On Smut
I like smut. I read it. I write it. It's only been recently that I managed a PWP ( NCIS - Need), because I keep getting wound up in plots. :-) But I am definitely pro-smut. End of disclaimer. ;-)
I'm sure everyone on the net has probably heard about Amazon's corporate catastrophe. I'm not going to duplicate the link spam here. But the heart of the issue is that they've been deranking "adult titles" (aka, smutty books) all along. At least one article I read indicated that they were trying to override the fact that so many people buy smut online that it would skew the ranking numbers and their Bestseller list would be all smut.
So, I have to ask: What's wrong with that? If that's what people are buying, why on Earth should it matter that they show up as best sellers? The conflation of g/l/b interests as inherently "adult" is an issue that's been dealt with far better by others, but I still can't get over the obsession with hiding the smut.
"It's immoral!" If you consider reading and writing smut to be immoral, then don't do it. I know it's a shock, but not everyone shares your morals. Get over yourself.
"It's harming the children!" I'm a parent and I strongly resent anyone else telling me how to raise my child. We're not talking about seat belts in cars where the laws of physics determine if my kid's going to become a projectile (with generally fatal consequences) in an accident. We're talking about human sexuality and denying that is far more dangerous than reading a sex scene or even a hundred sex scenes.
"It's demeaning to women!" Still trying to work this one out. Not all smut A. is demeaning in any form, way or fashion and B. even includes women.
"Sex offenders read porn!" Might as well say, "Sex offenders breathe oxygen! Everybody! Hold your breath!" It makes just about as much sense. Correlation is not causality. Critical thinking, however, is far too rare.
"It's all badly written and has no literary value!" This is almost the most ludicrous of all. Let's ignore the great literature that is contains adult content for now. Those works speak for themselves. Let's consider, instead, modern, run of the mill smut. I will agree that a good deal of it is badly written. But so is a good deal of everything else. Sturgeon's Law trumps all. I'll even concede that there's even more badly written smut than any other genre. I've got to say, though, that maybe if we didn't hide the smut away in dark corners of the publishing industry; if maybe we were open and accepting of the fact that people like smut; if maybe the crap was more visible and set to the same standards of other fiction, just maybe it might improve.
We have got to stop hiding our passions, our sexuality, our instinctive need for sex. It's not healthy. Not for anyone. The idea that somehow reading about it will suddenly turn people into raving sex monsters intent on raping little children, old ladies and your favorite hound says far more about the person thinking that than about the person reading smut. It's time to stop letting the puritanical among us have any control over us at all. Let them go wring their hands in their dark little corners and leave the rest of us alone.
Life's too short to read bad porn. Let's start seeing what'll rise to the top if given the chance.
I'm sure everyone on the net has probably heard about Amazon's corporate catastrophe. I'm not going to duplicate the link spam here. But the heart of the issue is that they've been deranking "adult titles" (aka, smutty books) all along. At least one article I read indicated that they were trying to override the fact that so many people buy smut online that it would skew the ranking numbers and their Bestseller list would be all smut.
So, I have to ask: What's wrong with that? If that's what people are buying, why on Earth should it matter that they show up as best sellers? The conflation of g/l/b interests as inherently "adult" is an issue that's been dealt with far better by others, but I still can't get over the obsession with hiding the smut.
"It's immoral!" If you consider reading and writing smut to be immoral, then don't do it. I know it's a shock, but not everyone shares your morals. Get over yourself.
"It's harming the children!" I'm a parent and I strongly resent anyone else telling me how to raise my child. We're not talking about seat belts in cars where the laws of physics determine if my kid's going to become a projectile (with generally fatal consequences) in an accident. We're talking about human sexuality and denying that is far more dangerous than reading a sex scene or even a hundred sex scenes.
"It's demeaning to women!" Still trying to work this one out. Not all smut A. is demeaning in any form, way or fashion and B. even includes women.
"Sex offenders read porn!" Might as well say, "Sex offenders breathe oxygen! Everybody! Hold your breath!" It makes just about as much sense. Correlation is not causality. Critical thinking, however, is far too rare.
"It's all badly written and has no literary value!" This is almost the most ludicrous of all. Let's ignore the great literature that is contains adult content for now. Those works speak for themselves. Let's consider, instead, modern, run of the mill smut. I will agree that a good deal of it is badly written. But so is a good deal of everything else. Sturgeon's Law trumps all. I'll even concede that there's even more badly written smut than any other genre. I've got to say, though, that maybe if we didn't hide the smut away in dark corners of the publishing industry; if maybe we were open and accepting of the fact that people like smut; if maybe the crap was more visible and set to the same standards of other fiction, just maybe it might improve.
We have got to stop hiding our passions, our sexuality, our instinctive need for sex. It's not healthy. Not for anyone. The idea that somehow reading about it will suddenly turn people into raving sex monsters intent on raping little children, old ladies and your favorite hound says far more about the person thinking that than about the person reading smut. It's time to stop letting the puritanical among us have any control over us at all. Let them go wring their hands in their dark little corners and leave the rest of us alone.
Life's too short to read bad porn. Let's start seeing what'll rise to the top if given the chance.