A wonderful and reflective piece, Olo. Thank you for sharing your perspectives - extending also to those who shared their views with you!

I share a lot of sentiments already covered in the posts above. Whilst darker content isn’t an integral part of a lot of my fantasies, I’ve come to accept or appreciate some stuff, and actually enjoy others, without feeling like I’m doing some terrible crime. The older I got (and hopefully wiser), the easier it was to reconcile with darker content and realise that people who enjoyed violence in their fantasies did not always means that they were, themselves, violent or horrible people. I think it’s easy to misunderstand content (and the people who create and consume) when it relates to something so deeply personal; that any deviations from your own interpretations isn’t simply annoying, but offensive.

It helped me a lot to view violence in size content through the lens of horror in fictional media - because I love horror movies. Does that mean I enjoy murder or whatever horrific content is being shown if it ever becomes a reality? No, of course not. Real life kaiju? Hell no. But as entertainment fodder in a controlled, fictional setting? Sign me tf up.

That’s not to say that I’m able to completely separate my personal morals or experiences from fantasies. There are certainly some things that make me uncomfortable which are grounded in morality, but it’s easier for me to just accept it and move on, no judgement to either creator or consumers.

@nyx said in Sex Objects:

so I just created my own content, usually involving ridiculously hot giants because I have no shame. Since then the size community has expanded, so it’s a little easier to find content that emphasizes the giant man rather than focusing on just the tiny woman. Of course, I have an almost endless thirst, so I keep creating content with ridiculously hot giants.

There is no shame and I for one appreciate a lot of what you’ve written

M/f content is already relatively scant and, as you said, much of that is tailored towards male readers (and I’ve been able to identify this better as I’ve gotten older). Not inherently a bad thing and I’m not going to force people to create content that appeals to me, so I create my own content as well, containing hot, attractive giants. Unfortunately it has its limits and it does take a lot of effort to create, even in the right circumstances. I am fortunate however to have met one of my best friends online and we hype each other up - bless them!

@Olo I’ve said that I don’t usually like to incorporate celebrities into my fantasies, but a giant Mr Darcy Matthew MacFadyen does have me a little bit excited 🤭 And I’m also a fan of Elizabeth Banks!

Countering feelings of inadequacy with, “It’s often the little things that occupy the biggest parts of our hearts.”

I’m a personal fan of great/ancient god or demon kept in chains (physical or otherwise) and forced to do the bidding of whoever frees or summons him.

Not sure if this really counts, but I like the idea of the tiny learning to lean into her power. They dynamic might start off with her being kind of a pushover and the giant bullying her and generally throwing his weight around - except, that he can’t actually physically hurt her or do anything that could bring her harm. Among the things that motivate her to change is the fact that they’re going to be together for a loooooooong time.

@Technomage said:

All that woke crap has gotten insane, it makes me laugh some people actually feel ashamed for liking M/f.

The irony is that the reasoning is not even “woke”. As been pointed out, the anti-Mf sentiments are often out of touch (at best), or disingenuine (at worst). And the ones that double-down don’t like to be told that they’re wrong or that other people (especially anybody who is not a man) actually have their own personal views and takes on Mf.

@Olo -chef’s kiss-

@Technomage said:

Just don’t let them ruin the fun for you, this is a precious, harmless fantasy.

Way ahead of you. I already have so little regard for those kinds of people that it’s probably the closest I’ll ever get to feeling like a (dismissive) giant:

@Olo

@littlest-lily and @foreverlurk have covered a lot already, but I’ll also weight in. Unlike what the term suggests, it’s an approach to story-telling that’s not exclusively for women, but so named when understood as a contrast to the concept of the “male gaze” and as something that specifically centres a woman/women as a character.

For me, as mentioned, it’s about building empathy and understanding for a character (usually, a woman) as a person with emotions, rather than someone to be objectified. They normally also have some agency, even if it’s just to have an opinion or thoughts in a hopeless situation, rather than some voiceless, mindless doll. I think the “slower” pace is a consequence of this kind of narrative rather than a characteristic per se because it takes time to develop something/someone that is complex, rather than simply focussing on what they look like and how that will gratify the viewer/reader. So you can already expect a build-up like that to be relatively slow - just depends on how much of a burn or detail the creator wants to achieve.

This article is a good intro summary and also talks about respecting the character as well. Re: respect, I don’t think this should be synonymous with “liking” a character or putting them on some pedestal. You can create dislikable, even morally corrupt characters, who you can respect/have due regard for as a person with depth, motivations, struggles, joys, etc. And then you can throw them in the bin - metaphorically and/or literally, whatever floats your boat.

First 2 episodes are out. First episode makes good use of the giant-sized Sentinels with a couple of nice handheld scenes, sadly not involving female characters much. Second episode doesn’t have size content, but one character has a monologue that is adjacent and made me a little flustered (he’s also got some silver fox daddy vibes, which I’m all for, campy costume and all).

I watched the original animated series as a child of the 90s and remembered that some of my favourite scenes involved the Sentinels - being one of the few characters 1) with a significant size difference, and 2) involved in handheld scenes, or similar. I was talking to @foreverlurk about how mechs will always have a special place in my interests since mech/giant robot content often filled a void in mainstream media. While I wish they were more humanesque, it was close enough to keep me wanting more.

Anyway, they nailed the 90s style animation and dialogue while giving it an update. Do recommend so far

This is another trope I really love in a size context. I think language and being able to communicate easily is one of the biggest things most people take for granted in the real world, let alone in a fantastical situation.

I’m not one to subscribe to the whole “too small/big to communicate, sound frequencies, etc.” except for the really massive size differences (like micro, nano, giga, etc.) - I like dialogue between a giant and a tiny, but when something else like a language barrier gets in the way, you’d be forced to compensate and get creative. Broken speech is usually a obvious go-to, but there’s also opportunity for the use of more physical forms of communication: signing, touching, body language, facial expressions (and reading them). By being so physical, it’s a great opportunity to emphasise their size differences: how closely the giant has to focus on her, or how big she has to make her movements; both the giant and tiny’s perspectives on their interactions and each other’s features.

Like with other tropes, it’s a very flexible one. It could also be applied to situations where either the giant or tiny is mute (maybe both!). One scenario I had I mind involves both giant and tiny being unfamiliar with each other’s language and there’s no easily accessible translator (maybe both peoples are isolated from each other, maybe one is other-worldly, etc.) And they both slowly pick up and learn from each other as they spend more time together. As a point of tension, maybe the giant is able to find another giant who can help, who is a bit more fluent than he is, but they end up making the tiny really uncomfortable. Being unable to understand, he doesn’t catch a lot of what the other is saying, but he notices something off about the tiny’s body language and gets them out of there.

From a creative/author perspective, I think it’s a fun little project. Personally, I’m not fluent enough in another language to make it reflect the real world, and I’m not invested enough to invent a language (let alone two) as an alternative. Instead, it would switch between POVs, with the other person’s dialogue being presented as garbled symbols. The POV character is able to catch the occasional word, with dialogue getting more coherent over time as both of their vocabularies grow. And throw in accents, for good measure

Australia is similar - the laws will come into effect in December. Given the vagueness with things like what constitutes “reasonable steps” (for websites to prevent Australian children under 16 from having accounts), and what @foreverlurk said about the location of web hosts, I don’t imagine that DD will actually be affected by them. But I’m no expert.

What shits me is that it’s clearly not about safety for young people on the internet - or anyone’s safety really.

@blehb said:

Now I actually have to write it.

Would love to read it if/when you do

@Olo said:

This happens often enough that they develop a kind of semaphore, where he communicates through combinations of gentle squeezes on certain areas of her body and she responds with pre-arranged sequences of contortions.

Oh that’s a great method! So covert, very sneaky!

@foreverlurk said:

So, plan B : she starts to trace the letters on the palm of my hand (with a twig or something). That’s assuming we share a common written language, of course. I have no idea how I’d communicate back if she’s also deaf, but that’s a start!

She could also use symbols or drawings as well! Though, as a fun challenge for anyone keen, even the use of images can have it’s limitations: not all symbols or pictures will mean the same to other people, let alone someone from a different culture. So without a mutual understanding, you’re bound to hit some walls sometimes. I like to think about the icons developed for the Olympics as an example - you still need some form of reference in order to understand what they mean.

N.B. I’ve been made aware that I posted this around the same time another discussion on the same topic was being held on Discord. It was a total coincidence because I don’t use Discord for size stuff, but it made me laugh and happy to still be involved in other group discussions - even if it is through the ether

It’s usually context specific for me. I’ve gushed already about giants in armour or some form of uniform (particularly of authority), e.g. medieval fantasy setting, post-apocalyptic world, etc. I’m also on board with the corporate or business casual look. Honestly, a well fitting shirt and/or suit and good pair of boots won’t go amiss. Anything that cuts a nice figure into a fella, showing some effort in his appearance.

@SizePrize69 said:

I have this malegaze POV on size fetishism but I would love to dig deeper into femgaze.
I somehow have this preconceived idea that female writers tend to focus more on eliciting emotional responses and focus more on the build-up to sexual scenes.

Members have shared their thoughts on the male gaze/femgaze within size stories before, if you’re curious and for your goal. Not saying that it can’t be discussed again - I’m all for discussion - just that it might be a good starting-off point. We’re lucky to have some insightful members on DD

Re: your original question
I’m a woman and far more often prefer to consume free content, but I have spent money before - on comics, namely. My recent purchase was on Angel’s Giantlands comic that she has been working on.

As @foreverlurk has mentioned, a lot of excellent M/f content is very fortunately made free by authors/artists. I think because of a general lack of M/f content (even fewer if we’re focussing on female/femme-friendly content specifically), creators are happy to share out of solidarity with their fellow M/f fans. In saying that: I would also happily support by purchasing content, so long as it’s good quality, something I would enjoy and if it’s within my budget.

@SizePrize69 said:

Do you think that the preconceived idea that erotica is more popular with women than men is grounded on some truth?

Don’t know if there are peer-reviewed studies, but there is a general consensus that women consume more literary erotica than men. People have supposedly gotten numbers from Amazon (maybe other platforms) which have also reflected majority-female consumers of erotic fiction, and it’s generally understood that FanFiction writers and readers are majority women. There are different reasons why, but it is mostly attributed to women wanting to create/consume content that better caters to them rather than most mainstream content (which takes us back to the male gaze/femgaze discussion).