I wanted to have something new here just in case anyone reading over at Pens Fatales stopped by — not that I expect it, but I I hope a few people do, because new readers are always welcome (not that old readers aren’t, but you know what I mean) — but for the potential people who did follow the link in my bio over there, hi! Thank you for visiting! Welcome!
And for those of you just joining us, here’s the scoop: Pens Fatales is a fantastic group blog run by a number of fantastically talented women, who pick a theme each week and then each contribute a post. Fridays are for guests, and this Friday I was the guest! The topic for the week is erotica, which if you know what I’ve been up to for the last year or so you know is something about which I have a few opinions. (Clicking the link in the previous paragraph will take you to my post.)
One of those opinions concerns language choice. About four months into my reviewing gig I started keeping a list of words used in sex scenes in the books I was reading that . . . well, ruined the moment.
Now, I don’t mean to be insulting to the writers of erotic fiction. As I said in my Pens Fatales post, it must be incredibly difficult to keep writing sex scenes and have them be interesting and arousing, and part of that surely includes finding different words to describe sexy parts and sexy acts. However. You know how you’ll see a certain word pop up multiple times, and it starts looking funny to you? “Army” has always been one of those words for me. Read it or say it enough times and it just starts sounding weird. And it’s the same with sex words. They start to lose context after a while, and then they just get irritating. But you know? The words that bug me might not bug you at all. They might actually do it for you. So as I said, I don’t mean to offend or insult or tell you how to write your sexy books. You keep doing what you’re doing, and bless you.
With that disclaimer out of the way . . . I mentioned “crevice” in my guest post, but here are a few other words that I’ve found in sex scenes that, um, rubbed me the wrong way:
* Moist. To be fair, the repulsion this word causes me predates my erotic fiction reading. But new problems arise when “moist” is used in conjunction with words like…
* Cleft. See “crevice.”
* Membrane. I.e.; a condom; e.g.; “He rolled the membrane onto his throbbing manhood.” (I just made that sentence up for illustrative purposes; it is not someone else’s, as far as I know.)
* Sexing. I have seen this used as a transitive and intransitive verb, but most often in something like “As he was sexing her.”
* Pebbled. Used to describe areolae. I get it, but this is one of those words that I saw often enough that it lost its contextual meaning and all I could think of were very small rocks, which then made me think of Monty Python, and my mind was out of the game.
* Impaled. This word is extremely common in erotic fiction, and I totally get it. It claims a place on my list because of its inherent violence, which I suppose is OK in a rough sex context but is jarring elsewhere. And with the preponderance of vampire erotic fiction out there, it risks being extremely confusing.
* Cream cheese. Used as a sex aid. I am not joking.
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