Understanding the Power of Erotica
What You Need to Know About Porn’s More Literate Cousin — Erotica
What You Need to Know About Porn’s More Literate Cousin — Erotica
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Film producer Lucy Fisher once famously said, “Erotica is brunettes in silk, pornography is blondes in nylon. Erotica is for nice middle-class literate people like us, pornography is for the lonely, unattractive and uneducated.”
While it’s true that erotica is thought to be a “higher form” of creative sexual storytelling, it’s a little unfair to yuck someone’s yum if porn is what gets your rocks off.
Still, if you haven’t experienced the world of erotic fiction, it’s worth trying. It’s true that reading erotica requires a bit of imagination, since it’s a written medium. Still, the storytelling often offers a more immersive, intimate narrative experience than what you get with porn. Want to learn more? Here’s everything you need to know about the power of erotica.
What is Erotica?
“Erotica is sexually arousing material, often in the form of literature, art, or even moving images,” explains Jenni Skyler, PhD, LMFT, C-PST, resident therapist for AdamEve.com and licensed marriage and family therapist and internationally certified sex therapist with the International Association of Psychosexual Therapists (IAPST). “The erotic, arousing material is often more suggestive and subtle than porn — which tends to be more direct and graphic.”
You could think of it sort of like the difference between a burlesque show and the offerings at a strip club.
Another key distinction between porn and erotica is erotica’s emphasis on the emotional connection of sexual encounters. Unlike watching porn, we get to know what each character is thinking and feeling in the moments that lead up to the encounter, as well as during, which adds layers to the sexual experience being depicted.
Why Do Some People Prefer Erotica to Porn?
Erotica offers a few key aspects that porn doesn’t deliver on, which is why some people do genuinely find it more appealing. And in case you weren’t aware, “some people” in this case often refers to women. Though many women do prefer actual porn as well, erotica is more often seen as a medium that’s popular with women seeking arousing material.
That being said, here are a few reasons why it can be preferable to regular porn, whatever your gender:
Emotional Connection
In porn, we usually meet our characters as they’re about to have sex with little to no context into who they are to each other. Erotica outlines any history between participants that provides a deeper context, in addition to how they feel about each other from a connection perspective. For a lot of people, this makes reading erotica feel more personal and intimate than porn.
Character Development
In part because many people want them to jump right to the action, porn scenarios usually feature only a brief storyline that leads the main subjects into sex — if there is one at all.
By contrast, erotica often takes the time to develop characters, so readers feel invested in each one, weaving the sexual scenes into the narrative and making the experience more meaningful. This can feel less superficial than the physical emphasis porn offers.
Subtle Suggestiveness
“Because porn tends to be more vulgar and graphic, many people (often women) prefer the subtleness and suggestiveness of erotica,” Skyler explains. “Erotica tends to build anticipation in a way that erotica doesn’t.”
Fantasy
We all have preferences when it comes to a person’s physical appearance. Unlike porn, however, erotica allows you to imagine that the characters look however you’d want them to in your mind, as well as picture the scenarios in ways that appeal to your specific preferences.
Finally, it can allow you to explore uncommon sexual fetishes that are less likely to be reflected in mainstream porn.
Diverse Storylines
Erotica offers more variety when it comes to sexual encounters, specifically when it comes to relationship dynamics and scenarios that porn just doesn’t cover. The characters in erotica also tend to be more diverse than what you’d find in porn — in no small part because the creators are more likely to be women.
Even though porn is less gender imbalanced than it used to be, the directors, producers and viewers of porn are more likely to be men, which creates a self-perpetuating cycle that makes it hard for genuinely female-friendly porn to proliferate.
What Are Some Sites to Find Good Erotica?
Literotica
This is the OG site for erotica and still holds one of the largest collections free of charge. Stories are user-submitted and offer a variety of genres, themes and scenarios in its easily searchable database.
Check out Literotica
Dipsea
If reading isn’t your thing, Dipsea offers audio erotica featuring diverse voices and a wide variety of erotic stories in popular genres. It requires a subscription but offers a free trial.
Check out Dipsea
Lush Stories
This community-driven platform allows users to read erotic stories and submit their own. Users can also comment on stories and interact with other readers on the site, which is helpful for finding recommendations on similar stories to one you really liked.
Check out Lush Stories
Bellesa
This site offers curated erotic stories for free and features a video section that more closely mirrors the types of storylines you’d find in erotica vs. traditional porn. The site offers a premium option that unlocks more stories and videos.
Check out Bellesa
OhCleo
Another audio erotica site, OhCleo offers stories that range from romantic to explicit, catering to listener’s different levels of comfort with sexual content.
Check out OhCleo
Tips for Writing Your Own Erotica
Want to try writing your own erotica? Here are a few key tips to keep in mind:
Decide on Your Characters
Who are the people populating this erotic fantasy? Is it just two people who are destined to have sex? Or are there secondary characters who’ll add depth and context? Or are all the characters going to end up hooking up?
Setting down in your mind who each of these people are, and what they’re like, will help you navigate the process of introducing them to the action later.
After all, characters who aren’t fully formed in your own head may also blur together for your readers. This can include deciding how these characters know one another, and any romantic or platonic history that would build sexual tension.
Build the Plot
Good erotica is much like good fiction of any kind — you need a plot that builds, progresses and then climaxes. Whether your story takes place over years and years or all occurs within one sex-filled night, understanding the basic structure of it will make the piece much more readable and enjoyable.
For instance, you might ask yourself questions like: Is the climax the main sex scene? Or does sex happen multiple times over the course of your story? If so, what sets apart the final sex scene from the other ones?
Use Sensory Language
A good rule of thumb to help beginner writers is to include all five senses when writing narrative scenes, and erotic scenes are no exception.
Since sex is such a sensory experience, including details about smells and tastes can help enrich the story beyond what you can achieve by just mentioning what the character sees and physically feels.
Be Creative
Make sure you’re not only focusing on the sexual encounter, but the build-up as well.
“Don’t jump to the orgasm too quickly (remember foreplay and slowly build arousal),” says Skyler. “[And] Remember, there are many ways to orgasm beyond intercourse.”
Switching from one form of stimulation to another can keep your scenes (and story) from getting repetitive.
Most importantly — have fun with it! Part of the joy of erotica is that it’s incredibly easy to produce compared to filmed porn. That means the sky’s the limit in terms of what you can write, but also — why not write a story designed to arouse you (or your partner) specifically rather than one that reuses tired tropes?
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Source: AskMen
