Now first off though it should be clarified I never made an interest check outright saying "Females Only".
But I might as well have, cause I practically always ended up with female partners, and those that were male would die out very quickly.
Now I'm mainly going to be touching on Jorick's later two points: Comfort levels with Sexuality, and Blurring the line between player and character.
Basic Background
So me as a Teenager had joined a lot of 1x1 roleplays.
It should also be noted that where I came from before Iwaku (I'll be mentioning this a lot via 'The Guild') there was no Libertine section.
1x1's were all just cramped together into one Interest Check, and the vast majority of them were in nature Libertine, to the point where unless if clear restrictions were set at the start almost every 1x1 would turn Libertine in nature at some point.
*Oh and if people are thinking "Don't you mean Liberteen?", the Guild never separated it by age either.
Comfort Levels of Sexuality
So as mentioned by others, a lot of people do feel rather personal about sexual roleplaying.
This can be from a number of factors such as the detail put into it, for example one usually doesn't go "He blows" he'll go into further detail about the how, the feeling, the specific parts, they're thinking.
You know, general detail/explanations that players add to RP posts for the sake of immersing themselves, only in this case they're immersing into sexual content. This is can make it feel very real for to them, especially when something such as sex is a common human interaction and desire to have. It's not something remote in fantasy such as say "Slaying the Dragon with Excalibur" where one can easily go "This doesn't happen in real life".
And when someone is that immersed it can be even more detailed or intimate than usual sex-ting or phone sex, so a lot of people end up seeing it as a form of cheating simply because of how close it can feel, and the amount of detail actually put into it. And then you got those individuals were any form of talking sexually with others can be seen as cheating, but that's a topic for another time.
So first off to even get these scene's to begin with you need two players who have stepped up and said "I am ok roleplaying/immersing myself into this kind of content", but human's have a big array of levels they're comfortable at. You're going to get those that vary from "Only those I trust" to "Anybody". And along that spectrum you got those who may be willing to be open about it, but don't want to move beyond their own sexual attraction. Because at least that way they feel more natural/at home about it.
*Note in some cases it might be cases like only wanting a sex they're not attracted to. For these people the reasoning could be something along the lines of "If it's not someone I'm attracted to, that adds a level/suspension of disbelief" or "If it's not someone that would be attracted to me then I don't need to worry about the partner taking it personally".
Blurring the line between player and character
**Now, this one before I start should be given an immediate disclaimer. Back on the Guild one of the people who I originally set up a 1x1 with had actually became a Girl Friend, and this last around 2 years (however it was on and off during that time). Now, what exactly caused a 1x1 pairing to turn into an actual relationship? In all honesty I don't even 100% remember, and due to the Guild Crash I can't even bring up old records/messages to figure it out. However from what I can remember it was because as we RP'd we did also engage in a lot of OOC conversation, and over the span of a few months we grew close enough through OOC chatter to feel that an online relationship was worth a shot. So in my memory, this wasn't one of those "I can see you as your character" situations... Which considering our RP was about a Gang Member kidnapping a Princess would have been pretty bad. XD**
Any ways, this largely ties into the same thing I got into with the "Comfort Levels of Sexuality" point. As the nature of roleplays people immerse themselves quite a bit, and this can get very personal when it's a topic that almost every human being has either engaged in or has a strong desire to engage in. So already the person has allowed themselves into this fictional world/story quite a bit, to the point where one only needs a push or two for that immersion to turn into line-blurring. This push could be "I'm really lonely in Real Life and really want someone", "I'm in a rough spot in life and need someone to make me feel better", "My real life is awful and I need an escape", "I really like the player behind the character and wish I could be doing this with them" etc. Essentially some sort of outside factor to make the person emotional vulnerable or desperate enough that their Brains starts to adopt the RP was their form of reality. Even if consciously the player realises it as a separate entity, if the unconscious mind desires it strong enough the persons actions and behaviour could start to change to be treating it as if it is their actual life. This is where possessiveness and OOC advances can start to become a thing.
*It should also be noted that on top of the Online Relationship mentioned above, there were another case where in either reflection such a line was being blurred.
It was one of those "Would be together if not for being in another relationship" deals. In this case note the girl had also asked me out within the first week, before any RP actually had started yet, but the 'Chemistry' for a lack of better word had grown stronger the more indepth things like roleplays were a thing.
Blurring the line between player and character - Non-Romantic/Desperate Life reasoning/motivation.
This one's more of a small bonus/foot-note, because I'm actually dealing with a player in D&D group atm who has the issue of not being able to separate IC with OOC. Though he doesn't do it in a Romantic/Libertine manner, but it could still work as a decent example of other reasoning's this stuff pops up.
So, brief background on this one.
As I've mentioned on the site before I was born with Autism, Diagnosed at age 3 and went through 12 years of therapy for it.
During those 12 years I met a lot of other people with Autism, one of these people being the current D&D player in question.
In this case our group has dealt with a series of episodes where something IC does a way he doesn't like it, and his reaction is to lash out at the players over it. To list a few examples.
(Small Note: If anyone where goes to the "Giant in the Playground" forums. You might know of this person as 'Player D' from when people share their D&D experiences).
- Stunned by Gelatinous Cube, and assassinated by a party member who was betraying the entire party. Reaction was crying for 3 hours straight (I timed it), even when told his character would revive after the fight.
- Exposing himself as a Vampire in front of a Druid (Knowing ahead of time Druids pre-disposition to the undead). And then when the Druid attacks it for being unnatural he yells "You ruined this campaign for me!".
- Calling a campaign complete shit because he was flanked (and knocked unconscious by a horde of Goblins)
*Should note whenever he makes a character he always gives very basic concepts like "He's an Assassin" or "A Bounty Hunter whose loyal to his contract". And then uses them as essentially his class/sheet of stat's to which he ends up playing himself. If you do ask him he will say "Oh no, I'm roleplaying my character, their motivations etc" but if you ask him what those are it will
always go back to the "He's an Assassin" thing. So essentially he's always playing as himself and not a roleplayed character/personality.
Now this case what's going on is honestly the Autism and lack of a 'Character', where most people naturally have the ability to separate pretend from reality he is suffering more difficulty/hardships with doing so.
So when something in the Campaign goes badly for him, his usual reaction to blame the players as if the characters hostility is the players hostility. The skill that let's someone go "This is a game, not real life" is present for him, but it's one he needs to consciously focus on to remember, and even then he will snap into a rage first and then need to remember the fact after said rage is done.
On top of which as I mentioned above, he takes himself and insert's them into his characters. That right there adds to the problem because now if something happens to the character, there's not really a 'character' or personality there it's happening to. It's not a separate intensity that one can act is, it's himself, instances are happening to him without it actually happening to him.
Technically Teen me is Guilty of the "Insert Self into RP too" thing
To give some history though, in my case 'Gwazi Magnum' was an RP Character before being my username. On the Star Wars Universe RP I used to be in my character Duvnar Magnum adopted a son named Gwazi Magnum. Back on the Star Wars site everyone's username was that of their main character, it was a habit we picked up because we originated from Combine which is a star wars simulation site, where you play as a character in the galaxy, so to make it easier on the staff there everyone's know by their character.
This habit followed me to the Guild, where my username remained Gwazi Magnum (by the time the Star Wars RP ended Gwazi had replaced Duvnar as my most used character). And then as a result I made most characters in the games "Gwazi Magnum". I did take efforts to make them unique from one another (however not well) mind you.
Then adult me has a special case of "Welcome back to the
Guild" where the RP actually involves the RP Guild itself, in which case being Gwazi in that specific scenario just seemed fitting to the setting. Though even then I take efforts so it's a similar but different person from who I am.