[Netherrealmer]

I observed a recurring trend in best-selling books, streaming services, and visual novel apps, particularly in the romance genre favored by women and teenage girls. Notably, there's a significant interest in narratives involving infidelity – stories often revolve around a cheating spouse, with the wife endeavoring to reclaim her husband or a woman seeking solace from an abusive relationship through infidelity. Additionally, there's a fascination with the trope of "bad boys," portraying relationships evolving from hostility to love, such as in teenage romances where a boy initially bullies the girl.Then she can change him with her love.

One peculiar trend I've observed is women's fascination with mafia bosses and gangsters, perhaps linked to the allure of "bad boys." This fantasy of changing a bad boy with love can be a misleading message, especially for young girls. Another prevalent theme is gay romance, often featuring two initially straight men falling in love, which seems to be a fantasy appeal. The enduring allure of werewolves and vampires persists, possibly influenced by the Twilight phenomenon. Additionally, stories revolving around unplanned pregnancies, particularly in the realm of pregnancy erotica, hold popularity among women.
Also, most of the media women and girls consume these days, they do not like a very beautiful woman or a very sexy woman as protagonist. They like an underdog playing Jane from a poor family. The actress who played them is beautiful but her look is tone down.

The most shocking genre that women are into are true crime. Yes, women says they hate violent action movies and horror movies, but they love true crime documentaries and true crime adaptation movies. Just look at the Jeffrey Dahmer biopic in Netflix. Women and girls are the highest demographic of watching them.

Sure, not all women are the same. There are women who are more interested in male-centric media, but these are the genres that most women seem to consume.

[spiderdust]

I like true crime up until I'm traveling alone somewhere... and then I'm suddenly paranoid that I'll end up as the subject of someone else's true crime story.

I have been getting so many ads for werewolf mafioso romance/erotica, I kid you not. I was wondering what the heck I had clicked on to send those algorithms my way, but I guess they're just marketing towards women in general.

[Netherrealmer]

Yeah algorithm shows women are obsessed with mafias, ceos,high school delinquents, bullies, vampires and wereqolves as love interests.

Enemy to lovers are popular to teen girls

[RianK]

Oh me. Oh my.

Phew.

I thought this topic was going in another direction - oh well, let's wait and see if any Asian women pass by and have anything to say about it.

* all of sudden hears the sound of twittering birds *

[Netherrealmer]

These days asian women loves bl,enemies to lovers,infidelity drama, cinderella romance and empowered woman. Western women loves mafias,billionaires, werewolves, vampires and bad boys.

[RianK]

...with great emphasis on bl.

Europe had smth similar in the early 00s, I think they called it emo boys or smth.

Oh well, to each his own!

[Netherrealmer]

I find it disturbing women and girls loves badboy and mafia romance. No wonder many women ends up in abusive relationships

[Jem Smith]

Did you ask women about this, or is it just what you reckon?

I'm sure it's probably true of some women. Speaking for myself, I don't hate violent action movies and horror movies. I don't know about action movies, but a lot of women are into horror. I'm in a horror group and more than half of the members are women.

It is true that a lot of women are into true crime, though. Why is that shocking to you?

-- 16 Nov 2023, 20:34 --

I find it disturbing women and girls loves badboy and mafia romance. No wonder many women ends up in abusive relationships

That's a weird oversimplification. A lot of abusers aren't abusive to begin with. I wouldn't assume that someone is with an abusive person because they were attracted to that. More likely they didn't know that it was going to be that way when they got together with that person.

[arunima]

Infidelity dramas have been favourite for generations and I am not sure what makes them so popular. Maybe many can relate to that.

[Netherrealmer]

I didnt say that women dont have diverse interests, but when it comes to the romance genre, these are the top-selling books and even movies to women. And in many countries, infidelity dramas are really popular to women, and teenage girls and women are into bad boys when it comes to storytelling because I guess the perfect man might be boring to read or watch. So yes, I do my research. And yes, there is also a finding that majority of fans of true crime are women. If you will look at the true crime videos on YouTube, most of the comments are women. Men are more into fictional violence, while women loves true crime because they want to be detectives in some ways. And there are also crazy women who are into serial killers. I'm not stereotyping, by the way. It's just that these are some of the best selling. Also most men hate books. Men's smut are videos while women prefers books

[Jem Smith]

I didnt say that women dont have diverse interests, but when it comes to the romance genre, these are the top-selling books and even movies to women. And in many countries, infidelity dramas are really popular to women, and teenage girls and women are into bad boys when it comes to storytelling because I guess the perfect man might be boring to read or watch. So yes, I do my research. And yes, there is also a finding that majority of fans of true crime are women. If you will look at the true crime videos on YouTube, most of the comments are women. Men are more into fictional violence, while women loves true crime because they want to be detectives in some ways. And there are also crazy women who are into serial killers. I'm not stereotyping, by the way. It's just that these are some of the best selling. Also most men hate books. Men's smut are videos while women prefers books

Where do you get these stats from? I'm interested to have a look.

I didn't disagree about the majority of true crime fans being women (I said "yes it is true"). I just said that a lot of horror fans are too, in my experience at least.

Re true crime I don't think it's because "they want to be detectives". I think it has to do with the fact that women are more likely to be the victims of violent crimes (and less likely to be the perpetrators of them), so we want to understand what drives people to do these things. I've heard comments to that effect from true crime fans a lot. There's a book called The Murder Book in which the narrator, a lifelong true crime fan, talks about her own experiences and looks into women's interest in true crime as well as giving a history of the genre. It's pretty interesting if you're into the topic. Edit: ah, yeah found some info that backs me up on that:

"“My research shows that women like true crime because they can learn something from it,” she says. “They can learn how not to be killed, essentially. They like true content where they learn the signs to watch for in a killer or they learn what to do if kidnapped. By learning how people end up the victim, they can keep it from happening to themselves.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/13/why-are-women-falling-asleep-to-true-crime-podcasts-and-tv-shows.html


You also said
"Most men hate books"

Um, according to whom? Women buy more books than men, but I've never seen evidence that most men hate books. Certainly plenty of men do like to read books.

Re. horror, I found a survey where 39% of men and 35% of women said they were horror fans, so pretty close. However, it was only of a few hundred people, and you have to take into account that women are more likely to respond to surveys than men (don't know why, but apparently it's a thing) In the same vein, when you are looking at the comments on YouTube, it might be that women are more likely to leave comments than men. I don't know if that's the case, it would just be something to bear in mind when you are drawing conclusions from things like that.

[Netherrealmer]

Im a man and most of my friends are men. Majority of men i know will rather play a videogame or watch sports. Feminine men i know prefers movie. Majority of video porn consumers are men and majority of erotica books are women. When i look at the online shops selling books in romance categories these are the most common. Majority of book clubs most have women. Go to the top books of most online book stores and you will see these categories a lot.

The most likely books men will read are comics and mangas.

More women read books and probably reasons why books are still around.
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/sto ... oung%20age.

[Laurentta]

You are right. Most women including me likes to read books on mafia bosses and gangster. Only a few women do not like this.

[Jem Smith]

Im a man and most of my friends are men. Majority of men i know will rather play a videogame or watch sports. Feminine men i know prefers movie. Majority of video porn consumers are men and majority of erotica books are men. When i look at the online shops selling books in romance categories these are the most common. Majority of book clubs most have women. Go to the top books of most online book stores and you will see these categories a lot.

The most likely books men will read are comics and mangas.

More women read books and probably reasons why books are still around.
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/sto ... oung%20age.

I wasn't talking about porn. I'd rather not. Women buy the majority of books, and probably read more. I'm sure what you're saying is true for your peer group, but I also have a lot of male friends, and most of them read books for fun all the time. I don't mean comics, either. I love comics myself but I only know one guy who does. The others like fantasy, sci fi, horror, crime and non fiction. My father likes historical novels best. I don't think I have a single male friend who'd say he actually hates books. I'm a few years older than you, and in a different country, so there could be any number of reasons for that being different.

Re. book clubs, I've joined a few, and the demographics depend a bit on the genre. I was in one for crime fiction, and it was about 70/30 men to women. The romance book club I was in briefly was only women. The classics one I joined has both.

-- 17 Nov 2023, 15:55 --

I didnt say that women dont have diverse interests,

By the way, I never said you did. There is no need to be defensive. You seem to miss when I agree with you and only notice when I disagree.

-- 17 Nov 2023, 15:56 --

You are right. Most women including me likes to read books on mafia bosses and gangster. Only a few women do not like this.

Like a mafia romance? Huh. I've never read one of those. I read mystery novels, which sometimes have gangsters in them.

[Netherrealmer]

Mafia romance books got so popular it became a genre along with infidelity drama,billioñaire romance, enemies to lovers, and Bully romance.

[spiderdust]

:lol: ...with great emphasis on bl.

BL? I'm not sure what this genre is. Will I facepalm when I find out?

[Netherrealmer]

BL Is gay male romance that is marketed to girls instead of actual gay men. popularized by Japan and Thailand. USA Starts making its own BL. BLs usually uses straight actors. They are mostly romcoms for teen girls.

[Jem Smith]

BL Is gay male romance that is marketed to girls instead of actual gay men. popularized by Japan and Thailand. USA Starts making its own BL. BLs usually uses straight actors. They are mostly romcoms for teen girls.

Which shows would be an example of this? I can't think of any rom coms about gay men. Maybe they're just not on here.

[Netherrealmer]

English language examples are heartstopper, b****** son and devil himself,red white and royal blue.

[Jem Smith]

English language examples are heartstopper, b****** aon and devil himself,red white and royal blue.

There's a Red White and Royal Blue series? Interesting. I'd only heard of the books. I've seen Heartstopper. I don't think I'd describe either the show or the books in that series as being aimed at straight girls though. They're very popular with young queer people, and I think that's the target market.