Society talks a lot about how pornography has negative influences on people's behaviour, with the more violent porn catergories and objectifying sex with physicality, instead of the intimacy that many people feel sex is about. However, there isn't as much speak about this on erotica. The old school porn, in it's written form.
After the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy hit the number one fastest selling novel a few years back, erotica has become more of a louder topic in our culture, with other erotica writers such as Sylvia Day being a current top-shelfer in airports and bookstores around the world, which any curious bookreader child could pick up and dig into. However, erotica has often been hit with praise, being a revolution of normalising sex and BDSM and/or other sexual fetishes, bringing sex back into a less taboo topic. Yet, there are consequences of the modern day erotica which I believe have not been raised much.
Erotica often has blurred lines in what occurs in the sexual acts. Porn, it's pretty clear that you have either porn stars, or consenting adults who are performing hot hot sex or the a like. Fictional characters on the other hand, often hold emotional intimacy between the reader and the character, where there is weird line where the reader can carry the emotions that the character holds. And when the character is entering a relationship which is abusive, and raped filled, but the character written experiences less emotional abuse, and seemingly numbness or growing pleasure, there is an issue. I recently was reading Consequences by Aleatha Romig, which is incredibly popular and has a 4.07 rating on goodreads. But, after pretty much the first chapter, I felt like I was being raped, emotionally and physically. And as much as I get rape fetishes, being abducted, and then forced into non consensual sex by some guy who 'paid off my debt', and hospitalized me because of hitting me, should not be one's healthy fantasies. For sure, when the character or person is into it, hard, resisting the domination or being submitted to rough sex while they say no, but also show that they are really enjoying it (safewords are in place or what not), even just writing that the character is sexually aroused, would be great, and healthy. But, being life threatened isn't healthy. And people are reading this stuff, believing it's topping the charts being know as an incredible book about love and romance, will emotionally be connected to the idea of rape, as sexy. And it's not just Romig's novel which bothers me, but even Fifty Shades. There, Christian belts Ana with her initial consent, but forgets about physical consent, and leaves Ana feeling empty because she can't fulfill the demands that he has. Although Fifty Shades hasn't sparked me as rapey as Romig's book, it still can somehow feel awkward and uncomfortable in sections.
Now, I'm not going to defend porn against similar accusations. There is child porn out there, and there are rape and uncomfortable videos there that people seek daily. But, those pornography tapes are currently targetted, because they have caused pain or issues with consent or legality problems. Popular erotica isn't though. And I hope that people will see through some scenes in novels with more of a realistic eye. Is this rape? Should I really be feeling so sexy because I don't want to have sex with this abusive person? Probably not.
After the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy hit the number one fastest selling novel a few years back, erotica has become more of a louder topic in our culture, with other erotica writers such as Sylvia Day being a current top-shelfer in airports and bookstores around the world, which any curious bookreader child could pick up and dig into. However, erotica has often been hit with praise, being a revolution of normalising sex and BDSM and/or other sexual fetishes, bringing sex back into a less taboo topic. Yet, there are consequences of the modern day erotica which I believe have not been raised much.
Erotica often has blurred lines in what occurs in the sexual acts. Porn, it's pretty clear that you have either porn stars, or consenting adults who are performing hot hot sex or the a like. Fictional characters on the other hand, often hold emotional intimacy between the reader and the character, where there is weird line where the reader can carry the emotions that the character holds. And when the character is entering a relationship which is abusive, and raped filled, but the character written experiences less emotional abuse, and seemingly numbness or growing pleasure, there is an issue. I recently was reading Consequences by Aleatha Romig, which is incredibly popular and has a 4.07 rating on goodreads. But, after pretty much the first chapter, I felt like I was being raped, emotionally and physically. And as much as I get rape fetishes, being abducted, and then forced into non consensual sex by some guy who 'paid off my debt', and hospitalized me because of hitting me, should not be one's healthy fantasies. For sure, when the character or person is into it, hard, resisting the domination or being submitted to rough sex while they say no, but also show that they are really enjoying it (safewords are in place or what not), even just writing that the character is sexually aroused, would be great, and healthy. But, being life threatened isn't healthy. And people are reading this stuff, believing it's topping the charts being know as an incredible book about love and romance, will emotionally be connected to the idea of rape, as sexy. And it's not just Romig's novel which bothers me, but even Fifty Shades. There, Christian belts Ana with her initial consent, but forgets about physical consent, and leaves Ana feeling empty because she can't fulfill the demands that he has. Although Fifty Shades hasn't sparked me as rapey as Romig's book, it still can somehow feel awkward and uncomfortable in sections.
Now, I'm not going to defend porn against similar accusations. There is child porn out there, and there are rape and uncomfortable videos there that people seek daily. But, those pornography tapes are currently targetted, because they have caused pain or issues with consent or legality problems. Popular erotica isn't though. And I hope that people will see through some scenes in novels with more of a realistic eye. Is this rape? Should I really be feeling so sexy because I don't want to have sex with this abusive person? Probably not.