Peeking around the door jamb

Both Lisabet and Jenna have made excellent points when it comes to the doors of our writing being opened, or not. I have my own take on this issue and like Lisabet, I'm not sure where I'll be going with it here, so bear with me.

Romance and Erotic in written form have been around for centuries. The French and Orientals have been entertaining those who could read since the middle ages, much of it a great deal earlier. True, not everyone had access to books or could read way back then, but it was there. The doors had been opened if only to the rich and idle.

A sample from Stuart's Taste of the Orient

T'ung-sheng-ko

Let us now lock the double door with its golden lock,
And light the lamp to fill our room with its brilliance,
I shed my robes and remove my paint and powder,
And roll out the picture scroll by the side of the pillow,
The plain girl I shall take as my instructress,
So that we can practice all the variegated postures,
Those that an ordinary husband has but rarely seen,
Such as taught by T'ien-lao to the Yellow Emperor,
No joy shall equal the delights of this first night,
These shall never be forgotten, however old we may grow.

Chang Heng A.D. 78-139

But, when you look at attitudes of the readers, what's really changed? There are only so many ways tab A can fit into slot B, although we like to think we dream new ones up with each generation.

The internet has shown us new doors and new attitudes towards both readers and writers of erotica. It used to be men were the accepted authors of the Penthouse and Playboy stories. That seems to have changed and many men are now taking on female pen names in order to get their stories published. I don't know what the stats are on who's buying the books and stories, whether more men or women read the naughty stories you and I write, but I bet it's closer to even than ever. I could also be completely wrong here, but I just get the feeling I'm not.

What I feel needs to be addressed or at least thought of is the way the general public relate, or can't relate, to us, the authors, of the smut/romance/erotica they read.

Lisabet seems to have had a very good experience as an author and I'm really glad for her. Jenna, not so much and I remember vividly how upset she was. It was heartbreaking to simply know what was happening and not be able to help in any way.

For myself, those doors, the ones where readers can't understand that we are not what we write. Read that line again:

Writers are not what they write.

Stephan King did not go to cemeteries and dig up dead cats or loved ones. There were no aliens buried in the back yard, thinner wasn't real, honest!

It's not okay to email a romance author and suggest, blatantly, that if she only had a REAL man she wouldn't need to be a lesbian. OR! It's really not okay to send a complete stranger an email telling them their hot and you want to f**k them or have them do strange and wonderful things to you. This list could go on for pages. How many romance or erotica authors have taken pen names in order to protect themselves, not only from being discovered by their boss' or co-workers, but by strangers who seem to think the title author makes it okay to stock, harass or terrorize someone?

These are doors we've perhaps opened without realizing what could happen. The internet is an entirely new world, a new door, and it's just now becoming a place a great number of people use daily. The morals of a world wide society, that's what this door is and we're struggling to explain it, live within it and even define it. On one hand, we have the ultra conservative who wants all things personal kept away from adults and children alike. On the other hand we have those who feel to censor anything is wrong. Plus all the millions in between those two hands.

Maybe this door will force human kind to grow up. But, maybe we've opened a Pandora's box dooming us all. What do you think?