What makes an EA story popular?

[JesusA (imported)]

The most recent paper about the Eunuch Archive was published yesterday. It is an analysis of the 100 stories that received the most 5-star ratings. (Your ratings are important!) There is a brief note about how the top stories differ from the bottom-ranked stories, but most of the text covers only the top 100. Here is the abstract to the article and a link to a read-only version of the entire article that the publisher has made available.

Castration for Pleasure: Exploring Extreme Castration Ideations in Fiction

Elisabetta E. L. Piccolo · Thomas W. Johnson · Richard J. Wassersug

Archives of Sexual Behavior

Abstract

The Eunuch Archive (EA) is an online community which includes individuals who read and write sexual fantasies with themes related to castration and eunuchs. Here we analyzed the 100 stories rated highest by EA readers among the >8800 currently posted. Our goal was to gain insights into commonalities within, and specifics of, castration sexual fantasies. Simply stated, we want to know what the authors (and readers) fantasize about and why. The most popular EA stories link sexual gratification and romantic partnership with genital abuse. They are characterized by the absence of consent for genital ablations and multiple SM-related paraphilias. Many stories feature attraction to, and ablation of, the genitals of pubescent or adolescent males. Some EA members have acted on their interests and been voluntarily castrated. Others wish to be. The most popular stories in the EA collection typically link the sacrifice via SM abuse to securing a permanent sexual partnership. The idea of sacrificing one’s genitals to build dyadic adhesion has been noted before in individuals with extreme castration ideations. Here we identify the common features of sexualized fantasies that are popular among individuals with exceptional interest in castration.

Full-text access to a view-only version of the paper is available by using the following SharedIt link:

https://rdcu.be/cNxga (https://rdcu.be/cNxga)

If you prefer a PDF copy, send me a private message with an email address that will accept attachments.

[WheelyCurious]

Interesting paper, definitely worth the time to read it.

One thing that was mentioned was the high prevalence of cutters, both in the stories and in the actual eunuchs in the EA membership. As one who has only recently become involved, I don't necessarily have the same perspective as the long time members, but from all of my reading here, I've gotten the impression that it used to be the case that people used to go to cutters because there was little other choice since there were very few options for getting castration done under proper medical care...

However it seems things have gotten much easier in the past few years, with more doctors willing to do the surgery and increasing acceptance of the voluntary eunuch choice, especially with the promised release of SOC 8.

Given that a visit to the local clinic for voluntary surgery is probably not going to make for particularly exciting reading, I wouldn't expect a lot of changes to the composition of stories; but I'd hope we would see a shift in what people are doing in real life...

Has any of your research shown this kind of shift in the percentages of more recently cut eunuchs using doctors instead of cutters or other methods?

WheelyCurious

[JesusA (imported)]

Interesting paper, definitely worth the time to read it.

One thing that was mentioned was the high prevalence of cutters, both in the stories and in the actual eunuchs in the EA membership.

<<SNIP>>

Has any of your research shown this kind of shift in the percentages of more recently cut eunuchs using doctors instead of cutters or other methods?

With the increasing awareness of eunuchs among medical professionals, I expect that there will gradually be fewer stories with cutters written. I also anticipate few stories involving involuntary castration. Before Male-to-Female was widely accepted among professionals, a major theme of MtF fiction was involuntary transition. That theme has nearly disappeared since transition became medically accepted. I interpret that theme as "being forced to do something that one would like to do, if it were accepted." You can't be "blamed" for it if it was forced upon you! It may not be socially accepted, but it's not your fault that you've been castrated (or transitioned)....

[WheelyCurious]

With the increasing awareness of eunuchs among medical professionals, I expect that there will gradually be fewer stories with cutters written. I also anticipate few stories involving involuntary castration. Before Male-to-Female was widely accepted among professionals, a major theme of MtF fiction was involuntary transition. That theme has nearly disappeared since transition became medically accepted. I interpret that theme as "being forced to do something that one would like to do, if it were accepted." You can't be "blamed" for it if it was forced upon you! It may not be socially accepted, but it's not your fault that you've been castrated (or transitioned)....

That makes sense, but leaves the question of what replaces the cutter and involuntary stories??? Would whatever replaced the involuntary MtF transition stories (not sure what did) be any sort of clue?

While my medical journey thus far has been of great personal interest for obvious reasons, as story material I'd rate it as BORING... (a couple of doctor appointments, got a prescription, picked it up, and stuck myself with the prefilled syringe - not exactly thrillsville to put it mildly...) The accounts I've read of peoples experiences actually getting cut at the doctors office have similarly not had much of the dramatic content that would make a good story... While I have seen some stories that had a medical person doing the deed, those still seemed to have coercive elements, so not all that different from cutter stories.

So what will the new story theme be? Or are you thinking that there will simply be fewer stories?

WheelyCurious

WheelyCurious

[magusuk89 (imported)]

That makes sense, but leaves the question of what replaces the cutter and involuntary stories??? Would whatever replaced the involuntary MtF transition stories (not sure what did) be any sort of clue?

While my medical journey thus far has been of great personal interest for obvious reasons, as story material I'd rate it as BORING... (a couple of doctor appointments, got a prescription, picked it up, and stuck myself with the prefilled syringe - not exactly thrillsville to put it mildly...) The accounts I've read of peoples experiences actually getting cut at the doctors office have similarly not had much of the dramatic content that would make a good story... While I have seen some stories that had a medical person doing the deed, those still seemed to have coercive elements, so not all that different from cutter stories.

So what will the new story theme be? Or are you thinking that there will simply be fewer stories?

WheelyCurious

WheelyCurious

My expectation would be that the grit in the stories would come from more general hardships -- economic coercion etc. I mean, that dreadful 50 Shades thing was a wealthy white woman fantasising about an even wealthier white guy's power... so just find inequality or friction and that's what people will address next in art.