oh this is such a good question because you'd think that, like any other 48-style group, snh48 should appeal to a (het) male fanbase right? my short answer is that snh48 is too gay. don't get me wrong, het men definitely love to fetishize wlw relationships, like isn't that a whole porn category? but the issue with snh48 here is that a decent% of them aren't into men and don't hesitate to show that they don't care about their male fans (they tend to straight up forget that they might have male or heterosexual fans tbh). so they (generally) fail to attract that demographic of straight male fans looking for a parasocial relationship because it's apparent that they don't stand a chance. yes, the nature of river cp is a performative but the illusion breaks when you know, it's not two women doing hot shit for men's viewing pleasure but two women who are dating each other. so that's why with the current river you really don't see as many male fans = mostly female dominated