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novacros · 1 month ago

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Sex: Either a Weapon or a Bomb

The author of erotica and the taboo uses sex as a weapon; the audience sees it as a bomb.

This post was posted earlier on Substack

Modern society has made free speech more accessible than ever. The internet is not only, almost, a form of necessity, but a way of communication. Communication comes selves. Selves come personal truths. Personal truths meets the internet—persuasion of the mass is its most ideal form, just like this essay on erotica.

Fiction is the doorway of expression and escapism. They either reflect the world in distorted lens, giving it a fresher look in contrast to dull skies; or, it returns the image in different colours. It's a translation of the author's culture and environment that sets the intention of a fictional setting.

Like a dagger, a pistol, or a club, there is an intention to hit with every swing. An author's idea of erotica bases of their own wants, unexplored kinks, and possible even feared fantasies. The last, of course, pertains to taboo kinks. People are afraid of taboo because it is out of the norm. It's not hand-holding, it's not kisses, it's not candles in the moonlight. It's BDSM, it's eproctophilia (fetish for farts), it's stepcest/incest kinks.

What makes erotica either a weapon or a bomb, is the single line that distances intent to impact. The intent comes from the author and its concepts. The impact is when the audience perceives it, free of the authors intention and relying solely onto the text given. How does the weapon and the bomb separate itself from one another?

"Erotica can be the act of freeing yourself"

A mainstream example of a weapon is the explosive genre of, supposedly, Young Adult 'Smut' books on TikTok. Smut on BookTok has been quick to give its infamy when everyone in the comments despite the idea of kinks as a central plot point. I cannot, and will not, speak for the authors of TikTok and say their intentions are this and that for creating books within those genres. However, I will speak as the anonymous erotica author who wrote an article for The Boar.

Coming from a conservative background, the taboo surrounding ordinary sex has intrigued me throughout my adolescence.

Being able to write about my adventures and fantasies has pushed me to commit to writing erotica, as I am able to write about fantasies and passions and push them to their limits, further motivating me to continue writing, becoming more engrossed as the stories become more controversial.

Erotica can be the act of freeing yourself from the restraints of reality. Similar as to how fantasy authors create fire-breathing dragons, erotica authors can explore fucking your hot step-sibling who is probably years older than you. Things that you know you can't do in real life, and you will never, turns into ink from a Muji pen on a notebook from Target. An alternate option: self-publishing and promoting it to TikTok.

"An author is not naive for publishing their work to a sea of audience"

Once your work is freed from its restraints of Microsoft Word, they are put into the hands of the audience. It becomes the indiscriminate bomb. The Death of the Author by Roland Barthes explains how reading a piece of media no longer becomes the author, it should no longer be about them. It's the reader who has the power of interpretation, who reads the text and disregards the ideologies and concepts of the original author.

Though freeing, it comes with the danger of intention lost on impact. The bomb. It's not focused, it's not aimed, it's a thing that is thrown and hope to hit the right marks. A weapon, in this case, should be an erotica shared within the community who share the same intentions. A bomb, in this case, should be promoting an erotica to a platform that is diverse in age, preference, and background.

An author is not naive for publishing their work to a sea of audience that may or may not like their work. An audience is naive for thinking that media has to, and needs to be, fit for their taste. It's easy to say you don't like x kink and y fetish, it's another to willingly 'criticise' a work that was never made for you. Criticise is defined by, in most cases: the act of shitting on something because it doesn't meet your personal standards.

"Censorship has been the longest enemy of any art form"

Once the damage is done, what is left? It's normal for books to be handed from the author to the audience. It's what births fandoms, even. However, in the case of erotica, in can become more destructive to the author and to the community it was intended to be written for.

Censorship has been the longest enemy of any art form. The Last Judgement by Michelangelo depicted the second coming of Christ, painted onto the altar of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. Once the work was done, it was damned by the Council of Trent due to its nudity in religious art. Any images of nudity that would bring lust to the audience was covered by the next painter that they could get.

If erotica authors are censored, covered up, and damned for their lust, then what else can art be? It shall follow a set of rules that are approved of society, it shall not portray anything but pure forms, and it shall not be self-expression. If this is followed, then what else can sex be?

"The lack of individuality everyone is entitled to"

Sex has been everything but expression in the eyes of the mass. The idea that sex must be socially conforming is backwards. Yet, how is it that it's still present? How is it that people are still afraid of things that is impersonal to them? To things that are done by those consenting, by those who write and never acted, by those in environments they felt unsafe to be heard? It creates the lack of individuality everyone is entitled to.

Did The Last Judgement give lust to those pure? No, they aroused the feeling from its neutral state. Does erotica arouse its intended audience to fuck their step-sibling? No, but maybe it made them masturbate.

#novacros #essay #personal essay #essay writing #censorship #purism #academia #chaotic academia #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity #female writers #substack

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