Spanking the Minotaur: Final Words on Taboos
As promised awhile back, here are a few last thoughts (for now) on the subject of taboos, and especially on forbidden topics in erotic writing. I posted my oft-rejected story “Swats” and some of you were kind enough to tell me you enjoyed it and that you did not find it offensive. I think it’s a good, not great, tale, and one I certainly had not conceived of as defying the boundaries of mainstream erotic fiction. By contrast, my recently published story “Gloriana” deliberately flouted one of the biggest cultural taboos for dramatic, not erotic, effect. (As a side note, I encourage anyone who likes twisted fiction to buy a copy of The Big Book of Bizarro. It’s full of convention-challenging work by many talented writers! The editors managed to have their PG-13 rated book trailer banned from Youtube, even though nothing in it is overtly X or even R rated!)“Swats” pushed a number of different buttons that disturb some readers. Even though no young characters appear in the story, it veered too close to underage sexuality for some readers’ taste, but I think it was a combination of elements that made the story seem more dangerous than it was intended to be. Taboos are ultimately individual – one man’s meat is another’s abomination – but some of the ways we react to disturbing or arousing ideas come from the proximity of conflicting ideas within the biochemical mazes that are our brains. No news here – my maze isn’t necessarily like yours. That doesn’t make mine better or worse than yours, just different.
As a society, we have taken a strong stand against underage sexuality, while at the same time, in many ways, we prematurely sexualize our children. The discomfort caused by this dissonance echoes all through our culture, occasionally breaking out into public outrage, or worse. We also have a strong, increasing cultural value that says the exercise of authority, say, by a teacher, to gain sexual favor is wrong, even criminal, yet in our media, we constantly celebrate the sexual power of domination. (Please note that I am not criticizing these positions – I fully believe that children need to be protected vigorously from sexual predation, while also being informed and educated about sexuality. I am also firmly against sexual harassment and delighted to be a woman living in an age where the behavior of the guys in Mad Men is possibly grounds for a lawsuit.) Both of these taboos however are relatively recent and still not universal in our culture. I introduced echoes of both taboos, and the dissonance they cause, into my little story without realizing I was doing it.
As I’ve noted before, the best erotica always occurs in a reader’s head. No writer can create a scene as powerful as the feelings stirred by the firing neurons that birth individual imagination. The same is true of good horror stories, poetry, and most dramatic entertainment. The better job a writer does of creating space for a reader to make his or her own pictures, the more powerful the work.
Of course, the space that conflicting values occupy is the same place in which myths and dreams are born, the raw matter of psychology and psychiatry. The surrealists’ beloved Minotaur symbol embodies thanos and eros, the human and the bestial, and the labyrinth where it lives is a superb metaphor for our minds. Taboos are powerful and exploring and questioning them is a healthy and dramatically interesting pursuit, but it’s good to remember that most taboos have a basis in practicality and the consequences of overturning them can be devastating.Okay, this has all become heavier than I intended and my story can’t begin to bear the weight – it’s about an erotic spanking of a healthy, modern adult, not a Minotaur, after all. But I feel sure I will return to this topic again. Every time I write something that bumps up against a line that someone says I shouldn’t cross, I will try to look at it as an opportunity to explore the reasons why the line is there.
Maybe, sometimes because I need to learn how to erase it.
Posted by Angela Caperton at 9/23/2011 8:52 PM 
Categories: Erotic Short - Swats, Erotica, Taboos, Angela Caperton, Taboo Erotica - Swats
Tags: Angela Caperton erotica taboo spanking
Categories: Erotic Short - Swats, Erotica, Taboos, Angela Caperton, Taboo Erotica - Swats
Tags: Angela Caperton erotica taboo spanking
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