A totally serious reading of erotica cannot sustain itself for long

July 9, 2024 1:27 AM

In these novels, when white women’s sexual practices contravene bourgeois ideals, the characters are often re-racialized, described as non-white. So if Russia-themed erotica tends to be about sexual slavery and sexual freedom, then — as in the construction of race itself — it’s always in reference to others: other white women, middle eastern women, Black women. As a novel in this messy canon, Ariane is about all of these figures, about the history of racialization across the globe. Erotica is world history written onto the two hemispheres of a woman’s butt. from Ice queens, sex machines by Fiona Bell [The European Review of Books; ungated] [NSFW text]
posted by chavenet (8 comments total)

spoiler alert: With erotica, I’ve found, there’s no way to lose
posted by HearHere at 2:59 AM on July 9 [1 favorite]

That is a great turn of phrase "Erotica is world history written onto the two hemispheres of a woman’s butt"

I was going to write 'brb', but that acronym could mean SO.MANY.THINGS. in this context.
posted by lalochezia at 4:17 AM on July 9 [2 favorites]

Oh, that was terrible--Val Lewton!? A 'sexy Uncle Tom's Cabin'? There's a reason a sensitive age knew to keep all these things to itself; a furtive blush rises just from reading this stuff, not that kind of blush, but the simpler embarrassment of having stumbled over Grandpa's stash of under-dressed wartime gals. ("It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single woman in possession of whiteness, must be in want of a spanking.")

Awful stuff. I gotta go to church a while, just to cleanse the eyes and soul. But the essay does illustrate a struggle that exists all over erotic and romantic fiction: How do you suggest an alluring alienness while staying within the bounds of your safe whiteness? The answer isn't always Russia, but it does always push east--how many unwed princes there must be, in small fictional kingdoms (always kingdoms, the revolutions of the 1800s never comes for these countries), ready to find love in American men and women? Go any further and the readership begins to sharply drop off--dragons, minotaurs, men and women from a non-European continent (gasp).

But Val Lewton? Cat People Val Lewton? I'm ashamed how fast I looked that one up on Amazon (not available)!
posted by mittens at 4:32 AM on July 9 [3 favorites]

This article also appears in The European Review of Boobs…
posted by Jon_Evil at 5:15 AM on July 9 [1 favorite]

the author of the piece presents this set of tropes as something dating back to the 19^th century but it goes so much deeper than that — basically all the way back to the last days of the eastern roman empire. the term to search for when tracing out the history of this idea is "circassian beauty."

the thing that makes this particular orientalist fantasy and its ongoing presence in the american-and-western-european id so interesting right now is that the whole "circassian beauty" thing is very obviously at the center of the sexuality of the mushroom-headed fiend who once was and likely will be again the president of the united states. his fetish for russian dictators is downstream of his fetishization of "russian girls."
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 5:42 AM on July 9 [7 favorites]

you’ll either become a masochist like a Dostoevsky character, or a sadist, like… a Dostoevsky character.
posted by doctornemo at 7:03 AM on July 9 [3 favorites]

The Internet Archive is down right now so I can only read a few paragraphs. I have to note that erotica written by and for straight men is so far off my radar that I'd forgotten it exists.
posted by LindsayIrene at 9:04 AM on July 9

I will admit that I’m a little bummed this is does not link to sexy “Vronsky, you’ve been and very, very bad boy” fanfic.
posted by thivaia at 10:23 AM on July 9 [2 favorites]