Monday, August 29, 2011

Challenge Question #1

I want to purpose a challenge question to everyone, there is no right and there is no wrong answer just your answer.  The only rule is that you are respectful to others remarks no topic or coment is off limits but I ask for honesty and respect.  Thanks!

#1 Is erotic romance novels actually pornography? and why/why not??

6 comments:

Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy said...

I love this question because I find myself answering it often these days or debating with someone who thinks I do write porn. My answer is that erotic romance and porn are not at all the same. Erotic romance offers up a reflection of real life relationships and love with a story. Porn fails to provide story, just sex. A rule of thumb I once was told was that if you removed the sex and still have a story, it's not porn and that definition works for me!

Anonymous said...

I agree with Lee Ann, Wendy. Porn is not the same as erotic romance in the fact that erotic romance has a defined story line and can stand on its own without the sex, however, a step further is erotica, which actually is what I consider the bridge between the two. While erotica carries a story, the sex is much more defined in the story line and often is the story line itself--it's still not porn though, although easily mistaken for it. I myself have never had one person act squicky or shy away from me or my writing or accused me of writing porn--the only negative thing I ever found was when a man left a nastygram on my cousins FB page that she shouldn't be reading my trash after she did a bit of advertising for me. I laughed and went on, to each his own, but I don't begrudge him his opinion. If I did, I'd be as intolerant as he is and therefore a hypocrite. Neither me nor that man are right or wrong, we both hold a varying opinion. So we don't agree...he'll live and so will I. I found early on its best to just let things roll off and find something positive to focus on, not the people in the world that have nothing better to do than put someone else down. If that's all they have time for they aren't living nearly as fully as I am. :)

RM KINORE said...

I agree with both comments above. It does no good to judge other people. Pornography is graphic sex for the sake of graphic sex. It does not tell a story...one does not care about the characters. Erotic romance is romance that is erotic. It may increase the desire people have but hopefully the people also begin to care about the characters.

I hope that one day someone reads my stories and realizes they should view the world a little more openly. I have grown so much in the last year. I have a transgender child male to female. I have discovered a different aspect to my own sexuality and I have discovered I love to write paranormal erotic romance. Does that make me a bad person...well to mainstream people maybe...but life is too short to judge.

Eden Glenn said...

I'll add my "What she said" to the above. I think one of the largest dis-services Erotic Romance / Erotic authors do to themselves is to announce in a group that they write "women's porn". It just increases the misunderstanding of Erotic fiction in general and debases our genre.

Anonymous said...

I actually tackled this question in a guest blog post that will soon be hitting the internet, and I have a bit of a different perspective on this. I'm probably in the vast minority on this one... I have seen quite a few people get unnecessarily angry over the labels. They're just words, and regardless of what it's called, there will always be critics. We write what we write, regardless of what we name it. If someone doesn't like what I write, that's his or her loss.

*steps off the soapbox* And to answer the question:

Erotica and Pornography, honestly, are two parts of the same thing - and I say that because pornography is defined (generally speaking) as a visual representation of the act of sex. Erotica is the literary representation of that act.

Not all erotica is romantic - some of it is sex for the sake of sex. Some of it is extremely gory and, well, pornographic - ever read splatterpunk? Believe me, I've read and written enough of these genres to consider myself qualified to make that statement.

Erotic Romance encompasses the pornographic idea - explicit depiction of a sex act - in addition to describing the relationship and the lead-up to that moment as well as the morning after. Erotic Romance is just that - ROMANCE. It focuses on the relationship between the characters, and in most romantic relationships (real or fictional), sexual contact is a central theme.

No matter how the description is used, whether for romantic purposes or simply for visual/imaginary pleasure without the personal hang-ups, sex is still sex, no matter what label you put on it.

Zoey Marcel said...

It makes me sad when people think sex equals porn. Part of being in love involves sex and it shouldn't be considered wrong or disgusting. It's beautiful. Erotic romance celebrates love in all its forms and aspects, including the intimacy and I think it's great.
Erotica is more graphic, but for me the fun there is less limitations, but plot is a must and I'm such a hopeless romantic, I always throw a love story into my erotica. The only difference is it's darker and more graphic than erotic romance, but it's still a good story.
Porn is cold, superficial and all about sex with little or no plot. There's no depth or feeling, it's just not the same.