No problem, buddy.ChiDrag221 wrote: ↑3 years ago Thanks so much for the reply! I can imagine this topic could go down a whole rabbit hole about the issue of representativeness in these stories, occupation, race, etc.
I hadn't been following that thread recently, but thank you for calling my attention to it. Yeah, my guess had been that the distribution of portrayals is kind of just a reflection of the distribution of readership interests. I've also been following some of Bound & Gagged too!
I like the flip on the typical portrayals, especially with the age difference iirc. I don't know if "skater" counts as a still common choice of dom, in the broader realm outside tugstories, but I definitely appreciate how the jocks in the more recent chapters seem to be taking a more 'bland' role.
The discussion has been pretty fruitful! I really like the philosophical replies regarding differences between BDSM culture rules and fraternity portrayals.
Thanks again for the links!
On the subject of representation, I think the authors tend to write about what they know or what they're exposed to in every day life.
As a mod, I have access to every user's general location on the world map (through IP address info) and it's come to my attention that the casts being featured in stories written by American/Canadian authors tend to be much more racially diverse than my own.
In contrast, I live in a part of the world that is almost completely white, French-speaking and of catholic descent.
Living in a medium sized city with an 97% Caucasian population, most of the characters I write about tend to be a reflection of the people I see/work with/know.
Same thing for the character "occupation" classification. I try to break the mould (ex: Using a scrawny skaterboy as a makeshift Dom, bullies being gagged with a twink's socks, jockish sons being gagged with their father's socks, twink vs twink battles, etc) but my go-to Dom characters are the body-building construction worker/labourer-types, simply 'cause that's something I know and identify heavily with.
In other words, I write what I know.
In some respects (at least when it comes to racial and occupational diversity) other authors do the same.
There are a lot of stereotypes being portrayed here. But as a whole, I do believe the stories on this forum break the mould pretty often.
Lots of different styles and characters.
Really glad to hear you've been following some of Bound and Gagged!
You should seriously consider reading from the start though.
The story doesn't make much sense if you're just reading recent bits without starting from the beginning.
I think you'd find the storyline arch and characters far more enjoyable if you started chapter one and worked your way up from there.
You should definitely chime in some time!