Just a general question about superheroines and porn?

[superheroinevengeance]

Having roleplayed for a decade within the superheroine genre, I have noticed this intense pleasure people get with superheroines meeting a deadly bad ending. It is a major kink in roleplaying, very common in movies and comics. I have never understood it, but I want to ask those who do enjoy it why they do?

 

[SEM Aftermath]

Death has never been a kink of mine, so I would be curious to see what people have to say as well. Perhaps they enjoy it because it is the "ultimate defeat?"

Personally, I enjoy being able to capture the heroine over and over.

 

[Yoga Princess]

I think it can be seen as the ultimate sign of defeat or weakness. My favorite ending for superheroine is her capture and rape plus forced pleasure when the last thing she wants is to experience pleasure at hands of those who've captured her. Then her getting away and having the bad ending repeated over and over.

 

[Lydia]

Lots of guys, probably due to some feelings of personal powerlessness, like fantasizing about putting strong women "in their place."

Alternatively: some men hate women, and the stronger a woman is, the more they hate them.

Alternatively: instead of developing healthy emotional connections, some dudes look to anger/violence to allow them feel something.

There are probably lots of reasons, but I really can't think of any that aren't rooted in misogyny in some way.

 

[MightyMaiden]

I would I think argue your thesis is flawed. While sure, there are bad end/death kink lovers out there, as someone who's been playing in the adult superheroine RP community for an embarrassingly long time, I would say few want death to be involved, and in movies, death, actual death is almost non-existent. One of the biggest flaws of modern superhero films is that there is no weight to a character's death since no one believes they will remain dead after all the twists, rebirths and resurrections. Similarly, when one has taken the time and effort to develop an interesting and dynamic character in play, you don't want them killed off because you enjoy representing that character and they work they've put into it.

That being said, I think the intense pleasure you mention is really the key, more drama, more stakes, more impact. Some people just need to dig deeper to feel something.

 

[captain_bond]

There are probably lots of reasons, but I really can't think of any that aren't rooted in misogyny in some way.

That's probably why I am so deeply against playing against superheroines where the goal is to defeat her and enjoy the "rewards" of doing so. Strong women should be celebrated, not "put in their place." In roleplay, I'd much rather play the male superhero who is the superheroine's partner (either in crimefighting, romantically or both) and who is the one who ultimately reaps the rewards of a successful defeat of the supervillain.

Or something along those lines.

 

[superheroinevengeance]

Me personally, I much prefer telling a long term story that focuses on character develop and plot building. This is almost a turn off to a lot of people, and there is a lot of people who focus on this, because the heroine wins or simply survives. I have roleplayed for twenty years, and it has gotten worse through the years. A lot of guys only seem to care about making sure the heroine meets a bad end. As an actual fan of writing and superheroines, it's heart breaking to know the depth of this genre has became so shallow. This is even the case in most heroic porn videos and fan fiction.

 

[jennica enslaved]

I don't really play supers very much, so this is more my general feeling from having shared with people over various captive or coerced kinks. (A couple of them, yes snuff included.) There are definitely some, perhaps relatively few, people with a very busy fantasy snuff kink. I don't imagine that all of them necessarily must care for superheroes, but some certainly do. There are probably a smaller set of them that are set on being misogynistic themselves and a pretty small few that would happily go killing... But I don't see any reason to fuss about it more than other "hard" kinks like rape or broadly noncon pain. They can simply be their own kinks, too. I could go on about how many different kinks mainstream superhero shows play up briefly for different audiences, at different levels. But I shall umm, restrain myself. ^^

What I would guess is that the superhero genre, like sci-fi or fantasy more broadly, offers big bold powers or settings with big ranges of power and stark contrasts in some way... And you get a gathering of snuff lovers who are particularly excited to find someone to share with, all gathering around that. Does that amount to a "major kink"? I'm actually not so sure, but it's a vague term.

Personally, I usually like to keep my characters going. I'm not entirely immune to being swayed into playing a more dramatic "snap", although I'm more likely to consider death when it's rather clean and not actually permanent. I've always found multiple or competing lives and lifestyles fun, if a little dizzying to sort out with partners. On the other hand, endings are not my favorite thing to think about in general. I like ongoing tension and little changes pulled in different directions. I do like tops with a "controlling" idea provided it comes with similar tastes in the atmosphere and some playfulness... But absolutely "perfect" control can be boring and quick, permanent death is usually like that for me.

 

[Ahlys]

As someone who generally enjoys the concept but nothing regarding snuff/bad endings, I'd say that the overall aspect is just strongly tied to power dynamics. It's probably easier to think about it like reverse beauty and beast (used liberally here) where the superheroine is powerful physically or supernaturally to defeat someone, but ultimately loses to a weakness being exploited. I think from anyone who plays the heroine, it gives a feeling of strength too, similar to other concepts of "strong in public", "weak in private" setup. Doctors, CEOs, successful people in general.

As far as the violent bad end, my best interpretation is just that it's similar, power dynamics and contrast with a strong character biting the dust is more interesting than the random villager, because you'd expect that.

 

[Raphael Sharpe]

Having roleplayed for a decade within the superheroine genre, I have noticed this intense pleasure people get with superheroines meeting a deadly bad ending. It is a major kink in roleplaying, very common in movies and comics. I have never understood it, but I want to ask those who do enjoy it why they do?

I definitely have a version of this. I think the fantasy need not play on just one dynamic. I've explore my own case a great deal, with therapy (described in a post here for anyone interested), but in brief any number of things could be involved:

• The excitement of the taboo: The badass heroine is supposed to win. She always has plot armor. It's exciting to violate that.
• The power dynamic reversal (my thing): It can be exciting to see the haughty or arrogant taken down, and this can then be eroticized in a way that isn't all that far off from more familiar CNC and other power play dynamics even though it involves "death" in the fantasy.
• The simple appeal of control and domination: Because we're dealing in fantasy, a fatality is sort of like the ultimate defeat or expression of power and control.
• Various fetishistic elements: Once you think about it, you can't help but notice in a lot of fantasy, action, and horror content the actual physicality of violence is sexualized: people arch their backs, open their mouths wide in shock, writhe, make grunting noises, etc. Seeing and hearing a gorgeous person do this can be exciting. It could happen that at just the right age someone saw some Hollywood content that sexualized/eroticized such imagery and just got their wires crossed on it. Here is an entertaining talk by a guy who tells the story of his own dark kink which involves meeting his demise at the hands of a sexy nurse or something like that, partly inspired by imagery from the old Batman series!

Anyway, I find this topic super interesting and have enjoyed reading what others have said as well!