So, I’ve smirkingly said in the past that erotica is nothing more than socially acceptable porn. I was pondering this a few days ago with one of my Friend-With-Benefits types (well, okay – he’s the only one currently that fits that category) when I thought about what kinds of differences there really are between the two. I can’t be the only person out there wondering about it, so I thought I’d do some research, and write a handy guide to help my fair readers discern whether they’re jerking off to porn or masturbating to erotica.
Erotica comes from people with names like Anne Roquelare, Rachel Kramer Bussel, and Lisbet Sarai. Porn comes from people with names like Seymore Butts, Sledge Hammer, and Alexis Texas.
Erotica uses words like “mons”, “cleavage”, and “penis”. Porn uses words like “man meat”, “jizz”, and “cum dumpster”.
Erotica has themes like sex with a stranger, surprise threeways, and sex in the woods. Porn has themes like MILFs, Amateurs, and biracial orgies.
Erotica is generally sold with a very softcore image of a scantily or provocatively clad woman. Porn is generally sold with a very hardcore image of a woman whose genitals are as air conditioned as a summer house in Georgia.
Erotica often has twenty minutes of erotic tension before the first sex scene. Porn often has twenty minutes of advertisements before the first sex scene.
Erotica has titles like “Her Surrender”, “On The Balcony”, and “A Date with Destiny”. Porn has titles like “Young, Dumb, and Full of Cum”, “British Older Amateur Housewives #1″, and “Little Red Rides The Hood”.
When you’re reading erotica, you feel “aroused”, “titillated”, and “swollen”. When you read porn, you’re just plain ol’ horny.
One does not “masturbate” to porn – one jerks off, or double clicks the mouse, or shoots a wad. One, also, doesn’t “milk the weasel” to erotica – one performs self loving, or strokes oneself, or in a fit of arousal one might even “ejaculate”.
One’s mother might not turn as bright a shade of red if she happens upon your copy of “Macho Sluts” as if she were to happen upon your copy of “Debbie Does Dildos”.
Erotica is not sold behind the counter in your shady neighborhood convenience store. Porn is not sold in Borders.
Finally, erotica writers get reviewed using comments like “his grasp of the feminine sensibilities of this character makes his story a tour de force of passion and lust”. Porn writers get reviewed using comments like “I give this story three cum shots!”.
Me, I don’t care so much whether what I write is called erotica, or porn, as long as it gets me more sex.
(Originally published on BestSexBloggers.com on Sept. 24, 2008)
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I was reading “Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting” by Robert McKee. One of his points is that people read a book or go to a movie to experience a specific kind of emotional response. That is why movies make it very clear what genre it is that you are going to see.
If you go to a comedy you are going for a different emotional experience than if you go to a horror movie. You go to a romance movie to feel that “in love” feeling. You go to an action adventure to feel excited and pumped up.
He didn’t talk about erotica or porn, but based on that construct, erotica and porn are just two other genres, and as such, are designed to create emotiona responses. The response, of course, is to feel aroused.
I say all this because a lot of the criticism of porn is that it’s purpose is just to turn you on. But that doesn’t make it any different from other works of fiction. It’s only different in the kind of emotion it is going for, not that it is simply trying to create a specific emotional response.
So from that point of view, erotica and porn are both trying to arouse the reader. They are just doing it in different ways.