Taboos - Part I
Every erotica writer knows about taboos. If we hope for any kind of publishing cred, we have to know about them. Even the most open-minded publisher has a list of topics that are forbidden – incest, underage sex, bestiality (unless, of course, it’s hot sex with a ripped, randy werewolf), necrophilia (vamps don’t count, but in most cases, zombies do – some prejudices are still alive and well!) and scat. There are of course variations and additions to the list, but for the most part, these are the big X’s. Different publishers have different preferences, including things like requisite happy endings. The main list however is pretty much hardwired in the erotica/erotic romance community.
Taboos change though. Many publishers add rape to the black list. The old cliché of the rapist who turns out to be a decent, if delightfully oversexed, lover in the end doesn’t seem to play as well as it once did either. In one of the first romances I ever read, The Velvet Promise, by Jude Deveraux, the hero effectively rapes his wife, the heroine of the story, on their wedding night. Does that scene detract to my enjoyment of The Velvet Promise? Absolutely not. Even twenty-five years into the future, and with a much more aware view of rape, I would still enjoy the story. Why? Because Ms. Deveraux weaves a tale that captivates, and she doesn’t glorify the rape. But a reader the age I was when I first read the book now might well find the scene more shocking than I did.
Of course, The Velvet Promise is not erotica, and for erotica authors, taboos are different. At least one goal of erotica is arousal, and that changes the very nature of the taboos. They become more dangerous, part of the transaction between writer and reader, a potential flirtation with the reader’s own sense of transgression. While a rape may be a motivational event in a romance, the same act in a work of deliberate eroticism becomes more problematic.
For the most part, the black list topics don’t interest me much (well, maybe the werewolf /vampire one), but I find the topic of taboos endlessly fascinating. As someone who has written dark erotica, many of my words severely violate some pretty common standards of decency. And, honestly, there are very few lines I won’t cross if a story calls to me from the blackest shadows, but I won’t necessarily expect to sell the tale to one of the usual markets.
So, from time to time, I’ll be writing more about forbidden topics. Sometime soon, either on here or on Frequently Felt, I’ll post the story I’ve written that has prompted the most alarm among the editors I’ve submitted it to because I innocently stepped over taboo lines – different lines, which I find interesting. You can be the judge, but regardless, it’s the story that came to me, and it won’t change – taboo or not.
Stay Sexy!
~AC
Taboos change though. Many publishers add rape to the black list. The old cliché of the rapist who turns out to be a decent, if delightfully oversexed, lover in the end doesn’t seem to play as well as it once did either. In one of the first romances I ever read, The Velvet Promise, by Jude Deveraux, the hero effectively rapes his wife, the heroine of the story, on their wedding night. Does that scene detract to my enjoyment of The Velvet Promise? Absolutely not. Even twenty-five years into the future, and with a much more aware view of rape, I would still enjoy the story. Why? Because Ms. Deveraux weaves a tale that captivates, and she doesn’t glorify the rape. But a reader the age I was when I first read the book now might well find the scene more shocking than I did.
Of course, The Velvet Promise is not erotica, and for erotica authors, taboos are different. At least one goal of erotica is arousal, and that changes the very nature of the taboos. They become more dangerous, part of the transaction between writer and reader, a potential flirtation with the reader’s own sense of transgression. While a rape may be a motivational event in a romance, the same act in a work of deliberate eroticism becomes more problematic.
For the most part, the black list topics don’t interest me much (well, maybe the werewolf /vampire one), but I find the topic of taboos endlessly fascinating. As someone who has written dark erotica, many of my words severely violate some pretty common standards of decency. And, honestly, there are very few lines I won’t cross if a story calls to me from the blackest shadows, but I won’t necessarily expect to sell the tale to one of the usual markets.
Apart from specific kinks, there are also topics and themes that poke provocatively at the edge of acceptability. I just watched Stalags, Ari Libsker’s documentary about exploitative, erotic literature aimed at Israeli youth around the time of the Eichmann trials. These formulaic adventure stories about Allied war heroes falling into the hands of sadistic, female Nazi POW camp commanders, were lurid and provocative on so many levels. (The Stalag books genre was probably inspired by American men’s adventure magazines like Man’s Story and True Men, which also provide fertile ground for analyzing how popular culture reflects our desires and fears.) I really liked the documentary, which is ultimately about forbidden and guilty pleasures and why they are powerful and sometimes painful part of being human.
So, from time to time, I’ll be writing more about forbidden topics. Sometime soon, either on here or on Frequently Felt, I’ll post the story I’ve written that has prompted the most alarm among the editors I’ve submitted it to because I innocently stepped over taboo lines – different lines, which I find interesting. You can be the judge, but regardless, it’s the story that came to me, and it won’t change – taboo or not.
Stay Sexy!
~AC
Posted by Angela Caperton at 6/28/2011 4:35 AM 
Categories: sexuality, Writing, Angela Caperton, Taboos, Erotica
Tags: Angela Caperton Taboos Stalags Erotica writing
Categories: sexuality, Writing, Angela Caperton, Taboos, Erotica
Tags: Angela Caperton Taboos Stalags Erotica writing
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