Sunday, December 23, 2012

Could a femdom book have the popularity of 50 Shades?

I haven't read 50 Shades, but I was thrilled to hear people discussing it openly. I work in retail and overheard women passing by the shelves crowded with copies and discussing the book. They kind of talked as if they were a little shy about it, yet they were comfortable enough to be overheard by me. A poker dealer couldn't stop talking about how badly she wanted to go home and start reading it again and that was with a table of customers listening.

Now, and here's a giant leap, but for the sake of discussion, if you imagine a bell curve of maledom readers, you have enthusiasts on one end and those with no interest on the other. In the middle, you have a majority who might or might not want to ever experiment with any real life submissive activity, but who enjoy or get turned on reading about female submission and experiencing it in that fantasy world.

I would guess a similar bell curve would exist for readers of femdom fiction. The difference is they don't live in a world, yet, where they're comfortable discussing it. And I say it that way because they aren't so much in the closet with a burning desire to let the world know they occasionally enjoy a femdom story. It's just something they do and keep mostly to themselves.

I have close male friends who know I write femdom. I rarely mention it, they never mention it, and our friendships haven't changed. My guess is most of them fall somewhere in that bell curve. They've probably checked me out, found the stories titillating, but didn't want to share that with me.

Femdom is still a little more taboo, but that could change quickly. Even five years ago, men were uncomfortable with making less money than their wives or girlfriends. Now that's largely gone away. I often hear men talking about their wives making more or having better benefits. That's partly because I have a crappy low paying job, but the point is that reticence has gone away.

I think it could happen in the next five years. What do you think?