![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
This is probably the most explicit piece of writing ever to appear in my lj. And it's meta. On het.
So, I've read an awful lot of romance novels in the past 2/3 months, because the ebook selection at the Brooklyn Public Library is about 65% Harlequin novels (someone seriously needs to hook the selection policy people up with Baen, so they can add a little classic "space marines with big ass guns" male fantasy wishfulfillment to the cornucopia of "The Italian Billionaire's Secret Virgin Mistress's Christmas Baby" titles). And at this point, I've read at least ten recently published historical or paranormal romance novels that have featured the following scenario:
Hero and virginal heroine have reached the first sex scene, generally located about 1/3 of the way through the book (1/2 in some historicals). Heroine is a virgin, having never had sex before (or having only had unsatisfying sex where the sucky previous lover never gave her a proper orgasm). After some kissing and foreplay, the hero goes down on the heroine, brings her to screaming orgasm, and then the sex is over. Frequently he hasn't even taken his pants off. Occasionally he then leaves the heroine to go take care of his own unsatisfied arrousal on his own.
J.R. Ward does it in Lover Revealed and I *think* in Lover Awakened (also known as "I see your crazy redheaded abuse-survivor guy with massive issues about sex and raise you the entire Watchmen kink meme, where dozen of anonymous people rock this concept much harder and more realistically than you do."). Several writers of regency era historicals have done it, too, including whomever wrote Lord Libertine and Unlacing Lily. (I swear, Lord Libertine is much better than the title makes it sound)
I can buy that the world of romance novels is populated by a vast number of men who really, really like to go down on women. Most romance novel heroes are designed to satisfy the writer and reader's fantasies, and J.R. Ward, for example, clearly has a thing for women getting oral sex from men who are built like living Rob Liefeld art. The guy-gives-heroine-mindblowing-oral-sex-and-gets-nothing-in-return fantasy isn't even a difficult one to grasp -- given that more than one woman has had unsatisfying sex with men who are all about their own satisfaction and not that interested in hers, I bet the she-gets-all-the-pleasure/he-does-all-the-work sex scene is extra satisfying for a lot of women to read. The guy taking the time and trouble to get her off first-- and obviously enjoying the hell out of it -- is a deliciously hot scenario when done well (though I have to marvel at the way their tongues never, ever get tired. Romance novel heroes not only have muscles of steel and wills of iron, they clearly have tongues of tungsten, too).
It also has the benefit of leaving the heroine's hymen intact and avoiding any risk of pregnancy, both potentially useful things in a historical setting.
It's just that, after the third or fourth novel I encountered it in (I think it was Unlacing Lily where I first started to balk), all I could think when I got to the semi-deflowering oral sex scene was "Why doesn't he get an orgasm?"
For one thing, I have trouble believing that nearly every romance novel hero is just that unselfish. Makes sure she gets an orgasm before achieving his own? Dreamy. Gives her sexual pleasure but asks for nothing in return? Okay, my experience with men is pretty much nonexistant, but I'm pretty sure they like to get to come, too.
For another: most of the time, I've seen this scenario with a virginal heroine. She's never had sex before, never been intimate with a male body before, and now she has a hot stud all to herself, and she's not *curious*? She doesn't want to get inside his breeches and see what he's got? Having just learned what a guy's mouth can do for her, she doesn't want to experiment with him a little and expand her sexual horizons even further?
Also, and this may be a product of the fact that reciprocity tends to be a thing in a lot of slash pwps, but: shouldn't some of the heroines want to return the favor and get him off in return?
I get the whole "I don't want to get pregnant/make you pregnant" concern, and even the Regency-setting concerns about preserving technical virginity (and the frequent concern on the hero's part that full-blown penis-in-vagina penetrative sex right away might freak the totally inexperienced virginal heroine out), but the heroine has a mouth. She has hands. 39,000 NC-17 rated slashfics have assured me that those body parts are more than sufficient to provide the hero with mindblowing pleaure of his own without her ever needing to so much as lift her skirts.
Okay, maybe giving him a blowjob would be just as scary for some inexperienced heroines as being penetrated, and it has some icky connotations of humiliation and degredation in mainstream het lit, thanks to porn, but her giving him a handjob -- possibly with his instruction, for those readers who like dirty talk -- could be really hot, and could be presented in terms of the heroine discovering her own sexual power by taking matters, as it were, into her own hands.
Or he could "take care of himself" while she watched. That could be hot, too, done right.
Also, and this is a much more minor thing, but when it comes to oral sex scene written from the hero's pov that give explicit detail re taste/texture/etc.... I realize most romance novelists are heterosexual women, and therefore have no personal experience in this realm, but a lot of them have husbands or boyfriends. Surely they could ask their male significant other to describe things like that to them. Or, if that's too embarassing or they're currently single, lock the bedroom or bathroom door and do some research by themselves.
In other words: no, romance writers. It does not taste like honey. Or like cream. Or like strawberries. Or like strawberries and cream. Not unless your heroine's magic hoo-haa is even more magical than I'd thought. (Also, "honey and clotted cream" falls under the list of "comparisons I never want to see in a sex scene again." Clotted cream is about half-way between whipped cream and butter, and has semi-solid lumps in it, and nothing with that texture should be coming out of your body).
So, I've read an awful lot of romance novels in the past 2/3 months, because the ebook selection at the Brooklyn Public Library is about 65% Harlequin novels (someone seriously needs to hook the selection policy people up with Baen, so they can add a little classic "space marines with big ass guns" male fantasy wishfulfillment to the cornucopia of "The Italian Billionaire's Secret Virgin Mistress's Christmas Baby" titles). And at this point, I've read at least ten recently published historical or paranormal romance novels that have featured the following scenario:
Hero and virginal heroine have reached the first sex scene, generally located about 1/3 of the way through the book (1/2 in some historicals). Heroine is a virgin, having never had sex before (or having only had unsatisfying sex where the sucky previous lover never gave her a proper orgasm). After some kissing and foreplay, the hero goes down on the heroine, brings her to screaming orgasm, and then the sex is over. Frequently he hasn't even taken his pants off. Occasionally he then leaves the heroine to go take care of his own unsatisfied arrousal on his own.
J.R. Ward does it in Lover Revealed and I *think* in Lover Awakened (also known as "I see your crazy redheaded abuse-survivor guy with massive issues about sex and raise you the entire Watchmen kink meme, where dozen of anonymous people rock this concept much harder and more realistically than you do."). Several writers of regency era historicals have done it, too, including whomever wrote Lord Libertine and Unlacing Lily. (I swear, Lord Libertine is much better than the title makes it sound)
I can buy that the world of romance novels is populated by a vast number of men who really, really like to go down on women. Most romance novel heroes are designed to satisfy the writer and reader's fantasies, and J.R. Ward, for example, clearly has a thing for women getting oral sex from men who are built like living Rob Liefeld art. The guy-gives-heroine-mindblowing-oral-sex-and-gets-nothing-in-return fantasy isn't even a difficult one to grasp -- given that more than one woman has had unsatisfying sex with men who are all about their own satisfaction and not that interested in hers, I bet the she-gets-all-the-pleasure/he-does-all-the-work sex scene is extra satisfying for a lot of women to read. The guy taking the time and trouble to get her off first-- and obviously enjoying the hell out of it -- is a deliciously hot scenario when done well (though I have to marvel at the way their tongues never, ever get tired. Romance novel heroes not only have muscles of steel and wills of iron, they clearly have tongues of tungsten, too).
It also has the benefit of leaving the heroine's hymen intact and avoiding any risk of pregnancy, both potentially useful things in a historical setting.
It's just that, after the third or fourth novel I encountered it in (I think it was Unlacing Lily where I first started to balk), all I could think when I got to the semi-deflowering oral sex scene was "Why doesn't he get an orgasm?"
For one thing, I have trouble believing that nearly every romance novel hero is just that unselfish. Makes sure she gets an orgasm before achieving his own? Dreamy. Gives her sexual pleasure but asks for nothing in return? Okay, my experience with men is pretty much nonexistant, but I'm pretty sure they like to get to come, too.
For another: most of the time, I've seen this scenario with a virginal heroine. She's never had sex before, never been intimate with a male body before, and now she has a hot stud all to herself, and she's not *curious*? She doesn't want to get inside his breeches and see what he's got? Having just learned what a guy's mouth can do for her, she doesn't want to experiment with him a little and expand her sexual horizons even further?
Also, and this may be a product of the fact that reciprocity tends to be a thing in a lot of slash pwps, but: shouldn't some of the heroines want to return the favor and get him off in return?
I get the whole "I don't want to get pregnant/make you pregnant" concern, and even the Regency-setting concerns about preserving technical virginity (and the frequent concern on the hero's part that full-blown penis-in-vagina penetrative sex right away might freak the totally inexperienced virginal heroine out), but the heroine has a mouth. She has hands. 39,000 NC-17 rated slashfics have assured me that those body parts are more than sufficient to provide the hero with mindblowing pleaure of his own without her ever needing to so much as lift her skirts.
Okay, maybe giving him a blowjob would be just as scary for some inexperienced heroines as being penetrated, and it has some icky connotations of humiliation and degredation in mainstream het lit, thanks to porn, but her giving him a handjob -- possibly with his instruction, for those readers who like dirty talk -- could be really hot, and could be presented in terms of the heroine discovering her own sexual power by taking matters, as it were, into her own hands.
Or he could "take care of himself" while she watched. That could be hot, too, done right.
Also, and this is a much more minor thing, but when it comes to oral sex scene written from the hero's pov that give explicit detail re taste/texture/etc.... I realize most romance novelists are heterosexual women, and therefore have no personal experience in this realm, but a lot of them have husbands or boyfriends. Surely they could ask their male significant other to describe things like that to them. Or, if that's too embarassing or they're currently single, lock the bedroom or bathroom door and do some research by themselves.
In other words: no, romance writers. It does not taste like honey. Or like cream. Or like strawberries. Or like strawberries and cream. Not unless your heroine's magic hoo-haa is even more magical than I'd thought. (Also, "honey and clotted cream" falls under the list of "comparisons I never want to see in a sex scene again." Clotted cream is about half-way between whipped cream and butter, and has semi-solid lumps in it, and nothing with that texture should be coming out of your body).
Tags:
From:
no subject
I kind of think it's an attempt to balance the power imbalance, where men get to be sexually experienced and women (generally) do not. He's already made his woopee, he can wait for more. Kind of a washing each other's feet thing, only by feet I mean... um yeah.
ANYWAY, I do agree that more manual sex and exhibitionism would go a long way. So would more women with positive sexual experience. Bloody vigin widows, anyway.