Those of you who hang around the Amazon Kindle pages may have noticed that a certain type of erotica writer thrives on writing about the most unlikely characters. Dinosaurs, Donald Trump, Clippy the Microsoft Assistant, Tetris Blocks, President Lincoln. You name it and there is explicit erotic fiction of it for sale.
To those authors, here is a challenge: "Workie" the huge furry avatar of the UK Government Pension fund. Do your worst....
Showing posts with label erotica/porn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label erotica/porn. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Friday, October 9, 2015
UN Commission Report on Online Violence Against Women
Like any space on this planet, the internet contains violence, including violence against females. So the report CYBER VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS (shouty ALL CAPS from original) certainly has a valid subject.
The report itself is steeped in sex-negative assumptions that are not made explicit.
For example:
The report has a pervasive assumption that sex work and pornography of any kind is only damaging, and not a realm in which opportunity can also exist. The very choice to refer to pornography as "porn" strikes me as telling. As it the choice to cite alarming statistics about how most porn depicts abuse and turns men into abusers without ever defining what is being counted as porn (in a document where almost every other repeatedly used term is explicitly define, porn is still "I know it when I see it"?).
What I think is missing is that online opportunities for women include the ability to explore and express their sexuality and take part in creative activities and exchanges about sexuality. Fostering, as much as possible, a safe environment online does not meant rendering the online space neuter and completely asexual. (Indeed, even the exploration of asexual identity requires being able to explore responses to sexualized material and discuss sexuality and asexuality freely).
In summary: Addressing the problem of cyber-violence against women requires that women's sexual and gender identities must be addressed positively. Sexuality cannot be framed only as a danger to women from which they must be protected, and never as a trait to be celebrated and expressed. This sex-negative approach effectively silences women on an important subject, one of the core subjects that is being used to restrict and victimize them.
The report itself is steeped in sex-negative assumptions that are not made explicit.
For example:
- Referring to "revenge porn" (posting explicit material about a woman without her permission) simply as "porn" as if these are interchangeable things.
- Sexting is discussed only as a risk, not a positive and deliberate expression of sexuality between competent and consenting individuals.
- "Mainstreaming" of the pornography is treated only as a problem.
- Pornography is characterized as inherently abusive in content and damaging to male viewers.
- Non-heterosexual content and female consumers of pornography are not acknowledged to exist.
The report has a pervasive assumption that sex work and pornography of any kind is only damaging, and not a realm in which opportunity can also exist. The very choice to refer to pornography as "porn" strikes me as telling. As it the choice to cite alarming statistics about how most porn depicts abuse and turns men into abusers without ever defining what is being counted as porn (in a document where almost every other repeatedly used term is explicitly define, porn is still "I know it when I see it"?).
What I think is missing is that online opportunities for women include the ability to explore and express their sexuality and take part in creative activities and exchanges about sexuality. Fostering, as much as possible, a safe environment online does not meant rendering the online space neuter and completely asexual. (Indeed, even the exploration of asexual identity requires being able to explore responses to sexualized material and discuss sexuality and asexuality freely).
In summary: Addressing the problem of cyber-violence against women requires that women's sexual and gender identities must be addressed positively. Sexuality cannot be framed only as a danger to women from which they must be protected, and never as a trait to be celebrated and expressed. This sex-negative approach effectively silences women on an important subject, one of the core subjects that is being used to restrict and victimize them.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Do you know how fast you were...?
We know distractions during driving are bad. Texting, eating, applying make-up. But how about masturbating with a sex toy whilst watching porn. I have enough trouble understanding why the driver felt that this was a good idea, but the front seat passenger who was holding up the laptop playing the porn is also a special kind of stupid. None of the pleasure and all of the potential to be smeared down the side of the highway.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Simpsons Porn
Now this is just... weird. There are many ways you could do a porn parody of the Simpsons, but I suppose this is the... cheapest? Just paint some people who don't bear any real resemblance to the characters yellow and go to. (No nudity or sex in the trailer).
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Classic Covers: the Glorious Pool
Eh, just trace over Miss August. Nobody will know the difference.
What about the background?
Some basic shapes, bright colors, scribble in some grass there....
Bingo. That'll do. Nobody buys these things for the covers after all.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Librarian Erotica, Who Knew?
So called "sleaze" paperback like these tend to go uncatalogued and were not printed on good quality paper. As such many titles are impossible to find and at the end of their life-span as physical objects. I certainly do not need to start a new collection, but if anyone out there is so included, here are the titles you would be looking for.
I also added some more modern examples and reprints (links to Amazon). This leaves us with a listed of 61! And I am sure I have missed more than a few.
Listed, of course, in alphabetical order (by title). Some of these titles will contain material guaranteed to offend just about anyone--you have been warned.
- Bang the Librarian Hard by Laura Winters
- Campus Lust
- Chained, Whipped Librarians
- The Chaste Librarian by Celia Jade
- Degraded Raped Librarian
- Eager Beaver Librarian
- Eager-to-Spread Librarian by Don Scott
- Eager Young Librarian by J.D. Blackwood
- First Rear Entry
- Forbidden Reading by Linette Ashton
- Helpful Head Librarian
- Horny Balling Librarian by Nick Eastwood
- Horny Hot Librarian
- Horny Licking Librarian
- Horny Peeping Librarian by Frank Brown
- Hot Bed Librarian
- The Hot Librarian! A Novel of Erotica - Erotic Encounters by Iyla Brown
- Hot, Licked Librarian
- Hot Loving Librarian
- Hot Mouth Librarian
- Hot Pants Librarian
- Hot to Trot Librarian
- The Hottest Librarian by Gary F. Woods
- In Heat Librarian
- Janet, Librarian by Raphael Mello
- Lash the Librarian!
- The Librarian by Carmine
- The Librarian by Victoria Calaway
- The Librarian Gets Hot
- The Librarian Got Hot
- Librarian in Bondage
- Librarian in Chains
- Librarians Don't Get Married by A P Miller
- The Librarian Licks Big Ones
- The Librarian Loves It.
- The Librarian Loves to Lick by Frank Warfield
- The Librarian Slave
- The Librarian With the Hots
- The Librarian's Boys
- The Librarian's Hot Fun
- The Librarian's Hot Lips
- The Librarian's Hot Urges by Nick Eastwood
- The Librarian's Love by Ava Delany
- The Librarian's Naughty Habit by Heather Brown
- A Librarian's Training.
- Licking the Librarian by Hank Borden
- Line Up for the Librarian
- The Lusty Librarian by Waldo Beck
- Naughty Voyeur Librarian by Nick Eastwood.
- Nympho Librarian.
- The Oral Librarian.
- Overdue for Please by Shelley Aikens
- Overeager Librarian.
- Raped and Roped Librarian.
- Sally - Sexy Librarian.
- Sex Behind the Stacks.
- The Sinful Librarian by Anonymous
- Split by Kristina Lloyd
- Three-way with the Librarian.
- Untamed by Kathleen Lawless
- The Young Librarian by Rod Waleman
- What a Librarian!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Wither Playboy
Now Playboy seems to be at a branch in the road. One option is Hugh Hefner taking the company private. the other is a buy out by the class-free zone of Friendfinder/Penthouse--one of the few outfits that could make the Heff look relatively refined.Friday, October 2, 2009
Book Review: The Collected Erotica
My copy of The Collected Erotica: an Illustrated Celebration of Human Sexuality Through the Ages was provided by Eden Fantasys this book can be purchased here, and they are a good source of all kinds of erotic material.
The Collected Erotica is a gorgeous book; trade paperback sized, with glossy white paper and lush full color illustrations. This work is collected from a previous set of three books edited by London-based Charlotte Hill and William Wallace. However the writing voice of the "narrator" throughout is unmistakeably a male one (with something of a fixation on erotica with clerical and religious themes, not that there is anything wrong with that).
The format is that of an art book with extensive long excerpts fairly briefly introduced and discussed by the editor. Each page also features pull quotes and illustrations. At 400-pages long most people will certainly get their money's worth. The overall effect is a technicolor buffet of what intelligentsia considered worthy erotica--with an epicenter somewhere in a later 19th century but examples stretching from antiquity to the modern day.
And by the modern day I mean 1996, because although this is an updated 2007 edition it does not seem to include any material beyond the early nineties. And by "what the intelligentsia consider erotica" I mean there is a severely disproportionate emphasis on accepted classics such as Moll Flanders, the Story of O, Lady Chatterley's Lover and the works of Henry Miller. This collection might be more informative for those who have not already read those works in full.
The back flyleaf states of the editors that "[t]heir desire is that this collection should be should be enjoyed as widely as possible, and as much by women as men." Well, that is entirely possible but the content reflects the proportions of the materials available, not the interests of a diverse audience (e.g. many female nudes, very few men). Also, this is a collection of erotic material that is historic or has artistic or literary pretensions. It is a world in which magazines, pulp paperbacks, pin ups, movies, and the internet in its entirety do not even exist.
There is nothing wrong with that but I think it would be naive to present the collection is representative by any demographic variable, including gender. The only female writer referred to at any length is the darling or the literati, Anais Nin, whose biological sex is treated somewhat as a curiosity--it seems that the many anonymous artists and authors are presumed to be male. Homosexual material is given reasonable, but not extensive, coverage thanks largely to Oscar Wilde. Other nations are covered in the areas traditional for such works, the Karma Sutra, Japanese prints etc. But this coverage is deft and evocative given the few pages each particular subject gets in such a dense collection.
The voice of the original text that is interspersed with the excerpts is surprisingly uniform and lively, but it is highly gendered and not in a SNAG or metrosexual way. At its best it this text has pathos and humor that helps pull together all the disparate material samples. For example I was particularly struck by the following description of antique erotica photographs: "However charming or erotic Victorian photographs are , whatever magic contemporary chemicals and lenses have made of flesh tones, they always have a poignant quality. These were people who once lived, who crimped their hair, who tried not to laugh at the photographer's props. Now they are symbols of the fin-de-siecle: a reminder of the 'great vital constants' -- sex and death" [pg. 139]
But on the less charming side this narrator make some rather unenlightened comments such as implying that Casanova's promiscuity indicates "underlying homosexuality". In fact, from a fully modern point if view some of the narrator's statements seem hopelessly uninformed, for example: "...would a woman find [a well written homosexual encounter] positively erotic as men do lesbian scenes?" Quite how a historian of erotica could fail to know the answer to that question, I do not know--for yaoi/slash/MM has a history of its own that even the casual of observer of the genre would tend to stumble across. The same ironic, almost Victorian, blinkers reappear with the statement "[m]ale interest in female masturbation has no real counterpart in women."
These perspective make sense only to a person who limits their interest exclusively to the high art realms in which female "agency", as artist or consumer, is very poorly represented. To generalise from this paucity to conclusions about women per se is, at best, naive--and at worst indicative of an "underlying sexism" that runs thought even books with an overt mission to be enlightened about sex and sexuality in both the ancient and modern world.
The greatest asset of this book is also its greatest limitation: refinement. There is the homosexuality of Greek vases, but no Tom of Finland, no Mapplethorpe. The black-and-white semi-nudes of China Hamilton appear multiple times, but no Marilyn Monroe, no Betty Page. The Collected Erotica is a good "starter" book for the curious neophyte, but only part of your complete diet if you truly want to understand the full breadth and depth of our erotic traditions--high-, low- and middlebrow.
The Collected Erotica is a gorgeous book; trade paperback sized, with glossy white paper and lush full color illustrations. This work is collected from a previous set of three books edited by London-based Charlotte Hill and William Wallace. However the writing voice of the "narrator" throughout is unmistakeably a male one (with something of a fixation on erotica with clerical and religious themes, not that there is anything wrong with that).The format is that of an art book with extensive long excerpts fairly briefly introduced and discussed by the editor. Each page also features pull quotes and illustrations. At 400-pages long most people will certainly get their money's worth. The overall effect is a technicolor buffet of what intelligentsia considered worthy erotica--with an epicenter somewhere in a later 19th century but examples stretching from antiquity to the modern day.
And by the modern day I mean 1996, because although this is an updated 2007 edition it does not seem to include any material beyond the early nineties. And by "what the intelligentsia consider erotica" I mean there is a severely disproportionate emphasis on accepted classics such as Moll Flanders, the Story of O, Lady Chatterley's Lover and the works of Henry Miller. This collection might be more informative for those who have not already read those works in full.
The back flyleaf states of the editors that "[t]heir desire is that this collection should be should be enjoyed as widely as possible, and as much by women as men." Well, that is entirely possible but the content reflects the proportions of the materials available, not the interests of a diverse audience (e.g. many female nudes, very few men). Also, this is a collection of erotic material that is historic or has artistic or literary pretensions. It is a world in which magazines, pulp paperbacks, pin ups, movies, and the internet in its entirety do not even exist.
There is nothing wrong with that but I think it would be naive to present the collection is representative by any demographic variable, including gender. The only female writer referred to at any length is the darling or the literati, Anais Nin, whose biological sex is treated somewhat as a curiosity--it seems that the many anonymous artists and authors are presumed to be male. Homosexual material is given reasonable, but not extensive, coverage thanks largely to Oscar Wilde. Other nations are covered in the areas traditional for such works, the Karma Sutra, Japanese prints etc. But this coverage is deft and evocative given the few pages each particular subject gets in such a dense collection.
The voice of the original text that is interspersed with the excerpts is surprisingly uniform and lively, but it is highly gendered and not in a SNAG or metrosexual way. At its best it this text has pathos and humor that helps pull together all the disparate material samples. For example I was particularly struck by the following description of antique erotica photographs: "However charming or erotic Victorian photographs are , whatever magic contemporary chemicals and lenses have made of flesh tones, they always have a poignant quality. These were people who once lived, who crimped their hair, who tried not to laugh at the photographer's props. Now they are symbols of the fin-de-siecle: a reminder of the 'great vital constants' -- sex and death" [pg. 139]
But on the less charming side this narrator make some rather unenlightened comments such as implying that Casanova's promiscuity indicates "underlying homosexuality". In fact, from a fully modern point if view some of the narrator's statements seem hopelessly uninformed, for example: "...would a woman find [a well written homosexual encounter] positively erotic as men do lesbian scenes?" Quite how a historian of erotica could fail to know the answer to that question, I do not know--for yaoi/slash/MM has a history of its own that even the casual of observer of the genre would tend to stumble across. The same ironic, almost Victorian, blinkers reappear with the statement "[m]ale interest in female masturbation has no real counterpart in women."
These perspective make sense only to a person who limits their interest exclusively to the high art realms in which female "agency", as artist or consumer, is very poorly represented. To generalise from this paucity to conclusions about women per se is, at best, naive--and at worst indicative of an "underlying sexism" that runs thought even books with an overt mission to be enlightened about sex and sexuality in both the ancient and modern world.
The greatest asset of this book is also its greatest limitation: refinement. There is the homosexuality of Greek vases, but no Tom of Finland, no Mapplethorpe. The black-and-white semi-nudes of China Hamilton appear multiple times, but no Marilyn Monroe, no Betty Page. The Collected Erotica is a good "starter" book for the curious neophyte, but only part of your complete diet if you truly want to understand the full breadth and depth of our erotic traditions--high-, low- and middlebrow.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Erotica, a Chick Thing?
Thirty years ago written erotica was written almost exclusively by and for men. The shady recesses of the bookstore had a few books old enough to be somewhat acceptable as classics (Moll Flanders, The Story of O) and some extended sexual fantasies (although the hay day of the "sleaze" paperback novel had already passed). Writing erotica mainly involved writing for brown bag magazines also aimed primarily at men.
Twenty years ago the internet was beginning to slay most magazines and many of the rest had lost their reputation for printed good fiction. There was a great outpouring of amateur erotic fiction at newsgroups and eventually formalised in sites like Literoritca (1998). Erotica in the public eye started to include rather more than two genders and fetishes previously unimagined by most memebersof the public.
Ten years ago Black Lace (founded 1993) was beginning to make inroads in erotic novels written by and for women, as a viable alternative. Starting with Ellora's Cave, epublishers (crossing over into print-on-demand novels) brought highly erotic romance into the mainstream. Novels with explicit sex started to dominate the acres of romance fiction in chain stores. Female fetishes were catered to by increasing numbers of small presses, now numbering in scores.
Most recently Black Lace, which never got on the romance band-wagon) ceased to publish new work. Writers on forums have begun to ask if there is any market for romance that is not erotic, and if there is any market for erotica that is not romance. Barnes and Noble has acquired Fictionwise, the largest vendor of ebooks. New ebook vendor AllRomanceEbooks opened their new all genre site (Omnilit, 2009). And erotica is listed only as a sub-genre of romance.
Written erotica seems to have become over-whelmed by backflow from the much larger romance genre. Small presses focusing on erotica of all types struggled to find a loyal readership, and to find writers who can combine a readable plot with titillating sexual material. I suppose it is a swing of the pendulum, having one read erotica as a kind of uninvited voyeur, the female gaze has now seized centre stage and squeezed the men into the wings.
Perhaps the reason a balance eludes us is that the male readers enjoyed erotica, but predominantly as a guilty please--not to be discussed in mixed company. And many women read erotica only as justified as an ostensibly secondary aspect of romance--a genre almost no men will openly read. We have marked out genres based on gender boundaries, and erotica can jump the fence, but not straddle it.
So to speak.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Quotables: The Science of Pornography Volume 2
The Science of Pornography Vol 2: an illustrated study without equal for scope, impact and significance.
"It is obvious that there are no hard and fast lines to classification and identification of pornography. One to fifty specifics can occur in any given bit of erotica: we see no point in trying to emulate the intelligentsia who spend lifetimes trying to separate man's mental, mechanical and emotional responses into properly labeled containers. Pornography is for fun, no matter how it is looked on by the rednecks and bluenoses."
I periodically get pulled into semantic arguments. Normally because someone is protesting that what they write, or more intrusively that what I write, is not pornography. This is usually on the basis that it is something else.
It has a plot.
There is romance.
The characters develop.
It is literature.
Sex is included only as strictly necessary to the plot.
As if a depiction of sexual pleasure is somehow banished, elevated or redeemed by the presence of any "worthy" feature. But the question is, what needs to be redeemed or excused? In what world are the categories of aesthetics, intellect and arousal so clear demarcated and sex still banished to shameful sinfulness?
In the end Mr. Scott does not quite manage to practice what he preaches. The very author that makes these remarks in this volume from the 1970's shrouds his words in pseudo-science. Because a book about pornography of written by an enthusiast would be gratuitous and banal. It must be disguised, redeemed, excused... by a shallow veneer of faux clinical detachment and academic discourse.
"It is obvious that there are no hard and fast lines to classification and identification of pornography. One to fifty specifics can occur in any given bit of erotica: we see no point in trying to emulate the intelligentsia who spend lifetimes trying to separate man's mental, mechanical and emotional responses into properly labeled containers. Pornography is for fun, no matter how it is looked on by the rednecks and bluenoses."
I periodically get pulled into semantic arguments. Normally because someone is protesting that what they write, or more intrusively that what I write, is not pornography. This is usually on the basis that it is something else.
It has a plot.
There is romance.
The characters develop.
It is literature.
Sex is included only as strictly necessary to the plot.
As if a depiction of sexual pleasure is somehow banished, elevated or redeemed by the presence of any "worthy" feature. But the question is, what needs to be redeemed or excused? In what world are the categories of aesthetics, intellect and arousal so clear demarcated and sex still banished to shameful sinfulness?
In the end Mr. Scott does not quite manage to practice what he preaches. The very author that makes these remarks in this volume from the 1970's shrouds his words in pseudo-science. Because a book about pornography of written by an enthusiast would be gratuitous and banal. It must be disguised, redeemed, excused... by a shallow veneer of faux clinical detachment and academic discourse.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Sharking, Actually Assaulting
The latest cute name for disgusting behavior is sharking--where a man runs up to a women or girl in a public and pulls down off some of her clothing while another man films it. I would say this is assault, plain and simple--humiliation of women and girls for amusement--a message that you are not safe just walking down the street. The description of this as a "sport" is egregious. This is different from "pantsing" which is done between friends as a joke (like the infamous wedgie in reverse).
If you have any spare time please run a search and flag these videos as inappropriate. Like gang tagging, if material doesn't stay up long the motivation to produce it is undermined. It could also be flagged or voted down on sites like Digg. Feel free to leave some comments and contact the advertisers on sites that won't withdraw the material. If they don't care about women being safe on public streets they might care when their income stream is threatened. Look for advertisers that are large brands with active PR.
I am all for freedom of expression, but not when it comes to glorifying assault and sickos taking 'up shirt' filming to the next level. Some of the videos may be fake but I am not giving any benefit fo the doubt. If I end up looking like a humorless bitch I can live with that.
examples:
Break, Whoomp, Online Video DB.
If you have any spare time please run a search and flag these videos as inappropriate. Like gang tagging, if material doesn't stay up long the motivation to produce it is undermined. It could also be flagged or voted down on sites like Digg. Feel free to leave some comments and contact the advertisers on sites that won't withdraw the material. If they don't care about women being safe on public streets they might care when their income stream is threatened. Look for advertisers that are large brands with active PR.
I am all for freedom of expression, but not when it comes to glorifying assault and sickos taking 'up shirt' filming to the next level. Some of the videos may be fake but I am not giving any benefit fo the doubt. If I end up looking like a humorless bitch I can live with that.
examples:
Break, Whoomp, Online Video DB.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Stereotypes and Straw (Wo)men
"Women's instincts are finer and truer than men's, because women, as a rule, are morally better than men; and it is a fact, known to every observant person, that women are less unreasonably conventional in their views of this matter than men are. It is men, and not women, who loosely class together as bad all works of fiction which deal with forbidden things of character and conduct, without intelligently discriminating between those which deal with such matters in artistic fashion and exalted purpose and those which make them as an allurement to attention." (Eggleston, 1890--The Nude in Literature, The Author).It important to realise that no stereotype is all bad. That may feel odd to some people, but it is important.
Stereotypes are two things. They are generalisations, which are lazy and do not respect individuality... but otherwise no great sin. And they may also be fallacies, so the quality being generalised may not even really differ between the two groups.
But if a person doe not think, for example, that men and women have a different level of worth--stereotypes are just sloppy and mistaken. And that means they are correctable.
If you realise that a person who stereotypes women attributes both good and bad qualities to them, there is a basis for discussion. You may rankle at the negative stereotypes, but your point might be more effectively made by looking at the positive ones.
And if the positive stereotypes somehow ring true, perhaps there is more than one person in the conversation who needs to check their facts and reconsider their position?
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