I mean... With this kind of connection, you're essentially saying that the Romance Genre is sexual in nature.
Yes, it's just a proposition
With this kind of extremely broad definition
I didn't mean it as a definition. It's a connection between a genre and its underlying effect on the psychology of the reader.
I mean... With this kind of connection, you're essentially saying that the Romance Genre is sexual in nature.
With this kind of extremely broad definition... Uhn... Sure, if we say that Romance = Sexual, then yeah, most stories on this website would be sexual in nature, because... Well, the vast majority of fiction, in general, has romance.
You are correct it would be bad to reduce Romance to sexuality. So instead, just treat the sexual nature as something that runs in the background, underneath the Romance.
Sexuality has many ways to manifest themselves, Romance (usual thing of dating, learning each other, getting jealous, getting betrayed, all the drama, etc) is one of the many ways it can express itself. I believe that it is still relevant to separate the many different ways to express.
It's why we have different genres for things. Ecchi for the more fanservicy, Smut, and Adult
You are exactly correct. There are many ways to tap into sexuality. Ecchi for teasing, Smut for explicit. In fact, you've showed numbers that tells that explicit sex isn't the most appealing to the readerbase.
For an analogy, let's say Sexuality is sugar. The different ways of cooking the sugar would be the genres. That's why we'd encompass Romance, Harem, Genderbender, Smut, Ecchi together in a same major group that shares the commonality of using sugar. I understand that such a loose group based on a dubious commonality might not end up meaningful and disconnected from the real results about popularity.
In fact, if I'm not mistaking, that's exactly the same stance that Jay has about Action/Adventure. It's proposed that they're so widespread that they lose their meaningfulness. But as per previous post, you disagreed on that point and supported its relevance.
Edit: Also I hear your argument for not attributing fulfillment of sexual nature to genderbender. There is room for interpretation. Sometimes it's innocent, sometimes the comedy about turning on your homie is definitely sus. Sometimes, it's sexually fulfilling that the genderbent character becomes attractive to their original gender. It's indeed a weakness of the reasoning that demands a leap of logic (making assumptions) and I understand that you disagree with the reductive notion that genderbender is sexual fulfillment.
It's like... The whole point of stuff like Smut is to point people towards the sexual stuff... If you wanna read the love-related stuff, you go after Romance. They're separate.
Yes, they stay separate. Some people may prefer refined sweet bread, over the decadent cream that splurt all over... Some snort it all raw.
What SH readers want is a substantial amount of sugar to inject in their veins.
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Ok I'll stop with the flimsy unsubstantial groundless analogies.
But even a sigma grindset cool MC gets girls to swoon over him. Even if MC never settles down and doesn't explicitly have sex with harem girls, it's still a sort of sexual wishfulfillment for the reader. Like, maybe we could classify James Bond harem story lol. Jay and I believe that even the little amount of of sexual fulfillment is enough to gain popularity on SH (even in the tiniest amount that it shouldn't be necessary to tag it as such).
It's already very common to have romance subplot in stories (simps that are implied to be OK for sexual intimacy even if they never do it). Now, having romance subplot with multiple characters (harem simps) is socially degenerate but it's a sure to hit the monkey braincells of the reader. On the other hand, keeping the protagonist a loser and socially undesirable is the saddest reminder of reality, why bother reading xD
I like discussing with you though. It seems like we're at least getting words across and listening to one another, even if not necessarily agreeing~
Thank you, understanding each other's differences and individuality is the key to appreciate each others. I like discussing with you too, your ideas are always explicitly without leaving room to misunderstanding. It can be difficult for some people to convey their ideas to you because most people make unconscious hypostheses and assumptions in their reasoning that appear invinsible to them and are lost in the communication. That's why I could mediate in this discussion (because it's more apparent for third parties and I probed Jay's ideas on discord)
