For a long time, publishers assumed women wouldn't be interested in reading erotic literature. Writers of erotica were told women wouldn't buy stories about female sexual desire. Stories with a seductive bent were kept from the romance section shelves and found mostly underground and on the internet. But today, Yahoo reports that erotica has gone mainstream!
Author Tina Engler (who writes under several pseudonyms) says that "Erotica legitimizes the female sexual experience. Women read these books and it makes them feel normal about their own fantasies."
True that, Tina!
Unfortunately, we live in a society where women are often made to feel like sex is a man's game. We're not supposed to like things that appeal to our sexy side - and if we do we fear we're not normal or that we'll be percieved as trampy. Of course, Sex and The City has helped to change that to a large degree. Another author, Liz Maverick, credits the show with women's increased comfort level seeking out racier reading materials.
"For a lot of 20- and 30-something women, we would watch the show and see these women talk about sex and make it fun. Then we would call our girl friends and talk about the show. I think it opened a lot of things up" Maverick told Yahoo.
But the genre is nothing new.
Erotic fiction goes all the way back to the Marquis de Sade. The 1954 book "The Story of O" brought it into consciousness - though not acceptance. Sexual stories with female protagonists have been a historically hard sell to those who control the publishing industry. But women find them identifiable more and more often these days - and with good reason. While men have always had outlets for their erotic fantasies, women are finally coming around to creating - and embracing - their own.
So where does erotica fall in comparison to romance on side and pornography on the other? Erotica writers can tell a story. Unlike porn you'll find complexity of character, moral dilemmas and non-sexual situations mixed in with lurid details. But as opposed to romance novels where flowery language is used to detail the down and dirty, erotica writers aren't afraid to cut to the chase.
"You want it to be sexy," Maverick says. "Sometimes, flowery language doesn't fit as well as a good expletive."
Well, the expletives are working! With $1.2 billion a year in romance novel sales and increased demand for the saucier stuff, publishers are now calling Erotica a growth category. Major publishing houses like Harlequin have devoted entire lines to erotica, and there's no sign the genre's going anywhere any time soon.
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