Free Full Exposure: Opening Up to Sexual Creativity and Erotic Expression by Susie Bright Page A

people bought the original Herotica when its treacly cover was such a turnoff, but then we were the only choice at the time. Now there is competition from lots of erotic anthologies, and women are not nearly as timid about their erotic reading tastes. Younger readers aren’t even aware of all the hand-wringing we went through to present these sexual fantasies to the public. The look of the books now needs to have more erotic confidence.

    I’ve been elated that I’ve been able to connect with so many eager women readers. Yet at the same time I also sometimes feel like I am a cat celebrating inside a cage of canaries—women who feared so much for their femininity if they crossed the line into Bad Girl territ-ory. They would never have seen these stories, or been provoked by them, if we hadn’t presented them with kid gloves and lace. Why does feminine virtue rest on high-maintenance appearances?
    This distinction is even more glaring in the adult video business. For years I’ve supported women directors who make erotic movies where women’s pleasure and integrity are up front, unapologetic. A few such videos have come out and have found a small appreciative audience. But that isn’t the reason so many more women are watching adult videos. The erotic videos that have achieved critical mass in the couples market, where women make the choices, are the ones that feature beautiful locations, sumptuous interior design, and cover-girl fashion. All the actors are tan, impeccable, ready to go yachting or refresh their caviar. Despite the fact that they get down to it like any other actors in an X-rated movie, their moneyed appearance is the most important signifier to the female audience. It’s like a tonic that instantly relaxes.
    Why do so many women feel reassured by the icons of Martha Stewart Living in the erotica they favor? Because the single most important message women receive about their femininity, to this day, is the ching-ka-chang value of their virtue.
    That virtue no longer rests on their technical virginity (unless you’re the future queen of England), but it is still defined in rather strict terms.
    A traditional woman who wants to be a success cannot let her sexual curiosity take her down the status ladder. That could

    mean avoiding everything from a sleazy magazine to a man who has less status than she does. It also means that she has to portray herself a certain way in public, in her costumed life. Women’s magazines—with all their makeup, hair, and clothes—are the ultimate fetish bibles. This is what women are asked to sublimate their libidos for. Obviously it’s a struggle sometimes, and the most rebellious or least successful women just give the whole program the boot.
    Nevertheless, the very word pornography is a class barrier that keeps many women from looking at erotic expression seriously. It’s like asking them to strip naked in the street. On the other hand, when they see an “adult” movie that is choked with lavish symbols of conspicuous consumption, it’s a revelation, a green light. Whether the glamour models on-screen actually have orgasms is entirely secondary for a woman who feels threatened that she might lose it all if she lets herself be seen as a cheap date.
    Until the modern wave of “grown-up” women talking about their sex lives, the conventional wisdom was that women had to be sold romance and love, sugar and shopping, men who can be tamed. But when Erica Jong came along and said she wanted a “zipless fuck,” that didn’t sound like a little girl. When a group of San Francisco lesbian-feminists put together a collection of S/M erotica called Coming to Power, you knew that Barbie had left the building. When I wrote my first grown-up erotic poetry, I knew, romantic as I am, that I was leaving the baby bubble forever. Good-bye Beanie-acs, hello Amazon sex goddesses. Don’t let your teddy bear bite you on the way out.
    As difficult as it’s been for women to make the