Monday 16 April 2012

Guest Post: Erotica vs Porn

Erotica vs Porn by Natalie Hancock
     Since I became an author of erotic paranormal romance, everyone has said the same thing whenever the topic ‘erotic romance books’ comes up. Erotica is porn.
     Is it? There is such a big difference between the two I wonder why someone could think erotica was porn in the first place.
     Erotic romance tells the entire story, including the sex. It’s there to stimulate the mind and the body with the romance and arouse emotions and the imagination with the erotic side of romance.
     Porn is exploitive and degrading. There are no other words to describe porn. Of course that is my opinion. Many people don’t find porn degrading and I would never tell them they are disgusting for watching it. If they want to watch it, then that’s fine by me. I know a lot of people who do, most for research, others just because they want to.
     The way I see it, and most authors too, if you take the sex out of porn, you are left with literally nothing. You take the sex out of erotic romance and you still have the romance.
     When you watch a film, and there are breasts out on display, any other body part or there are couples having sex, is that porn? I’m pretty sure it isn’t, even though a lot of people get aroused watching it, yet the majority of people, men mostly, say erotica romance is. How does that work?
     I write erotica romance because when I speak about the love my characters have with one another, the emotions they feel whenever they are together, I want to describe that in all forms, including sex.
     Is that so wrong?
     I have had someone tell me that if two people love each other and create a porn video, that’s romance.
     I laughed hysterically at that.
     In my opinion, you could be in love with someone, you could be the most romantic couple there ever could be, but when you have sex and put a video of that up on the internet for millions... No billions of people to masturbate over, you’ve lost your romance right there. Instantly. What you share with your partner or partners is meant to be private, for you only, not for everyone else to see.
     Yes, erotic romance books have detailed sex in it, but you can’t watch them have sex, you can only see it in your mind. And what do you really see when you read an erotic book? Do you see the couples described, or do you see yourself with your partner, or a partner you would like? Do you see all your wildest fantasies coming true?
            Just remember that when you say an author is writing porn, you are insulting them, and the people who read their books. Erotica is not porn and porn is not erotica. I know I can’t change most people’s minds about the difference between the two, but I do hope to change a few.
Natalie Hancock: Bio
Natalie is a hyperactive writer of Paranormal Romance books. She writes about vampires mainly, but would like to write stories of other paranormal creatures. She studied and graduated at the University of Lincoln, Riseholme College where she studied an animal course for two years, which is where she met her partner, Reece. He's as crazy as her, if not more, so they're the perfect match.

They live with their zoo in the middle of nowhere. Their zoo consists of a hamster called Crunch. A chinchilla called Hektor and three guinea pigs called Fluff, Smudge and Squig. They hope in the near future to add to the family and get an army of hamsters, chinchilla's and guinea pigs. Oh, and a goat.

Natalie loves to read, listen to loud rock/hardcore music, game, and look after her crazy animals. She also loves vampires! She's a true believer of all things supernatural and if she had the luck to run into one, she would either ask for his or her autograph, or jump on them just to make sure she wasn't dreaming.

Natalie’s Books:

Eternal Darkness is about the life of Layla, a half vampire, half human who is sent to live in a hundred acres of land full of vampires for her own safety. The only problem is she hungers for the vampires blood, so when she has lessons with them, not only does she struggle with the hunger raging inside of her, but she has to learn to trust those around her, something she can’t do because she has a dark past, and because of it, she has trouble trusting anyone.
She knows she’s in as much danger inside the land as she was when she was outside the land, and she can’t shake off the feeling that something, or someone is watching her, waiting to attack her, despite the guards watching her every move.
When she meets one of the tutors, she feels things towards him and wants both his blood and his body, but it’s forbidden to feel the way they do and Layla must fight her feelings otherwise the secrets she desperately wants to remain a secret will get out, and put her in more danger than she already is.
 
Dark Shadows continues the story of how half-breed Layla struggles with her hunger, and her desires for Shade now more than ever. She is also struggling to keep her hidden identity a secret as well as her secrets, but when there are attacks made on her, and it puts everyone in serious danger, the identity she has kept hidden is revealed.

In Dark Awakening, there is more security, more people watching Layla’s back now that everyone knows who she is. Layla wants to find the person responsible for the attacks made at her, as is everyone else, but when an attack happens to someone other than her, she and Nikalye are the only ones who know the truth of it and are determined to find the culprit once and for all, before someone else is seriously injured.
Layla continuously fights for survival to keep herself and those around her alive, but when more things sinister arrive in the hundred acres of land, and the culprit is revealed, the situation turns from bad to deadly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A huge thanks to Natalie! Visit her website here. (Don’t you think those covers are drool worthy? ;)
What are YOUR thoughts on Erotica vs Porn?

25 comments:

  1. Nice post! I've always said, and you captured it very well here, to me, Erotica is romance AND sex, -- porn is sex without love. If you add love to sex you have romance not porn.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Storm :) That just about summed up everything I said in sixteen words lol

      Delete
    2. Totally agree with you Storm - thanks for stopping by :)

      Delete
  2. Excellent post! As a writer of erotic romance, I carefully avoid the use of some terminology that I find offensive to my feminist leanings. We know them, so I find no need to post them here. The author of erotic romance must first draw the reader into the world of the lovers with a true love story. The depiction of their expressions of love only tell a part of the story. It is the task of the reader to imagine themselves in the role of lover in order to complete the triangle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is the best bit, imagining yourself to be the one being swept of your feet and end in a tangled, sweaty mess on the bed... Or floor... Or bath... With a completely gorgeous man :P

      I find it really easy to write about my characters being in love, but I think that might be because I'm in love myself, so I just have to think about how I react when I'm around Reece, or how he makes me feel when he does stuff, or the look in his eyes when he looks at me and tells me he loves me. Ahhh... I love that :P

      Delete
  3. The way I see it, the reason for this misunderstanding is the type of books coming out now, due to self publishing. There was a huge furore over smashwords banning certain "erotica". But, that was not really erotica, that was porn. When you can get both porn and erotica in books, it is easy to misjudge and club both in the same genre.
    But Natalie, I completely agree about the story part. If you remove the sex out of porn, you are left with nothing at all. Here too, porn has now started blurring the lines, albeit with bad acting and bad scripts.
    So, will this misunderstanding ever go away? I hope to, but I would not bet on it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I do agree with you there. There are a lot of books on amazon too that I would call 'porn' not erotic romance.
      Some, for example, with the titles: 'Mummy wants my c**k' and 'Daddy wants my virginity'. For me, anything with those titles is NOT romance. That is just sick. That's not even porn really.

      Delete
    2. Yeah, I've accidentally downloaded a couple books that I thought were erotica, but ended up being porn. I think you've explained the difference very well. I've also seen a few that were obviously porn and wondered how they got past Amazon's "no porn" filters.

      Delete
  4. As a challenge to myself I wrote a single, erotic romance short story for my anthology. Let me tell you, it was the most difficult piece I have ever written. It's like walking on a footpath through a swamp. One step off the path and you're up to your waist in porn on one side, or purple-prose on the other. Those who stay on the path have my utmost respect, as a writer AND a reader.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I completely agree! You walk such a fine line when writing an erotic romance novel... use one word that might be too 'smexy' - it changes everything!

      Delete
  5. I totally agree with the way that you define the differences between erotica and porn. I am not against either, if that is what another person enjoys. I don't personally read erotica- not because I am a prude, but because I find it unnecessary. (Only an opinion for myself.) By the same token, I don't enjoy romance novels that are only romance and don't have a good story to carry it. I think that the real problem comes in when people insist on putting derogatory labels on anything just to discourage others away from what someone has determined is "unsuitable".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sure if I was to write something I'd never written before, for example, m/m/f etc, then I would be the one to watch something so I can see what goes on in the world... Or bed... Of limbs :P Lol
      We all enjoy different things. I prefer erotic paranormal romance books to just erotic romance. That's just because I love vampires, werewolves, demons etc rather than reading about normal people.

      Delete
  6. I had been wondering about that myself but I feel you have cleared it up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What do you think about the topic of Erotica vs Porn?

      Delete
  7. Very interesting piece. But please don't blame people with little (or no) experience of either erotica or pornography, who might be confused - I'm sure most people don't mean to be insulting to the authors concerned, and until reading something like this, may not appreciate the difference.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh I agree and I'm not blaming people with no experience, I aimed this post towards those who knew what they were saying when they were saying it. My publisher had an interview about the erotic books she sells, and the comments made were all horrible. Everyone at eXtasy books said their bit on the books they wrote, but the majority of people, men in perticular who commented saying that erotica was 'porn for women'. It's sexist for starters, but to say that the romance we erotic authors write in our books is nothing but porn, it is insulting.

      Delete
  8. I agree with you, Erotica and porn are entirely different. When I think of porn it brings to mind straight sex (not literally) no emotion, no feeling, just sex. With Erotica you delve into the lives of the characters and share intimate moments with them. Even if those intimate moments may be more intense than what you would expect... if there's a story that allows you to become involved in the characters lives it's Erotica.

    ReplyDelete
  9. There's also a difference between erotic romance and erotica. In erotic romance, the romance is the focus of the story. In erotica, sex is the focus but the story is still there. Erotic romance requires a happily ever after ending. Erotica does not. Porn is for entertainment only. I write erotica and erotic romance, and I enjoy them both. Porn...I can take it or leave it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Funny thing too, sometimes there isn't that much sex in erotic romance. I read one book that had one sex scene--only one!

    My first published erotic book had four sex scenes, that's all.

    It kind of makes your wonder what all the fuss is about.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I really enjoyed reading Natalie's post, and all the subsequent comments. Very interesting and thought provoking! Good job guys!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Erotica has connective tissue (no pun intended) between characters in a storyline. Porn is purely about the mechanics. I like both.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Interesting blog on an old age discussion.
    I cringe every time when I announce I read/write Romantica or Erotic Romance stories, and straight away the snickers come and the "ahhh, yeah right ...porn"
    Mostly now it isn't worth wasting my breath over a person who can't differentiate from the two. Nothing I have to say will matter.

    We can only stay true to ourselves and our muse, and create the best story we know how for our characters.
    Thanks Alexia and Great Post Natalie.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I had the same problem with people judging when they found out I read Erotic Romances - I don't understand what the big deal is? Why is this topic always such an issue? I love reading erotica novels - so, haters to the left :) lol xx

      Delete
    2. Thank you. And you're not the only one. I was embarrassed at first when I started reading those kind of books and used to try to hide it, but I never once thought it was porn. After a while, I just thought, well, it's romance, what's wrong with reading that? Now, I'll take an erotic romance book wherever I go without being embarrassed and I write it too. Some books, mine in perticular, just wouldn't sound right without the sex.

      Delete