Gramsci, tentatively enquiring after her health, was rewarded with a wheezing tirade.
Ive decided, the Cow spluttered, that my biggest issue with the current glut of Confessional Sex Blooks is not the appalling quality of the writing, nor the neurotic narcissism of their bourgeois, Northern, white women authors, nor even the mundane inanity of their contents! Secrets of a Sexual Adventuress indeed!
Gramsci sighed empathetically. Publishing something in a national newspaper does tend to disqualifies it as a secret, he agreed.
Pah! coughed the Cow. The only evidence of anything adventurous I could find in the book was the publishers gamble to reduce another rainforest in the books creation. No. Its the disservice they do to female sexuality that most gets me.
But theyre written by women! protested Gramsci.
Thats the point! agreed the Cow. They purport to be authentic or at least, reality-based which has moral and ethical issues of its own, and they claim to be outré, defiant, norm-busting. Which is exactly my problem!
Gramsci didnt get it. The Cow rambled on. Publishers choose works that show women behaving like men enjoying sex, with several partners, separating sex from love as they believe these will sell.
They must do, suggested Gramsci, or publishers would cease doing so. After all, it must be reassuring for a woman whose lust is denied by society to affirm her 'normality' in the pages of such a blook! And it must be comforting for men to see their behaviour as acceptable, after all, because even women do that!
But thats the problem! insisted the Cow. These blooks are not being published because theyre normal; theyre being published as some kind of sensationalised freak-show, reaffirming the stereotype that although there are indeed some women who behave like men, the examples are so few and so notable theyre worth drawing attention to. If this was 'normal', why would anyone need to publish it and draw attention to it?
Gramsci paused. You have a point, he conceded. There are well written, erotic sex blogs out there which are not blooked. The reason, perhaps, is that they are written by men. While women behaving like men might sell, men behaving like men enjoying sex, with several partners, separating sex from love wouldnt cut it. Its normal, after all, and books about brushing teeth every morning hardly sell!
Indeed! the Cow agreed. But its a little more complex than that, too. The flip-side is that stereotypical normality is indeed celebrated in these Confessional Sex Blooks the women authors invariably are, at their core, looking for Mr Right to save them and whisk them away to a happily-ever-after: once, that is, theyve found the perfect pair of shoes for the occasion.
Links to some of the Confessional Sex Blogs which spawned the blooks under discussion can be found here.