I don't get shotacon.

[ThtsMyScrtCapImAlwysHorny]

Lolicon is obvious, it's simulated kiddy porn for sick fucks what want to fuck little girls. (No judgment. ) But shotacon... the vast majority of it I've seen (and as a regular nhentai user, I've seen *a lot*, the last few years it's been taking over the hentai manga/doujinshi scene to nearly the same degree as NTR) is still super male-gaze-y. Like, yeah, there's a little boy there, but the focus is still very much on the women. It feels like, whereas the fantasy being serviced with lolicon is fucking little girls, the fantasy being serviced with shotacon is fucking grown women *as a little boy*, and I just... can't wrap my head around why that's appealing to anyone (let alone apparently to half of Japan).

 

[Uthuriel]

 

[Eclivious]

Not too sure myself, but if I had to make a guess it'd be similar to when I was a kid, I'd have fantasies about some of the older women who lived near me and shota could simulate that a bit. I mean, I'm still into older women but there is a difference between getting with an older woman in your 20s or 30s+ and the fantasy of getting lucky when you are a kid with someone like a teacher, your neighbour, your friends mother or even your own if that's your preference. All this assuming the reader/player is putting themselves into the perspective of the shota.

 

[Pretentious Goblin]

I was into it as a teen, I liked the ageplay aspect.

 

[Kinderalpha]

Well, if you look into how people develop fetishes then I think you'll probably figure it out. Don't need to shame people for it...

 

[Adabelitoo]

I am a nhentai user and I can definitely tell you this: There isn't *a lot* of new shota doujins over the last year, that's just your loss aversion (just because you dislike something, you notice more of that something than there really is) coming into play. The same happens with NTR, because unless you think that nhentai is a gay site, the Yaoi (36k) and Males Only (29k) is more used than the NTR tag (21k) according to nhentai's stats.

Back to the topic. I have no idea what happens inside a woman's mind, but me as a man, in my mind is kinda like "how lucky I'd have wanted to be". Personally, my sexual awakening happened way before my friends/classmates did. Also, it depens on the author but the story of how a lucky boy become a regular fuckbuddy with the hottest milf in town can be a funny story to read.

 

[おい！]

Lolicon is obvious, it's simulated kiddy porn for sick fucks what want to fuck little girls. (No judgment. ) But shotacon... the vast majority of it I've seen (and as a regular nhentai user, I've seen *a lot*, the last few years it's been taking over the hentai manga/doujinshi scene to nearly the same degree as NTR) is still super male-gaze-y. Like, yeah, there's a little boy there, but the focus is still very much on the women. It feels like, whereas the fantasy being serviced with lolicon is fucking little girls, the fantasy being serviced with shotacon is fucking grown women *as a little boy*, and I just... can't wrap my head around why that's appealing to anyone (let alone apparently to half of Japan).

Well it is simple, if I like lolicon then I must want to fuck little girls, if I like shotacon then I must want to fuck little boys and if I like idiots then I want to fuck you.

 

[anne O'nymous]

It feels like, whereas the fantasy being serviced with lolicon is fucking little girls, the fantasy being serviced with shotacon is fucking grown women *as a little boy*, and I just... can't wrap my head around why that's appealing to anyone (let alone apparently to half of Japan).

1) Shockingly, women also fap to porn.
2) Peter Pan syndrome.
3) Those who find appealing the idea to be serviced by a motherly figure like when they were kids ; this one probably explain part of the appeal in Japan where the life of a salaryman can be really stressful.
4) A throwback in (effective or phantasmal) youth.

With this you probably cover most of the persons interested by shota.

 

[forbidden101v]

The shotacops as always don't get any respect and yet they still fight so hard for what they believe in.

 

[binky69]

I like situations where the lady is forcing the guy to cum. I like shotacon because the women can physically overpower the guy while still being attractive to me.

I just basically like a certain type of femdom and I take it where I can get it, I'd prefer midgets or emaciated old men over young men but tbh I don't really care about the male either way, just that they're getting ragdolled or controlled etc, I am only interested in what the women says and does in these scenarios.

I don't look for it specifically but some of it crosses over into what I'm into.

As to the why, I don't know. I am pretty lazy, maybe when I am fantasizing about stuff I just like the idea of cumming whenever without worrying about putting in work, unlike real sex where there's some stress and pressure and the potential for people to be disappointed.

 

[zetsupetsu]

The appeal of shota is self-inserting yourself as the shota, hence why its more male-gazey (sexy content still focused on the woman)

As a kid I've always fantasized being able to fuck my hot teacher, or the milf neighbor next door. Personally, I've learned how to fap way before my penis developed semen, so I was a horndog and fapping to all these milfs around me at a really young age, which of course I'm not able to actually fuck them as a kid.

Shotacon fulfills that fantasy.

 

[miehook1]

Tell you what shotacon is my favourite, when i was in my primary school, i always admire my female teachers and which i could fuck them ( sorry to say i am really horny in my wonder years). I see older women which i get attracted more easily than my same age, but as i get older my lust goes more to younger female but not the loli type... i despise them, hope that todays games have lots more of shotacon genre, cause its remind me when i was young, its relive me of my fantasy when i was younger.

 

[Girm Ork]

In action games with this fetish, some hot girls are attacking the player to get his bodily fluids or something like this. This is very unnatural, crazy, disturbing and etc. In a normal situation, it must be the other way around - a strong male character is attacking females to put his bodily fluids in them. Yeah, it is a crime and very immoral, but it is the natural flow of things. So, the shotacon is reversing it.
But is not it similar to our other most popular fetishes like incest?

 

[thatguy49]

As a fan of some shota content(some are too creepy for me), it's a mixture of reminiscing a simpler time and escapism from real world stress. Like another user mentioned, it can be very relaxing to self-insert into a situation where you're taken care of by a maternal figure, contrasting the busy situations you face in reality as an adult. Then there's just the irrational fascination I have in self-inserting as a shota cared for by a milf, while also retaining the perverted mind of an adult lol.

 

[megaplayboy10k]

Setting aside prepubescent shota(under the age of 9 or 10), I think it's about the experience of puberty and awakening of sexual desire, and shotacon is essentially what would be wish fulfillment for an early to mid adolescent young man(say, 9 to 15, maybe centering on 13+). IRL it's a rare occurrence that someone that young "scores" with an older woman, but IRL there have been more than a few adult men who read about such things, see a pic of the attractive perp and think "that lucky little bastard".
So the elements of the kink:
1) contrast innocence of youth with sexual experience
2) incongruity and sheer fantasy of the frustrated young man gaining every woman he wants
3) synergy with incest fantasies, wanting a "mommy" as sex partner

 

[Losersriot]

Litle girls love big fat ugly ritch sugar daddyes lol.

 

[MissFortune]

Lolicon is obvious, it's simulated kiddy porn for sick fucks what want to fuck little girls.

Talk about the biggest double-standard I've seen this week.

Lolicon is obvious, as you say, simulated kiddy porn (which is both psychologically and emotionally untrue. The aforementioned Peter Pan Syndrome being a great example.). But if simulated kiddy porn is true for little girls, then shouldn't the opposite stand true for little boys? If older men are attracted to little girls (and boys), then the opposite remains true for women. Pedophiles exist under the umbrella of both genders, and even the ones that aren't considered scientifically 'real' (another argument entirely). I've seen cases of mother's doing just as vile shit to their kids as men/fathers/uncles/brothers do.

But back toward the actual topic, there's a few reasons why (though, obviously not all-encompassing.). The first is just the fantasy attraction of it. Think back to being a teenager and you see your friend's mom, big tits and ass, nice curvy waist, etc. Stereotypically, at least. You'd likely sell a kidney to fuck her. That 'I'm winning in life' psyche, so to speak. I'm sure a fair number of these artists are tapping back into that mindset (and thus a subtle form of Peter Pan Syndrome, I suppose.) as most of them likely grew up nerdy, bullied, or perhaps withdrawn. The other view is sexual abuse of the artist as a child. Studies have shown that a child who was molested by a father/mother figure are likely to carry on doing it themselves. Maybe some are using art as a vent in that sense. Then I suppose there's the audience side of it, as well. These artists know full well that their work is going to end up online and likely end up in front of young males/underage audience, and those young males are going to see themselves within that protagonist banging the milf/mother - and thus a milf they know.

 

[MLocke]

Well, you see, Japan is a country that has a strong feminist movement. For the men, it's mostly just a coming-of-age story, but there's another dimension to this. The game creators, male or otherwise, probably wanted to pay attention to what the female characters, ostensibly, wanted. You could call it the female gaze, and, apparently, women find shotas aesthetically-pleasing more so than typical, grotesque older men. The shotas are obviously missing a strong upper body that might be idealized, and they aren't growing up quickly except in a few obvious areas. So, it's not about a boyish charm or their own strong nurturing instinct so much, but you can see that women prefer a delicate, unblemished face. They aren't going to find that without a lot of searching. In other words, these older women are sick fucks even though they were trapped in a unrealistically sticky situation by these shotas. Were the creators wrong to make this tribute to female desire?

 

[Dr.Tentakelliebe]

Lolicon is obvious, it's simulated kiddy porn for sick fucks what want to fuck little girls. (No judgment. ) But shotacon... the vast majority of it I've seen (and as a regular nhentai user, I've seen *a lot*, the last few years it's been taking over the hentai manga/doujinshi scene to nearly the same degree as NTR) is still super male-gaze-y. Like, yeah, there's a little boy there, but the focus is still very much on the women. It feels like, whereas the fantasy being serviced with lolicon is fucking little girls, the fantasy being serviced with shotacon is fucking grown women *as a little boy*, and I just... can't wrap my head around why that's appealing to anyone (let alone apparently to half of Japan).

It's catching up with NTR? Well, as someone who generally feels a vigorous violent rage and a loss of all lust at most NTR, and as shota feels more fantastical than (far too believable) NTR, I'll count that as a win.

As someone not turned off by shota, I've seen 4 draws/attractions that address the pattern you seem to be picking up on:

1st - for the male view the smaller male partner (remember the first shota was a guy with dwarfism) takes up less room this is why you commonly see a shota with a phallus of avg or above avg adult size. The appeal is firstly that the character doesn't block the view of the female. This is the type of shota viewer who might be horrified by a realistic depiction of a male child abused.

2nd - similar to popularity of the rape fantasy, is that of men who feel guilty of their sexual desires, their fantasy is to have the power and responsibility taken from them. This shota viewer may find other stories of female sexual aggression appealing, and the shota provides a certain verisimilitude that can only otherwise be found if the female drugs the male, immobilizes him, or holds him at weapon point.

3rd - as pornography has become accessible to younger and younger audiences, males first sexual experiences are no longer a few occasion with the rare dirty magazine found behind a proverbial locker, or fumbling around with willing girlfriend, but dozens or even hundreds of wack-sessions with a host of pictures and videos of adult women. This can form a sexual identity where the male is far more comfortable seeing himself as the smaller partner and younger member. This shota viewer is likely attracted to the shota harem genre.

4th - the fantasy of the challenge, may be related to kink for amazonian body type. The shota generally has to over come a greater difficulty. This type of shota view generally hates stories of "pity" sex and prefers the shotadom.

Bonus - not as related to your observations but there is a "mother-figure" kink that can be connected, but as that is hardly a novel condition it unlikely connected to the

Of course these are not mutually exclusive to each other or other kinks. I know that as people get more realistic with the shota the less popular it currently is (and personally I hope that trend doesn't change).

 

[Febui]

Straight shota is almost all twerpy ugly boy wanting giant poorly drawn titty babe. I don't respect it.
Otter-san's Loner Onee-san is the only game to do it well, and the titties are still too honkin.
Also hung shota is the worst trope and needs to die.