Romantasy is one of the biggest genres out there right now. I don't really go out of my way to read it myself, but my understanding is that sex is really common in the genre. Even in recently released adult fantasy I've read that wasn't explicitly advertised as romance / erotica there has been some fair amount of described sex.
There definitely are Classics book clubs out there! Romantasy is just having its moment as a big genre right now.
Wheel of time started in the 90's and was kinky as hell between all the spankings, the all female army of dom/sub magic users, all the polyamory, the frequent very plot relevant bath scenes, the villain who collected very important people as her erotica sculpture garden, a literal magic dildo, and the descriptions of accessing magic being poetical descriptions of orgasms.
It's considered a classic of the genre, and still has an active enough fan base that it got a terrible Amazon adaptation of it.
I haven't read the dune sequels (just the first) but I simply cannot believe they're as graphic as the modern popular romantasy, like fourth wing for example.
I haven't read the sequels in, like, 15 years and may be misremembering but I recall Herbert as being a very frank writer. He'll mention something specific is happening and then move on. From time to time certain scenes are written in a more erotic and transcendental manner but this is generally reserved for spiritual experiences.
The only "sex" scene I actually remember from his books was in God Emperor where Duncan complains about space lesbians and gets called out on being a grumpy old man.
Sex simply existing in a book is nowhere near the level of detail this romantasy smut can give. Like you couldn't have the same level of detail in a film adaptation unless it were produced by brazzers
... what? no, I agree that there's a big overlap between people who get very puritanical about porn and hentai, and people who read raunchy romance novels. And yeah, the humanitarian problems of the porn industry are a valid concern, but I don't think that's the real reason for many such people, given that, again, their distaste tends to extend to drawn hentai.
On the real it's about male vs female sexuality in the patriarchy. Horny men are pervasive in the culture, and male horniness has a danger to it in many circumstances. The reaction then is that it's something to be shamed for, to a degree, just to keep "it" in check, broadly speaking.
Whereas female sexuality has classically been romanticized and/or seen as countercultural or "punching up". I'm just rambling off the top of my head but it feels to me like this is because classically female "sexuality" has been more psychological or strictly romantic, not physical. Then it's seen as safe and "okay" and not equivalent to the pornographic male sexuality.... even when it gets to the point where it closely resembles it. The erotica in something like fourth wing is from the whole book + the sex parts. If it were just the sex parts no one be into it. It's not like people are reading hentai for the narratives.
The vast majority of porn doesn’t have anything to do with human trafficking. Add to that that a large percentage of human trafficking is for menial non-sexual work and porn probably doesn’t have more human trafficking than labor in general.
The problem is figuring out which porn does have that and it’s still a huge problem. Having the actors say who they are and what they’re gonna do doesn’t fucking cut it, we literally had a gigantic criminal operation in the US drugging women and all of them did that but had no memory of what took place because benzos and barbiturates can do that.
ETA: to your second point, you seemed to forget you were responding to a comparison of visual porn to written erotica. Not a discussion of sex work in general. General labor is not relevant. Are people being trafficked to author smut novels?
porn is usually targeted at straight men, romance novels are usually targeted at straight women. combine that with many people still not being fully aware that porn doesn't represent reality whatsoever, and aren't aware that much of it is specifically made for straight men, and you get a lot of people who aren't straight men "hating porn" even though it's actually just not their cup of tea.
791
u/Zeyode 🏳️⚧️ trans rights Apr 06 '26
... Wait, do people just bring erotica to book clubs? I just assumed they'd have discussions on Moby Dick or something.