They're were-jaguars, author, not were-hyenas

[elspethdixon]

Generally, when I read either romance novels or fic, I tend to skim over the sex scenes. But every once in a while, a particular line will jump out at me and force me to pat attention, like the following one from one of Juliana Stone's older novels that made me re-read the entire page trying to figure out what exactly the guy was doing to the woman:

He flicked his tongue teasingly, finding the engorged bud that glistened with the cream of her sex. Her body jerked, and he growled deeply against her warmth, and without hesitation his hot mouth opened wide and he took all of her deeply into him.

The bolded bit reads like it accidentally sneaked in from a completely different oral sex scene involving m/m blow jobs. What exactly is the "all of her" that he's taking into him? The "her" in this sex scene is a cis woman, as one can tell by the variety of euphemisms used for her clitoris ("engorged bud" is joined later on by a couple of others, and we also get a description of the "slick, wet folds of her sex"). She's not wearing any kind of strap-on, so what body part exactly is it that he's taking deep into his mouth? Is he deep-throating the disembodied zombie cock of Rob Lowe?

I doubt the author wrote a slash fic, swapped one guys gender, and then missed a line when editing the sex scenes, because a major plot element involves the two of them having a biological kid together. Did she take "write what you know" a little too far ("Cunnilingus is totally exactly the same as giving a guy a blow-job, right? Right? I'm not going to ask my husband/boyfriend, because that would be embarrassing, so I'll just assume it is. Also, vaginal secretions totally taste like dessert toppings, right?*")


*Okay, so this book didn't actually do the "honey/syrup/other sweet and delicious things" comparisons, but an awful lot of het romance does. I don't know where that trope comes from, because in over a decade of reading m/m slash fic, including slash by lesbians who've never seen a real, live naked cock, I've yet to come across semen that tastes like candy.

Comments

TMI alert

[sholio]

Hmmm, I feel like Pedantic Lass for pointing this out, but I've had this done to me, and I have female bits! I don't think I'd phrase it quite like that, but the physical activity is certainly possible (or at least, that's definitely what it feels like, whatever the actual mechanics are of what's happening ...).

Re: TMI alert

[kitewithfish]

Yes, same here. It seems like a suction thing? Or possibly a "lower open mouth over vulva" maneuver? I mean, it does not seem that far off from an actual thing. Tho, yes, a bit blow-jobby in the description, not going to lie.

Re: TMI alert

[elspethdixon]

possibly a "lower open mouth over vulva" maneuver?

That was what I eventually decided was probably happening - it's the "deeply into him" bit in the description that threw me, because it's the exact same kind of language romance novels like to use to describe penetration ("she took him deeply into her," etc.).

[parhelion]

I dunno, maybe the sweet descriptions are some sort of response to the real life fish/seafood comparisons a lot of women hear made by men in less-than-flattering tones?

When you spend so much time being informed that your intrinsic gender characteristics -- lips, hips, cup size, whatever -- weigh so heavily in terms of your worth, maybe that kind of negative comment about a sexual gender characteristic outside a female reader's control has stung more for many, and it then becomes attractive to have someone slip in a quick "No! Your proxy's secretions actually tastes like candy because she's just that cool!" reference in passing.

[elspethdixon]

maybe the sweet descriptions are some sort of response to the real life fish/seafood comparisons a lot of women hear made by men in less-than-flattering tones?

That might be it. (The fish comparison puzzles me as well, honestly, because in my admittedly-limited-to-single-digits experience, it tastes no more like fish than it does like honey/cream/strawberries/etc.)