Egalitarian Erotica Recommendations?

HiThere

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for recommendations for erotica literature that treats all its characters with respect and gives them equal power in relationships and sex scenes, with plenty of character development. I'm not interested in BDSM or power exchange or coercion, and M/F is preferred but any gender combination will do.

Can you recommend anything for me? I've not had much success in my search so far :hi:
 

MargueriteMing

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You do realize that the submissive in most BDSM relationships probably has most of the power in the relationship, right? In any consensual relationship, anyway.
 

HiThere

Hi MargueriteMing,

I'm not here to debate, but to find what I've mentioned :)
 
Stacia Kane

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Sorry. I prefer my heroes dominant (not necessarily BDSM Dominant, but powerful) and I think the majority of women do as well, so I don't have any recs for you. The characters in my own books are generally equals everywhere but the bedroom. :)

Veinglory might have some suggestions.
 

HiThere

DecemberQuinn said:
Sorry. I prefer my heroes dominant (not necessarily BDSM Dominant, but powerful) and I think the majority of women do as well, so I don't have any recs for you. The characters in my own books are generally equals everywhere but the bedroom. :)

Veinglory might have some suggestions.
Click to expand...

No problem DecemberQuinn, thanks for the name.

Ah Veinglory is another forum isnt it. Yes, I've posted there as well
 
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Maryn

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Veinglory is also a moderator here.

I'm sure there's egalitarian M/F erotica out there, but I don't happen to read it. I'm guessing that some of it's going to be romantic erotica. I'll ask some of my erotica-reading friends as I see them, and see if I can produce any titles that might be of interest.

Nice to meet you, BTW.

Maryn, who likes conflict and power inequalities in her erotica
 

HiThere

Hello Maryn, I would appreciate that, thank you. Nice to meet you as well

And hello Veinglory, when you come upon this thread :hi:
 
veinglory

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I, um, get around.

I don't read a lot of erotica these days that is not also romance and so leans distressingly towards domineering men. As I recall Ruthies Club (online zine) always had a nice mix and leaned egalitarian. Other than that I look for pornography by women like Susie Bright.

Googling 'sex-positive feminism' will probably bring up some more names.
 
Sakamonda

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There are plenty of great erotica titles published by Virgin Cheek and Virgin Black Lace which are very egalitarian. (I write for Virgin and my pieces are always egalitarian). Virgin does publish some BSDM, but for the most part it's pretty vanilla. In my personal opinion, I think Virgin publishes erotica of higher literary quality than many American print publishers of erotica as well. But that's just what I think. Others may have other suggestions/opinions.
 
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HiThere

Thank you Sakamonda and Veinglory,

I will find some from Virgin to sample, your description sounds great!
 
veinglory

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It is still unecessary to make the division on nationality, even of the publishers. Some are good and some bad and the US offers what could only be described as a large selection.
 
Sakamonda

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I was merely offering my opinion and suggestions to the original poster, since that's what was asked for. Others' opinions/suggestions may differ. But it _is_ my opinion that at present, there seems to be higher quality erotica coming out of the UK print publishers---not necessarily UK writers. (After all, I'm not a UK writer and I write for a UK publisher.) Others may disagree, of course. I do also think some of the US' best erotica is put out by Ellora's right now.

Funny, I thought we were free to express our opinions here without being attacked for it?
 
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veinglory

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It seems to me that if disagreeing with you is an 'attack' on you, perhaps you can see how saying American publishers books are worse-written could be seen as an attack on those of us who write for American publishers?

Or both could be seen as opinions being freely exchanged.
 
Stacia Kane

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Sakamonda, my issue with your statement was that it wasn't presented as opinion (aside from the nationality distinction, which I, as an American living in England, may admittedly be more sensitive to but found offensive).

Had you said, "I tend to enjoy the stuff from Virgin better than the stuff from American publishers" it wouldn't have been an issue for me at all. Personally, while I've read some Virgin books I've quite enjoyed (Portia da Costa, I'm looking at you), I haven't found them to be better written in general or "more intellectual". I have found them to be less graphic, and more open to practices other erotica publishers don't encourage. I haven't read a single Virgin book yet that doesn't include at least one lesbian scene, for example, and I've read several with erotic scenes revolving around bodily functions. Whereas you don't find those as much in books from other companies.

But just to say "Virgin books are better written and smarter than American books" is harsh. I appreciate that you didn't mean to offend. But when you make bald statements like that you have to expect that people who don't know you or anything about you are going to see them as being a bit rude, and be offended. Especially when you're in a forum full of people who write for, and are proud to write for, those American publishers you've (intentionally or not) derided.
 

HiThere

DecemberQuinn said:
my issue with your statement was that it wasn't presented as opinion ...

Had you said, "I tend to enjoy the stuff from Virgin better than the stuff from American publishers" it wouldn't have been an issue for me at all.
Click to expand...


I'd like to say that when people make statements like Sakamondan did, I know quite well that it is their opinion. People need not qualify their words with things like "i think" and "in my opinion" all the time. In basic college argumentative writing, these phrases are not to be touched. In my opinion anyway, I think... :snoopy:
 

MargueriteMing

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HiThere said:
I'd like to say that when people make statements like Sakamondan did, I know quite well that it is their opinion. People need not qualify their words with things like "i think" and "in my opinion" all the time. In basic college argumentative writing, these phrases are not to be touched. In my opinion anyway, I think... :snoopy:
Click to expand...

Ditto. Tempest in a teapot.
 
Maryn

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Tea? We've got tea?

Winter's coming back, and the wind is both cold and so strong it's pushing the house around. Tea would be lovely.

Maryn, who will break out her collected The Far Side mugs for the erotica fans
 

MissLadyRae

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HiThere said:
Hello everyone,

I'm looking for recommendations for erotica literature that treats all its characters with respect and gives them equal power in relationships and sex scenes, with plenty of character development. I'm not interested in BDSM or power exchange or coercion, and M/F is preferred but any gender combination will do.

Can you recommend anything for me? I've not had much success in my search so far :hi:
Click to expand...

Dawn Thompson's Lord of the Deep is AWESOME. I just picked it up recently after dancing around it for a few days (I don't usually read much erotic lit) but it's very poetic, VERY sexy and the characters are engaging. If you like erotic fantasy romances, I think you'd like this one.

Plus the cover is sssmoking.

51P5dntn19L._AA240_.jpg

​
 

kropedykrop

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I think that Veinglory mentioned Susie Bright as a possible source for this kind of writing. She is an author and edits the Best American Erotica series, which usually has a wide range of stories from the more literary corner of the genre. Cioncidentally, Best American Erotica 2008 just came out the other day.

Here's the Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0743289633/?tag=absolutewritedm-20

I think that they have it on discount.

This year is a fifteenth anniversary edition that looks into the past and future of erotica. I think that in an anthology this broad, you should be able to find what you're looking for.

On a related note, this will be the last year for the series. Susie discusses this in her blog

http://susiebright.blogs.com/susie_brights_journal_/2008/01/why-i-left-best.html

The discussion should be especially interesting for everyone here, as she describes her views of the industry in general.

However, I think that this lands outside your question so I'll start a new link with this topic...


Good luck,

kropedykrop
 
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