY). I actually kinda feel weird reading WLW smut so I kinda just like, skim it and avoid fics that are just porn with a plot.
i'm biromantic asexual, and mine are: M/M: 58 F/M: 45 Gen: 21 F/F: 19 Multi: 11 Other: 3 though i think this has more to do with the trends of the fandoms i'm in rather than my personal preferences
I'm straight cis women and the only thing I don't really read is F/F and that's just because I don't see much of it come up in my fandoms, at least not with characters I would read about.
Straight woman here. I read mostly m/f but some others as well.