tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post1400991559482749867..comments2023-05-30T08:29:42.770-04:00Comments on The Erotica Readers & Writers Association Blog: Why Aren’t We Sexually Liberated Yet?Croco Designshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417265522875605547noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post-65703124709652754122013-04-20T18:34:16.930-04:002013-04-20T18:34:16.930-04:00You're right, Garce, there have been lots of c...You're right, Garce, there have been lots of changes in mere decades in terms of sexual behavior and gender roles, but there's been a lot of backlash, too, and specifically teenagers, who are not even allowed to think about sex in terms of public expression. I think silencing this area of experience is harmful and leads to ignorance and more abuse of power, and we've gone backward. <br /><br />Lady Flo, sex is a powerful force, and it resists being "civilized." However, I guess I am a 1970's liberal in that I believe education, for example that females can experience pleasure, but it isn't automatic. By "liberation," I meant we are not forced to remain silent about and ashamed of our experiences. Erotica is one way to push that agenda foreward!<br /><br />Good points, Lisabet, and I agree that the trend to vulgarize sex has taken new forms. We're familiar with the (false) stereotype of any erotic writing being stupid just because there's sex, which indeed strips away any mystery, depth, magic. You're reminding me that this is also what good erotica does, and another way it's different from porn. Good erotica illuminates this deeper, dare I say spiritual, side of sex.Donnahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13615190390845433428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post-41151699002859183262013-04-20T04:07:30.889-04:002013-04-20T04:07:30.889-04:00Excellent post, Donna. I also grew up during the s...Excellent post, Donna. I also grew up during the sexual revolution, and benefited from that fact, but I'm not that surprised that we've moved backward in some areas. Social change runs in cycles. A guest blogger of mine recently wrote a fascinating post about how sexually open the English were in the late eighteenth century - only to come back to the official prudery of Victorian times. <br /><br />I think that AIDS had a huge impact on the ongoing liberalization of sexuality. All of a sudden there was this horrific disease - a plague - that most afflicted those who were sexually active. It was so easy and natural to the puritans to hail this as rightful punishment for "immorality". At the same time, any rational individual would be at least somewhat deterred from the spontaneous expression of sexual desire by the very real risks involved in sex.<br /><br />What worries me even more is the fact that erotic experience seems to have lost its mystery, intensity and importance in the modern world. Young people can easily find sexual stimuli, without any of the obstacles faced by our peers - and thus without the associated excitement. "Sexting" seems so silly and banal to me. When I was a teen, sex was a big deal. Now it's akin to playing a video game, I guess.<br /><br /><br />Lisabet Saraihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05162514190572269660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post-47379576422916362542013-04-19T12:30:14.595-04:002013-04-19T12:30:14.595-04:00John Lennon's slogan "Make love not war&q...John Lennon's slogan "Make love not war" seems utopia.<br />On this topic I'm very critical and cynical. Why aren't we sexually liberate yet? Because it's impossible.<br />Sexuality is a strong energy, a instinct of life and death, as Freud said. Life (love) and death (violence). And this forces are in our bodies and in our minds... we can not free ourselves from them, we can only keep them under control... with a soft control, or with a hard check.<br /><br />Sexuality is a hot stuff... hot for violence and power before then eroticism.Elisahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15275860455671107147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post-85906298260964653502013-04-18T21:15:17.992-04:002013-04-18T21:15:17.992-04:00Hi Donna!
ActuallyI'm amazed at how quickly t...Hi Donna!<br /><br />ActuallyI'm amazed at how quickly things have changed. A lot of people have said how E L James isn;t the best writer out there, but I celebrate her popularity because it does move the game forward.<br /><br />Literary erotica has never been especially popular compared to the hard stuff, that's just how it is. But I've always come to things by a back door. I discovered Shakespeare by listening to Orson Welles play the Shadow on tapes of old radio shows I came to Wagner's Ring operas because I heard the music in a vampire movie. People who will know us when they find us.<br /><br />GarceGarceushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11160407485298015371noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post-50907091278533720852013-04-18T19:36:12.822-04:002013-04-18T19:36:12.822-04:00Hi Joan--I've heard that they are much stricte...Hi Joan--I've heard that they are much stricter about images than words, perhaps because they assume the worst perverts don't read? But my son was surprised at how young the characters were in the books, so I guess the actors do look over 18!<br /><br />All true, Fiona. It's very sad how little has changed. I try to avoid exposure to violence as much as possible in "entertainment" (okay, I'm watching Game of Thrones, but I close my eyes). But it sells well and no one seems to mind that kind of obscenity! Donnahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13615190390845433428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post-91416400593979853772013-04-18T16:57:12.278-04:002013-04-18T16:57:12.278-04:00I'm with you on everything you said! I, also,...I'm with you on everything you said! I, also, was called many names many times, but my reply was always, "I don't think I'm a slut, and I don't care what you think." I figured by the time my own kids were teens, surely things would be advanced. Nope. Still the same. Sigh. Boys do, girls get called names, and no one can talk about anything in school without getting fired. Yet all freshmen read Romeo and Juliet and Juliet is 13 when the play opens! She's dead before she's 14! Society is full of hypocrites who say abstinence is the only thing kids need to be taught, yet they also sell sexy clothing to young children, like tight shorts with words on the ass for girls, and make-up for toddlers. Sigh.<br /><br />Americans are weird. Laurell Hamilton says when she goes to England for book signings they tell her she puts too much violence in her books. When she comes back to the U.S., she gets told she has too much sex in her books. We'd rather shoot you, than make love. Puritans aren't dead! They still rule here!Fiona McGierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13495707848048468428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post-57981965942697115612013-04-18T02:01:20.921-04:002013-04-18T02:01:20.921-04:00There was actually a kerfuffle over the graphic no...There was actually a kerfuffle over the graphic novel version of the first Game of Thrones over one of the characters marriage consummation at 13. I forget how it was resolved, but drawing those sorts of pictures for publication is illegal, apparently.<br /><br />I forget how old she's supposed to be in the television series.Joan Defershttp://www.joandefers.comnoreply@blogger.com