Gender of spanking story characters, how important?

I can handle all gender combinations except M/M (or M/m); it just turns me off. My solution is simple; I skip those stories. Others like them and more power to them.

My thought is that if a gender is not clear, it can be listed as X or x. Sometimes, the character's gender makes little or no difference. It is whatever the reader imagines.

I wrote a story which never identified the gender of the narrator. I haven't really checked how they rated the character, but one of those green ones which can include both genders would probably work. For personal preferences I prefer F/F or F/M.

I very much agree with Februs.

I mostly read (and write) M/F and F/F, but I can also enjoy F/M and I've read (and enjoyed) a lot of M/M stories on another site in the past. For me, the ages of the characters and the type of dynamic between them is way more important than genders. I prefer the characters to be adults and I'm not really into spanking between blood relatives. So though I enjoy F/F, if it's about an (adult) daughter being spanked by her mother I tend to lose interest. If it's a mother being spanked by her daughter I don't know how fast to close the story and reach for the eye-bleach. But there are plenty of readers who do like that stuff. It's funny how tastes differ!
So, yes, if the story is well written and within the line of my age/dynamic preferences, I would read about any gender combination.


I would have no problems with characters being non-binary or gender fluid, as long as the story fits to my preferences. I've read a few stories where the gender of one of the characters wasn't clear. Doesn't bother me.

As for gender icons other than F or M, Februs doesn't want to go that way and I can understand why. It would be a lot of extra work for something that probably won't be used much.
I've seen a grey square used when the gender of a character is unclear. For example in the story by the author Layotorgi. If you hover your mouse over it, you see '?' for the spankee. Would that work as a solution for non-binary characters?

I also agree with Februs (that I don't want to get into a debate about such issues) because it is dangerous territory, and must say that having written stories which are M/f, F/f and one which was F/m it has never occurred to me to write something about, or involving, gender fluid characters. Not that I wouldn't, it is just that such a story has never presented itself to me and I wouldn't adapt an otherwise traditional story just so as to include such a character, though, come to think about it, there might be dramatic possibilities....

Someone in this thread observed a divide between those who like M/m and those who only like anything but. I think that is probably true and wonder why that is?

Personally, my preference is for M/f or F/f with a slight bias to M/f. It is the sex/gender (not trying to make a point, not entirely clear about the difference, if any, just being inclusive) of the spankee that is important to me. I do, however, know a very keen female spankee who is left entirely cold by anything (including stories and vids) which is not M/f. There is no accounting for taste, particularly in matters sexual and disciplinary.

Geoffrey Stirling.

I'm not sure. I can really be in the mood for M/M. At first I thought this library didn't have any M/M at all. It does, but the stories are in the minority and harder to find when you're not a subscriber.
There might be many more who like M/F and F/M as well as M/M but they might prefer to read (and share) M/M stories on sites that are more catered to it.

I've written one M/M so far and I'm not sure if I'll ever submit it here. I sort of want to, but I'm also worried readers who are very turned off by it might avoid my stories in future for fear of stumbling upon M/M. It's probably a very silly worry to have, but that's the thing with worries. They're usually quite silly.

Gender doesn't mean anything to me in terms of story quality. It only plays a factor if I'm after titillation, in which case, I naturally gravitate to the dynamics that hit my hot spots. Pat Califia's "Macho Sluts" features several stories with an undercurrent of non-binary sexual identity .......which are fantastic. And since they were written before the ongoing 'Pronoun War of 2020', none of the characters use "they". The 'Pronoun War' has been a tragic event where the chief casualties have been feelings........and clarity. Personally, I would love to read a non-binary discipline story where anyone using "they" was spanked for it.

In conversations with the non-binary people in my circle, I have stated that the issue of non-binary acceptance is far more important that what pronoun a person uses. I have also said that if a new category is being described, a new word should be coined for it, since co-opting an existing pronoun only causes confusion. The non-binary community itself has argued this and I have been told that "they" is often preferred over the other "x", "y", "z", and "c" ones. Well, my counter is that if language is a preference, then I prefer any of those alternates TO "they". (Whenever I am planning a get-together, and someone uses a plural pronoun for a single person, I always worry over how many extra people I have to now plan for.)

@DianaMiller

I may not read any of yours (or anyone's) M/M stories, but the existence of such stories would not in any way deter me from reading your other work (and the same would be the case for any other author with M/M stories). I would hope (and actually expect) that all/most LSF readers would feel the same (those that don't enjoy M/M stories).

I don't really like 'they' either because it sounds like a royal plural to refer to a single person like that. I have to admit I don't even know what non-binary people use in my country. Our word for 'they' is the same as the word for 'she' so that would make it rather strange.
But it's not up to me so I'll just use whatever someone specifically asks for and/or whatever happens to be the norm at the moment in the English language.

If I might make a small self plug here, I attempted a story using the idea of unspecified gender spanker and spankee, and was hoping that my reader would notice this, but sadly no. You might like to see what you think of The Appointment.