The evolution Of ABDL literature

[Flaresnare]

Or " How ABDL literature has changed through the years ? " Okay, may be a bit of a strange thing to ask but let me first explain a bit about my self , You see One thing I enjoy doing is Reading Reading ABDL stories, and even giving very thoughtful reviews on stories If I get a chance too, and while I enjoy reading all sorts of stories, I have this sorta fascination with reading stories that are considered to be much older, stuff that was usually written well before my times of even being on the internet ( which was well over a decade now )  basically also anything written before the 2010's I'm interested in, and I've certainly come across quite a few stories that date back well before my common days of browsing the internet like I do now,, however from reading stories that date way back as far as the 80s it has got me a bit carious as to what others who may be like me and enjoy looking at older stories or have memories of reading older stories as they were still new,  would have to say if they notice of How  ABDL stories  have changed over the course  time, let me explain a bit.

 So What I mean by this is, have you ever noticed a certain Story genre or theme that was more Common back then in the earlier  days of ABDL literature ? Like for me, something I tend to notice about older stories I come across, tended to mostly be about one's discovering of Wanting to wear diapers, usually of a Kid or teen protagonist ( with the occasional adult one  )  sometimes the most common trend for a story being the " Bedwetter " and is made to wear diapers, which can also sometimes leads to a more, darker themes, which would be " Diaper punishment " ( which I know can still be around, but I never recall seeing seeming a common as as they seemed to be ), which I have notice a lot of older stories do have themes of being more on a cruel tone then commonly found today, like the main character being forced to wear a diaper as a form of discipline for a Varity of reasons,  usually with the story of them being made to live with their Aunt or some close family friend, ( usually for the summer ),now I know the themes can not be for everyone ( I'm not super big on them myself, but do find a sort of fascination with them as they are part of what led me to discover the ABDL community a while back )  specially when it resolves around any character under the age of 18, which, yeah is something I tend to notice a bit more about older stories, stuff mostly found dating from the 90s to early and even Mid 2000s, were the main character is usually a Child one,. which I know can be a bit of a controversial element for a lot of people. specially again when it comes to the type of themes mentioned above,  but either way, I feel like stories with a child as the main character was were far more common and accepted on many sites then they are these days.

Now days I feel like stories tend to be less about The themes mentioned above ( you still find them from time to time, just, not as much as I would gather ) but instead I do feel like stories more common stories you'd find now, are ones with a more bizarre them, or adventurous take, like fantasy ABDL stories with themes of magic, mythical elements  and other bizarre things alike ( Stories with Sci-fi Themes are another I tend to see more of these days ) you still find more " grounded " stories of course, but I know these types are something I'd not notice as much when searching the archives of ABDL literature. ( but there is probably still a lot more out there waiting to be discovered, so whos knows ) 

Also one element I think to have notice in older stories that pop up, would be the Use of Cloth diapers and rubber pants, now I have seen them in more recent stories, but almost all the old stories I tend to come across, usually have it that the main character wears Cloth diapers instead of disposables ( and I'm talking cloth with Pins and all, the old fashioned way )  which I think may have to do with when most of these stories were written by, let's say an older author of the time, could be the fact they were still using Cloths more commonly around the time they were young, so it could have been nostalgia thing. 

Anyway, with all that said, tell me, if you think there is anything you tend to notice about Stories of the past, vs stories being written today ? thanks a ton. 




Also, while on the Topic,  I'd be carious to know what are some of your favorite " Classic " ABDL stories you've read or even enjoyed. 

[Personalias]

Perhaps you should provide some more concrete examples.  

[Flaresnare]

43 minutes ago, Personalias said:

Perhaps you should provide some more concrete examples.  

Ah, right,  just did now, Thanks

[Personalias]

I have done zero research on this topic.  This is all armchair philosophy, you're results will vary from person to person.

The type of diapers seem like an easy explanation.  The people writing stories decades ago were into cloth diapers because it's what they wore when they were babies.

It's why there's still such a HUGE chunk of late 70's-early 90's babies today who swear by plastic back disposables.  

I'm sure there will come a time (hopefully) when there's a whole bunch of diapers that are disposable but cloth backed, and you see them in fiction stories today.  Giant Luvs, Mammoth Huggies, Adult Sized Pampers.   Lots of people want to wear what they did when they were chrono-babs.

The nature of the stories is trickier and likely infinitely more complex.

If I had to guess, though, armchair philosopher style, I'd say it has to do with the expanding community and how the community is evolving and our own knowledge about ourselves.

I'm an "elder millenial".  Right on the bubble for when the internet was becoming widely available to everybody.  I thought I was the only one with this fetish (to use the term loosely) or that we were very very rare.  It was an isolating feeling.  

So I can relate to a lot of fantasies about being diapered as punishment; both because that was plausible as a punishment in my childhood, and it seemed in some regards to have been the ONLY plausible way for me to get what I wanted.  The "bed wetting" or "accidental" nature would help me feel less guilty.  It wasn't MY fault.  I didn't actively CHOOSE it.  It just HAPPENED.  (That and non-con fantasies will always be a thing and be on the market in some form or another.  And that's okay.)

Mom and Dad were very clear to most of us that they were done changing our diapers and us being potty trained was as much for their benefit as well as ours.  It didn't seem like we'd find many romantic interests who'd be down with wiping butts and playing peekaboo.  But as punishment?  Maybe even by a distant relative secluded away from the rest of our normal lives?  Maybe.  Maybe.  Still far fetched, and in someways just as implausible as being abducted by interdimensional beings who want to keep us as baby pets...but at least we could imagine getting what we wanted.

However, as the community has grown (or more likely connected) and many of us are finding self acceptance, the narrative is changing to reflect that.  We're becoming able to meet more of our basic fantasies in real life and becoming more comfortable in our own skin and our fiction is starting to reflect that.

Stories are becoming kinder because finding someone to accept us as we are seems more plausible, now. As a group we've found out that we're more populous than we thought and it is now infinitely more plausible in real life to find someone who will treat you the way you want to be treated as opposed to someone punishing you (against your for real will) and getting the same results.

I would hazard a guess that any trends towards more fantastical stories (magic, sci fi etc) can be credited to a greater degree of self-acceptance.  As a whole, we're integrating more of our personalities into the infantilsm.  Yes, we wanna be treated much younger than we actually are, but there's more to us than just that.  We like mysteries, we like revenge, we like romance, we like fantasy, we like sci-fi.  Instead of sectioning off this part of ourselves many of us are accepting that we can do both and have these interests at the same time.

So those "Big Baby out in a secluded cabin out in the woods being forced to wear diapers and sleep in a crib by my spinster aunt Cloe who never had kids of her own and always wanted one," has slowly metamorphed into,  "Seeking and finding love and self acceptance about being a baby on the inside after finding the magical pocket watch that alters reality and is the key to stopping an apocalyptic alien invasion."

Yes, I'm painting in broad strokes, and there are infinite exceptions etc. etc.  But those are my thoughts at the moment.
 

[WBDaddy]

59 minutes ago, Personalias said:

But as punishment?  Maybe even by a distant relative secluded away from the rest of our normal lives?  Maybe.  Maybe.  Still far fetched...

Yeah, you have to work back a couple more decades to find a time period where CPS wouldn't immediately remove a child from a home where being put in diapers when one didn't need them was a form of punishment.

It's funny, because I've told my personal story many times, my experiences with diaper discipline by parental figures in my family, and I've been met with far more skepticism than empathy.  Younger folks just don't believe that there was a time in the relatively recent past (80's and back) when society in general just allowed parents to discipline their children however they saw fit, so long as it didn't involve starvation or broken bones.

[Guilyn]

As a longtime reader of everything and sometime failed writer I'll toss in my point of view.  I've notice the change in many themes and I do agree with Personalias on the reasons why.  I've noticed the older darker stories from the late Long_Rifle have slowly faded away, so to have many of the "spankalot" stories that are just made to give someone a reason to make the bald man cry.  Stories now generally focus more on characters and how they develop overtime and less about them being in diapers or the use of those diapers. 

 

I can remember short stories people would write and the main character make make 3-6 messy diapers in the one short story.  Now you have stories that are 10-50 times longer and maybe have 1 or 2 messy diapers if that.  Today it feels like people want a good story first, diapers second.  In the past the stories generally were focused arounds diapers.  The first time I can remember a story not doing this would be "French Wines" by CS_Fox on the old fox tale times website.  I've wondered at times if ABDL story forums should be split into different categories for this reason.  Darker stories on one area, short "spankalot" stories in another, and maybe long epic stories in another.  Just my two cents.

[MinnesotaWriter]

A couple thoughts on this:

First, people primarily write about what the know and experience. That's easier to do. That's why older authors used old-fashioned diapers and newer authors instead reference the types of diapers they used themselves as babies. I think that's also why the stories of being forced back into diapers is common. The easiest thing to write about is what you know, fantasize and have experienced. 

Case in point, in one story I'm working on, "All My Mother's Rules," I wanted two of my characters to bond over shared videogame interests. I happened to be (and may still be) on a Fortnite binge, so that is what I felt comfortable describing in depth. Had I written this story ten years ago, I probably would have had them playing StarCraft. Had I written them as WoW or LoL players, that would have been more difficult, as those aren't games I'm familiar with. I certainly could have done it, but I naturally gravitated toward including a game that I could write easily about without a second thought.

-----

Secondly, the basic structures of how you plot a story haven't changed through human history. You can narrow basically any book or movie into a half-dozen categories of plots. Then, when you get into genre fiction, they have their own basic plots that tend to dominate. For example:

To make a basic outline that applies to the vast majority of stories on this site (including mine):

1. Protagonist doesn't need and/or wear diapers
2. Events happen that cause the protagonist to begin wearing diapers
3. Protagonist must either come to a point of acceptance over the need to wear diapers, or find a way to stop wearing them

Whether a story that follows this is good or bad is entirely up to the skill and imagination of the author, but I would suggest that this basic plot idea hasn't changed through the generations now of ABDL writers. That isn't to say that there aren't stories that fall outside of this, but I would say that variations of this plot is the norm. The better stories are ones that include depth, and character growth, that don't just hop from one diaper scene to the next. Or stories that include elements of other genres and other plots that aren't related directly to the diapers. Even with though three basic plot points, the amount and variety of good stories you can create from that is basically limitless.

I certainly do want a decent amount of diaper content in the stories I read (I mean, that's in the name of the site after all), but I find the diaper content more enjoyable when it is part of a broader story. One of my favorite stories I read recently, was one where the protagonist had parents who were meteorologists, and that was included in great detail (I suspect the author had studied in or was employed in that field) and I found it quite interesting.

-----
As to darker stories, I will say that darker is definitely a preference for me, and I do agree, there is not much of that around anymore. The second story I've started, "Diapers Never Lie," is an attempt at that. I don't think that dark necessarily has to be gruesome or horror, it can just be that it ends in a way that wasn't what the protagonist, and perhaps, the audience was wanting. I'm a big fan of stories written by Elizabeth, in my opinion the best author of ABDL fiction that I've come across. While I wouldn't necessarily describe her work as dark, there was an element of at least having unexpected, shocking, or bittersweet endings that was very well done.

[ValentinesStuff]

While I haven't read as much recently. I always found old stories with ridiculous time frames. Such as:

Someone "flooding" or filling their diapers about every hour or two.

Rooms being remodeled into a nursery while Johnny is at school. The room is emptied, repainted, decorated, and custom furniture made(no questions asked), clothing acquired, diapers, everything in just a few hours.

 

Another thing was the prevalence of stories where Johnny is a secret TB, and by the end of the story it turns out that about 75% of his class are TBs too, and the other 25% are "mommies." Same thing with adults, where about 25% of a city are wearing diapers.

 

[Flaresnare]

On 10/6/2020 at 9:34 AM, Personalias said:

I have done zero research on this topic.  This is all armchair philosophy, you're results will vary from person to person.

The type of diapers seem like an easy explanation.  The people writing stories decades ago were into cloth diapers because it's what they wore when they were babies.

It's why there's still such a HUGE chunk of late 70's-early 90's babies today who swear by plastic back disposables.  

I'm sure there will come a time (hopefully) when there's a whole bunch of diapers that are disposable but cloth backed, and you see them in fiction stories today.  Giant Luvs, Mammoth Huggies, Adult Sized Pampers.   Lots of people want to wear what they did when they were chrono-babs.

The nature of the stories is trickier and likely infinitely more complex.

If I had to guess, though, armchair philosopher style, I'd say it has to do with the expanding community and how the community is evolving and our own knowledge about ourselves.

I'm an "elder millenial".  Right on the bubble for when the internet was becoming widely available to everybody.  I thought I was the only one with this fetish (to use the term loosely) or that we were very very rare.  It was an isolating feeling.  

So I can relate to a lot of fantasies about being diapered as punishment; both because that was plausible as a punishment in my childhood, and it seemed in some regards to have been the ONLY plausible way for me to get what I wanted.  The "bed wetting" or "accidental" nature would help me feel less guilty.  It wasn't MY fault.  I didn't actively CHOOSE it.  It just HAPPENED.  (That and non-con fantasies will always be a thing and be on the market in some form or another.  And that's okay.)

Mom and Dad were very clear to most of us that they were done changing our diapers and us being potty trained was as much for their benefit as well as ours.  It didn't seem like we'd find many romantic interests who'd be down with wiping butts and playing peekaboo.  But as punishment?  Maybe even by a distant relative secluded away from the rest of our normal lives?  Maybe.  Maybe.  Still far fetched, and in someways just as implausible as being abducted by interdimensional beings who want to keep us as baby pets...but at least we could imagine getting what we wanted.

However, as the community has grown (or more likely connected) and many of us are finding self acceptance, the narrative is changing to reflect that.  We're becoming able to meet more of our basic fantasies in real life and becoming more comfortable in our own skin and our fiction is starting to reflect that.

Stories are becoming kinder because finding someone to accept us as we are seems more plausible, now. As a group we've found out that we're more populous than we thought and it is now infinitely more plausible in real life to find someone who will treat you the way you want to be treated as opposed to someone punishing you (against your for real will) and getting the same results.

I would hazard a guess that any trends towards more fantastical stories (magic, sci fi etc) can be credited to a greater degree of self-acceptance.  As a whole, we're integrating more of our personalities into the infantilsm.  Yes, we wanna be treated much younger than we actually are, but there's more to us than just that.  We like mysteries, we like revenge, we like romance, we like fantasy, we like sci-fi.  Instead of sectioning off this part of ourselves many of us are accepting that we can do both and have these interests at the same time.

So those "Big Baby out in a secluded cabin out in the woods being forced to wear diapers and sleep in a crib by my spinster aunt Cloe who never had kids of her own and always wanted one," has slowly metamorphed into,  "Seeking and finding love and self acceptance about being a baby on the inside after finding the magical pocket watch that alters reality and is the key to stopping an apocalyptic alien invasion."

Yes, I'm painting in broad strokes, and there are infinite exceptions etc. etc.  But those are my thoughts at the moment.
 

Wow, well I have to say, even if your just giving your theorized explications, all the  " points " you made ,  it sounds like it can be  very close or truthful to what the Actual reasons are,  ( from the reason of specific Diaper brands to why stories are more like what they are today  ) and what i'm getting is, ABDL literature is evolving mainly because the community as a whole is as well ?  sounds very plausible to me., but I have to agree that possibly why older stories tend to have that darker more forced aspect to them, being because it was the best way to convey the desire to wear diapers in a accepted way. by force if you will,

Like As for me, Diaper punishment stories were the ones that did draw me toward ABDL literature in the first place. even though it is a form of punishment I'd find unacceptable in real life to do to anyone, ( though I'm not one of those who deny such forms of discipline ever happened or happen, though very less common today and usually result in Parent's or the guardians being charged or arrested  )  anyway, for me it stemmed from my desires of being made helpless and even humiliated, and having fantasies of many sorts, so it was clear for me to see what drew me toward such Stories, my opinions on such tales now have changed very much though, as I myself had grown to appreciate more Kinder and adventurous stories you see these days .  

 

On 10/6/2020 at 5:45 PM, Guilyn said:

As a longtime reader of everything and sometime failed writer I'll toss in my point of view.  I've notice the change in many themes and I do agree with Personalias on the reasons why.  I've noticed the older darker stories from the late Long_Rifle have slowly faded away, so to have many of the "spankalot" stories that are just made to give someone a reason to make the bald man cry.  Stories now generally focus more on characters and how they develop overtime and less about them being in diapers or the use of those diapers. 

 

I can remember short stories people would write and the main character make make 3-6 messy diapers in the one short story.  Now you have stories that are 10-50 times longer and maybe have 1 or 2 messy diapers if that.  Today it feels like people want a good story first, diapers second.  In the past the stories generally were focused arounds diapers.  The first time I can remember a story not doing this would be "French Wines" by CS_Fox on the old fox tale times website.  I've wondered at times if ABDL story forums should be split into different categories for this reason.  Darker stories on one area, short "spankalot" stories in another, and maybe long epic stories in another.  Just my two cents.

Ah, yeah, I can see that, very good points, characters are certainly something that has evolved quite a bit from the early days of ABDL literature it seems, along with things like plot, back then you'd seem to get a few stories here and there dedicated to the characters growth over time as appose to just, the character is wearing a diaper and is using them constantly through the entire plot. Which brings me to the other point you made, Diaper usage seems to very quite a bit these days, you may get a story where diaper usage seems to be the main element of the story,, or you may get one were it's sorta of a back occurrence and not the focus, 

I agree, a good story is something I would go for when I wan't to read some ABDL literature, Diapers and other ABDL elements as a clear presences, but the main focus to be the character and plot, even it if revolves around the usage of diapers and such things. 

oh and the separate forum Idea for specific story types, I think would be a very connivant Idea for those who are looking for something to match more their tastes. though sure it can be a bit fun to sorta go into a story without knowing what quite to expect at times. but still I'd be up for such a feature their. 


 

 

On 10/7/2020 at 2:17 AM, MinnesotaWriter said:

A couple thoughts on this:

First, people primarily write about what the know and experience. That's easier to do. That's why older authors used old-fashioned diapers and newer authors instead reference the types of diapers they used themselves as babies. I think that's also why the stories of being forced back into diapers is common. The easiest thing to write about is what you know, fantasize and have experienced. 

Case in point, in one story I'm working on, "All My Mother's Rules," I wanted two of my characters to bond over shared videogame interests. I happened to be (and may still be) on a Fortnite binge, so that is what I felt comfortable describing in depth. Had I written this story ten years ago, I probably would have had them playing StarCraft. Had I written them as WoW or LoL players, that would have been more difficult, as those aren't games I'm familiar with. I certainly could have done it, but I naturally gravitated toward including a game that I could write easily about without a second thought.

-----

Secondly, the basic structures of how you plot a story haven't changed through human history. You can narrow basically any book or movie into a half-dozen categories of plots. Then, when you get into genre fiction, they have their own basic plots that tend to dominate. For example:

To make a basic outline that applies to the vast majority of stories on this site (including mine):

1. Protagonist doesn't need and/or wear diapers
2. Events happen that cause the protagonist to begin wearing diapers
3. Protagonist must either come to a point of acceptance over the need to wear diapers, or find a way to stop wearing them

Whether a story that follows this is good or bad is entirely up to the skill and imagination of the author, but I would suggest that this basic plot idea hasn't changed through the generations now of ABDL writers. That isn't to say that there aren't stories that fall outside of this, but I would say that variations of this plot is the norm. The better stories are ones that include depth, and character growth, that don't just hop from one diaper scene to the next. Or stories that include elements of other genres and other plots that aren't related directly to the diapers. Even with though three basic plot points, the amount and variety of good stories you can create from that is basically limitless.

I certainly do want a decent amount of diaper content in the stories I read (I mean, that's in the name of the site after all), but I find the diaper content more enjoyable when it is part of a broader story. One of my favorite stories I read recently, was one where the protagonist had parents who were meteorologists, and that was included in great detail (I suspect the author had studied in or was employed in that field) and I found it quite interesting.

-----
As to darker stories, I will say that darker is definitely a preference for me, and I do agree, there is not much of that around anymore. The second story I've started, "Diapers Never Lie," is an attempt at that. I don't think that dark necessarily has to be gruesome or horror, it can just be that it ends in a way that wasn't what the protagonist, and perhaps, the audience was wanting. I'm a big fan of stories written by Elizabeth, in my opinion the best author of ABDL fiction that I've come across. While I wouldn't necessarily describe her work as dark, there was an element of at least having unexpected, shocking, or bittersweet endings that was very well done.

Great points, I do find it very interesting when stories will differ from the use of what sot of diaper brand is featured in it, older stories certainly did have cloth present a lot more then those of today, but you'll probably find more literature overall with the use of disposables, for me, while I lean toward preferring a story with disposables, I am not put off by a story that uses cloth, in fact I think it's kind of interesting to read stories today that still have them be written in.  even more so when a story has the use of both at some point, like I have read a couple stories where the main character is first made to wear disposables, but later at some point cloth, and by a person who is usually old fashioned or the older type, so it'd make sense for them to be that way. also with how the world evolves and technology has, you can of course expect to see more up to date things present in modern stories, ( like with your example of fornite vs starcraft ) a lot of the old ABDL stories can be very dated when you hear mentions of things like, VHS's ,polaroid cameras, or even reading ones that mention the internet being a sort of " new " thing and and easy way to meet others with such " interests "  but even with that, their is sort of a charm to reading back to such stories with those aspects.  

And for the basic plot, that's very true, the main premise of most Diaper stories basically works out that way sense the beginning of ABDl literature ( or so I'd imagine ) what really changes is like how you say, is the way or reason the character is put through such scenarios. and, I'm very much okay with that, to me, I don't mind of a story has a plot we or premise we all seen before, what I do care about is, is how the story handles or goes about it, adding enough stuff to it to give it some " moderation " to make it different in it's own way. Also, yeah, Diaper content is very much a key and important factor to many stories, and are of course the welcome and main reason you clicked on the story, but you also are looking for a story that can also have a griping plot and characters to fallow through. it's a Huge bonus when  story has both of these done so well. 

And yeah, I for one don't Mind a Darker story from time to time, I don't mind if a story can get cruel, but usually I prefer the characters to eventually get through with what ever troubles they face it it can happen. the bittersweet endings I suppose are more what I'd look for ( like character ends up having to unwillingly wear diapers permanently, but has also overcome a great trouble in their life isn't as bad as having to wear diapers ) then straight up depressing or Twisted. but that wouldn't make a story bad just for that. but it is sort of interesting to see how Darker tales aren't quite the norm as they used to be. you still of course see them, but they don't seem to pop up as often, I'd admit I'd certainly hate for it to be a genre to see completely go away. though I don't think we'll have to worry about that ever going to happen. 

 

 

On 10/7/2020 at 3:09 AM, ValentinesStuff said:

While I haven't read as much recently. I always found old stories with ridiculous time frames. Such as:

Someone "flooding" or filling their diapers about every hour or two.

Rooms being remodeled into a nursery while Johnny is at school. The room is emptied, repainted, decorated, and custom furniture made(no questions asked), clothing acquired, diapers, everything in just a few hours.

 

Another thing was the prevalence of stories where Johnny is a secret TB, and by the end of the story it turns out that about 75% of his class are TBs too, and the other 25% are "mommies." Same thing with adults, where about 25% of a city are wearing diapers.

 

Oh my, ? yes, those are pretty much very common themes I can recall coming across in Older stories. which pretty much can be a sort of old school cliché,  from the constant wetting and messing in one day and specially to the whole " Re-done bedroom into Nursey " ( if only converting a room into a Adult nursery was that quick and simple  ?) I think I only read one story thus far that sort of subverted that element, were the protagonist had to Stay in a sort of guest room while their room was being worked on ( which took about 3 days, still a bit of a unrealistic time frame but still a lot more feasible ) though I can't say those make a story bad, but defiantly a strange aspect to find.

ah yeah,That's another one. so many older stories usually have the whole " I secretly like diapers but don't want to be found out " premise, which is a very relatable aspect I think we can all agree, and in a lot of cases, and yeah either everyone's else is also into diapers or they'll at least have a friend who does indeed loves diapers too or gets very interested in diapers because of them. 
However this type of story can go two routes sometimes, and that being, the main character, takes to stealing diapers from younger sibling, or buy them from a pharmacy, usually they are able to fit the diapers despite them  being toddler sized, parents find out, and A are very supportive and help their child by babying them and getting them all their own baby stuff, or B are not very supportive and " Help " their child by babying them  and getting them all their Own Baby stuff ( in this case usually in hopes they'd get sick of it )