I definitely need to clarify my statements. I don’t think fiction books have much of an effect on society anymore, and there was a bit in the today’s Shelf Awareness:

“In a seemingly related story, one reason nonfiction may be trumping fiction at the moment in books and magazines is because, as Adrienne Miller, novelist and literary editor of Esquire, put it to Rachel Donadio in Sunday’s New York Times Book Review, “We’re in a dark cultural moment. I think people seem to feel more comfortable with nonfiction. The tragic theme here is that literary fiction has very limited cultural currency now. Fewer and fewer people seem to believe fiction is still essential for our emotional and intellectual survival.”"

So, if anything, I think the sexier books are just a symptom of the media, not a contributing factor.

I don’t have any problems with romantica/erotica, and I don’t think people should worry about reading them, whatever motivates them to read it (heck, I’m writing for BLAZE:shock:). Briana, I agree with you about romances/erotica with females as equals being empowering . It is leaps better than the old “Don’t. Stop. Don’t stop” days…. all that said, I do worry that love is losing it’s punch and being used synonmously with sex. If I do teach my daughter one thing, I hope she learns what a truly special commodity that love is, and that as empowering as healthy sex is, having someone love you for the whole you, not just your vagina is priceless. And that’s the point that I’ve been struggling to make through three ititerations, now I admit it, I’m a Polyanna, but that’s why I write and read romance.

I see the sex scenes in erotic romance as being healthy and victimless–two consenting adults in a mutually pleasurable act. It is a whole different world than what a thirteen year old girl, dressed like a music video dancer, will find if she sneaks out of the roller rink to party with high school boys.

The upside to having three–they police each other. If one of my girls sneaks out of the roller rink, I’m going to hear about it. Probably immediately, thanks to cell phone magic!

The books sex scenes are not being broadcast on prime time, they can be read at your own discretion.

Nekked 10 pound females modeling undies/what have you- can be damamging to young girls, but not romances/erotica where the sex is mutually pleasureable and empowering.

I have 6 kids. I worry too about my daughters, but funny, I don’t worry about the romances/erotica one bit. I may even give them some to read when they are an appropriate age.

Three girls in middle school? Oh, you have my sympathies. I sweat just my one.

I think I phrased my concern for my daughter wrongly. I have no problems with her choice of reading material. In fact, I think if it takes planting a playboy in the hands of young male to get him to read, it’s a positive. I don’t like censorship, and heck, I must have been ten when I read Flame and the Flower.

I think the image of the female as a slut-object in media and culture that bothers me most. It seems like after so many years of trying not to objectify women, we’re now (and I’m speaking of clothes, media, etc) going back to objectifying them again. So, after working through my thoughts, sadly, I don’t think books in today’s world can cause much of an impact on a societal change, however, I think (and this might be a paranoid mom talking) that our society might be rolling back some of the changes created by the women’s lib movement. Like I said, it might just be paranoid mom talking, but your concerns about the c-cup seem to echo my own.

Sis buys every Blaze, every month. She makes great money and her book buying budget is much larger than mine. She used to buy them at her local grocery store, until the checker asked her,”Is this a smut book?” My sis felt quite embarassed. So she quit buying Blaze–from that store. She still buys them. I showed her Ellora’s Cave novels at the mall bookstore–she buys some of them, too, even though most are in the fantasy/paranormal realm and she prefers contemporary.

She also buys any romance about Montana–any category, sweet, spicy, it doesn’t matter. She’s probably bought Montana set romances for 10 or 15 years. Why? Because she likes them! That is the same reason she buys sexy romances. Other people may disaprove of her choices, but it is still what she likes. It is what she will spend money on

If erotic romances become untrendy, I doubt that she’ll switch to sweet romance, mainstream fiction, inspirationals or historicals. She’ll find another source for what she likes–be it underground, or on the internet, or NC17 fan fic. Others may think she should change her reading habits, but she doesn’t think she should. She doesn’t think it is immoral, or a danger to her marriage(?) or a danger to her children.

The point of my long story? Readers spend money on what they like to read, and it is pretty hard to change their likes and dislikes. The literary community can put them down for what they read, so can those that call it immoral etc–but will that change the reader’s likes and dislikes? Nope. It will just make them go download their sexy novels in the privacy of their own home, or order their Blaze straight from Harlequin.

As far as sex and young girls–I have three middle school aged daughters. A sexy novel being sneaked into the bedroom to read is not one of my major worries. I’m alot more worried about grade school friends that now are drinking, smoking and sexually active, or about the (cute)seventeen year old boy who didn’t believe my 5′7 c cup twelve year old was really twelve. Those are the kinds of things I worry about!

I think part of my struggle as a reader is that there is true romance, and it’s getting harder to find amidst the tangled sheets and swelled appendages. I just read two wonderful books, both which contained about three sex scenes each. The sex scenes were well-written, but it was the romance which I loved. Two people falling in love. Some writers write a great romance and great sex. Some writers write a good romance and great sex. Some writers write a great romance and good sex, and what I see is that a lot of writers that write a great romance and good sex are losing ground to writers that write a good romance and great sex.
p.s. I have a ten year old daughter, and as I watch her grow up, I find myself worrying more and more about society’s sexual impact on young girls, probably just like they did over Elvis’ Pelvis.

You stirred the pot didn’t you?

I love hot sex in my books. I also like no sex in my books. It has the most to do with the characters. If you give me a H/h H/H you’d better give me lovin and the motivation to get there too. Why? Sex is realistic to a romantic relationship. Even though I watched the Asexual spot on the news last night I don’t belive most readers of romance will buy into a romantic non sexual relationship. Then the author would have to make it be Sci-fi with androgenous non sexual beings. We have emotions and hormones and find people attractive and sexually desireable. That is the way it is. Otherwise no one would be here. It is a HUGE aspect of romantic relationships.

Kerry, I write romantica and let me tell you that they are freakin hard to write. Why? Because you have to have believable reasons for the sex. There has to be goals, motivation and conflict just like any other book out there, otherwise you will have a wallbanger SO there is a story there-even with a message. My stories run along the lines of the healing aspect of sex within relationships, and how couples struggle. (Not make up sex either.) Sex is a HUGE part of a monogamous relationship, it can be the glue that holds it together or the acid that breaks it apart.

Just Sayn’.

Having said that, as I indicated earlier, I am disturbed by the trend for producing books with more and more explicit sex. Trends in books do come and go, but when they are on the upswing they tend to drive out books that don’t conform to the latest “world’s wide wonder”. Think back a few years to the days when historical novels were out of fashion, replaced by the family saga & endless series such as “Wagon’s West.” That is when I became a reader of historical romances, when I could no longer find my favorite type of novel being written. That has changed now, and straight historical are once again fashion, so I read fewer romances.

On my blog I recently commented that for me romances are like chocolate truffles — a few are wonderful, a steady diet will have disasterous results on your figure. Maybe that is the way I feel about explicit sex in romance novels — sometimes “less is more”, and I think we are still at a stage where “more is more.” And I won’t even touch the whole concept of respect from the general public except to say that yes, mainstream works do have varying sexual content, but not to the extent and nor in the extreme detail that you can find in the average romance novel, let alone the ones who fall into the romantica/erotica category. And the fact that the primary audience for this type of book is female sets us up to be denegrated by a society that in some regards still sees women as the “second sex”.

I think we all read for different things, but I also think we may not always even know ourselves the true reason why we like what we like, including sex scenes.