Necessary to be able to write the opposite gender?

From what I've observed, men do that less than women, generally speaking. Give a guy some lesbian material and chances are, he's a happy camper even if the characters are such that he can't really self-insert through them all that well.

@Fitzroy Zeph, seems like an interesting read. Thanks for the heads up.

 

The expression - self insert - just doesn't work that well in this example.

 

Or works far TOO well!

 

Yeah, well, there's a load of romance out there with characters that are individuals. But there's also the formula, I think, but I'm only basing this on what I've discussed with said author.

Goes both ways. Just look at how many gay erotica titles there are by women writers, so I'd imagine many of them have also been written with the female audience in mind.