My partner enjoys reading erotic fiction, and it makes me uncomfortable.
Hello, my partner and I have been together for about five years now. I'm a 25-year-old male, and she is a 25-year-old female. We’ve always enjoyed discussing fanfiction and have even considered writing our own someday. However, at one point, she expressed discomfort with one of my preferred pairings, which ultimately turned me off from exploring smut entirely. Recently, our physical intimacy has decreased, and I know part of that is due to insecurities we've acknowledged. The thing is, she absolutely loves smut; she reads it often, particularly at night when she thinks I'm asleep. This has made me uncomfortable, especially since some of the fanfiction she reads seems to influence her suggestions in the bedroom. I find the idea of smut roleplay quite unsettling. Despite having agreed to a no-porn rule, erotica strikes me as a form of porn, and I’m wrestling with mixed feelings about it. I didn’t mind it as much before, but my feelings have changed. I brought up my concerns to her, but she disagreed. Still, she agreed to stop reading smut, yet I caught her reading it again while I was asleep, which has left me feeling really unsettled. I know this isn’t our biggest issue, but I can’t help but wonder if I can trust her. If she reassures me about something she wasn’t committed to in the first place, what else could she be hiding? I haven’t mentioned it since our last discussion, and I get the sense that she doesn’t realize I’m aware she’s still reading. She tends to react strongly when I bring up topics she doesn't like, so I’ve been hesitant to approach this again. I’m also at a loss about whether it’s even worth revisiting, since it feels like she’ll do what she wants regardless. The last time we were intimate, I was surprised when she initiated and suggested something new. Afterward, I checked her AO3 account and noticed that the stories she was reading matched the things she suggested—weirdly, it made me feel really uncomfortable. Am I overreacting? Does she need to read smut to feel attracted to me? This has made communication feel even more difficult. She tends to read smut involving both real and fictional characters, often with a preference for lesbian pairings. While I don’t take issue with her interests, I sometimes feel insecure since I’m not a woman. I genuinely need some advice on this—am I being unreasonable for feeling this way? Thank you!