In this chapter, we explore how gender diversity is articulated in the erotic imagination through a computer-assisted linguistic analysis of a large collection of amateur porn stories collected from Literotica (2016), one of the largest and oldest online spaces devoted to the genre. We argue that pornography, of which written erotica is a genre, allows for imaginings of gender-diverse bodies and experiences that may run counter to the constraints of mainstream queer discourse. We highlight the range of gender-diverse identities portrayed in these stories, how they are described and characterised, and the role that gendered experiences play in narrative development.

We focus on the terms ‘transgender’, ‘shemale’, ‘tranny’ and ‘sissy’ using techniques from corpus linguistics and stylistics. We examine the distinct patterns of use these descriptors show in our data, and explore the complex dynamics of masculinity and femininity, shame and euphoria, and individuality, transgression and community that these texts articulate