my two cents that no one asked for.
all of my human sexuality classes have had a section on kink/fetishes, and the first thing you're taught in those sections is that they're exceedingly normal. it's important for psychologists to be held by the hand and told this so they don't balk when clients discuss it with them (or, at worst, wrongly diagnose them with a highly stigmatized and tough to shake paraphilic disorder). i'm glad they do this, because you should have seen the way a group of doctoral students, all who were older than me and many of whom were parents, reacted when taught about sounding.
i say this to say, it is both scientifically well known and also not at all common knowledge that kink/fetishes are actually the rule not the exception. it's something i have to ground myself in whenever things like anon hate happens; my monkey-brain reaction of "look at this idiot who doesn't know" and my human-brain counter-reaction of "ah, this is someone's 10,000."
my answer to why would a ship that contains isolation, manipulation, physical and emotional abuse, stalking, kidnapping, torture, and threats to your loved ones be as popular as it is is thus: the kinks on display in such a dynamic are some of the most popular and prevalent.
i won't turn to anecdotal evidence such as 50 shades of grey, darkromancetok, or bodice rippers, although they're always the first that come to mind, but will instead turn to peer reviewed literature. i sadly am unwilling to scan in my textbooks as i'm recovering from surgery and this post is already going to come with a massive physical cost, so instead i did a bit of research.
we start with a meta-analysis from 2020. for those who don't know, a meta-analysis is an analysis of the existing literature. it compiles all the research done to-date on a certain topic and aggregates the results/re-analyzes the data. findings of note are that: BDSM fantasies are a form of leisure, that interest in BDSM has a prevalence as high as 70%, and that while some people use BDSM as a coping mechanism for past trauma not enough people do for it to be considered etiological. these findings indicate that it is common for people to enjoy thinking about BDSM, and they don't need any deep reasoning to do so.
of kinks specifically explored in this type of dynamic...
one international study from 2015 found that 83.53% of respondents engaged in master/slave fantasy, 72.04% danger fantasy play, 53.90% medical play, 56.14% exhibitionism, 86.46% voyeurism, 90.26% mutual masturbation, 56.03% sex with inanimate objects, and 32.30% religious play. and since anon made their ask gender-specific (asking if such a ship would still be enjoyable if the victim were a woman), this study only surveyed women. this is what woman enjoy. given that the meta-analysis above also found there to be a significant amount of people who fantasize about BDSM without engaging in it behaviorally, the combined research suggests that women enjoy fantasizing about what are considered taboo sexual practices.
and from an interview of of 4,175 people, a leading human sexuality researcher from the kinsey instutute (yes, that kinsey) found that: imagination is the #1 source for sexual fantasy, and that BDSM and taboo topics are two of the top five most common kinks.
in summation: i understand someone personally not enjoying these fantasies and therefore not wanting to play with ships that exhibit them. that's a personal boundary and preference and i respect that wholeheartedly. what i don't understand is the frequent harassment of people who do enjoy them and the demand for justification, when the enjoyment of them is exceptionally normative.
beyond other variables such as entertainment, catharsis, explorations of concepts such as rehabilitation and reformation, and interesting narrative building... it's hot.
prguitarman
theartofmadeline
kaledo-art
turnnoffyourmind
