Article about Why Women Can't Write about Sex

StrangeLife · Feb 26, 2014

desertslave said:
I really liked LKH's first, ohhh, 10 AB books. The hot sex got more frequent, but most of it was integral to the story. Since then, though, it's become sex scenes interrupted by a few pages of plot. <sigh> It makes me sad because I liked her characterization and most of her descriptions (other than the fact that I was certain she was getting a kickback for the endless mentions of Nike sneakers).

She also fell into the "Superman trap" (making her heroine too powerful so that it's almost impossible to introduce any real sense of danger in the stories) and succumbed to the "Moonlighting syndrome" (making the heroine hook up with the main bad-guy and thus taming him).

Too bad really.... like you say, she writes great characters and she practically invented the urban fantasy genre. This series could have been so much better if she's had an editor with the courage to tell her.

Sarahduk · Feb 27, 2014

3113 said:
Actually, I don't think it's the amount of detail as it is the way that detail is presented. Of all the writers of erotica I've met and read, the one who went for the most detail was a woman. Not only did she write sex scenes easily, almost effortlessly (this in stark contrast to what our article there claims about women writers), but she adored writing them. So much so that she didn't want to leave them. Whenever she got to a sex scene she'd put in detail after detail in order to make it last for pages on end. Not just foreplay either. Characters would have multiple orgasms, then go at it again, barely taking time to come up for air (or a plot line).

Her huge fan base—almost all women—reveled in these lovingly crafted, detail-oriented, and exquisitely long sex scenes. And I think there-in was the difference. So long as these erotic details were presented richly and sensuously, both this female writer and her female readers couldn't get enough of them. But a lot of erotica writers present laundry lists: what the woman did to the man, what the man did to the woman. Such details, void of any elaboration, might not do the job for a reader who wants to savor the tastes, texture, fragrances and sensations of sexual pleasure.

I agree with everything you say

sunandshadow · Feb 28, 2014

Maybe this song, Brave, is a more positive version of what the article's author was trying to say.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyAfjUHlFSM

Athalia · Mar 9, 2014

Handley_Page said:
More wordy expressions which puzzle me; they might not puzzle a modern woman, but they confuse me. Are we talking about description power of what happens during the sex act or what goes on in their brains?

Is the future " best women's erotica" intended for a masculine or feminine audience ?

This reply is NOT intended as a provocation but just so I understand.

No offense taken. I might not have been as clear as I should have been. Or, perhaps, I intended the ambiguity; for me, the physical sensations of sex are all of a piece with the emotional and intellectual context. They really aren't separable, in my mind.

Bear in mind, though, that I don't claim to represent the "typical woman" or be her spokesperson. I bring no agenda into my writing except to tell a story that I, personally, would like to tell or that I would like to read.

When I said that the best women's erotica is yet to be written, I meant that women are just now beginning to find their voices. Anais Nin was a powerful voice for erotica in her day, but if you read her carefully, you'll see that the women of her time were in a far different social milieu than today's women, and it bids fair that tomorrow's women will be in yet another place, with more sexual experience, more familiarity with their bodies, more social options, and more confidence in their relationships. Tomorrow's feminine erotica will be primarily oriented to a feminine audience, but in my fondest hopes it will also appeal to men, too, just as Nin's did.

Article about Why Women Can't Write about Sex

StrangeLife

Eater of beef

Sarahduk

Really Really Experienced

sunandshadow

Cocksnail!

Athalia

Literotica Guru

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