Politics are garbage this week, so instead I’d like to share with you all another problem with American society -- we have no idea of what constitutes “sexy." You must be aware by now of my unabashed support of non-exploitative sex work and promoting a healthy view of human sexuality. So this piece will go right along with that. My honest opinion on sexuality, however, has hurt some of my friends’ feelings in the past before as I’ve derided E.L. James’ “Fifty Shades of Grey” for lacking any kind of remotely arousing descriptions or engaging characters. Never mind the fact that the series was widely panned by critics or that James had the writing talent of a mildly intoxicated toddler, her audience is as much at fault as she. People, the movie had an awesome soundtrack, but Beyoncé and the Weeknd’s heavenly voices would literally make the oldest set of grandparents’ sex lusty (and yes, old people do still have sex).

I hear you all ask yourselves, “Hasn’t that series been out for a while, Franco? Why are you complaining about it now?” Well, I happened to read something that was eons better in terms of whether it aroused my libido or not, my dear hypothetical readers. I’m not a tastemaker, nor do I claim to have a more elite opinion – I just think James’ writing, at its best, is laughably tame (when it isn’t outright promoting abuse and rape), and there’s a sinister reason as to why her writing has blown up over more worthy writers.

Anyways, the novel I read is called “The Romance of Lust," written anonymously and published by William Lazenby in the 1870's. Be forewarned, if you follow the link, the adult content is incredibly not safe for work. Trigger warnings include incest, adultery and voyeurism. If you read even the first few pages, then you might question why I’m advocating for fiction that openly acknowledges its own bawdy perversion in excruciating detail. Well, I’m not. There is a wider discussion surrounding public discourse in the United States on the topic of sex, pornography, erotic fiction and the often overlooked writers that produce content on this subject. Seriously, what is this tripe:

"I flush. My inner goddess is down on bended knee with her hands clasped in supplication begging me."

“Romance of Lust” on the other hand, makes no qualms about its contents – the “c” word to reference the vulva is used exactly 472 times with matching syntactic permutation to spice up the sentence structure. Holy vagina descriptions, Batman! For the sake of decency in my publication, even I can’t do much, but allude to the directly lewd nature of this erotic literature (as much as I’d like to speak frankly). As Alex Clark himself notes:

“Key is the link between readers continuing to see the written word as something they should pay for. On Amazon, 'Grey,' in paperback and on Kindle, is cheap as chips; its volume sales ensure that James could probably buy as many helicopters as she likes. Though it has long been dismissed, with a degree of patronizing misogyny, as “mommy porn,” her work’s appeal may also derive from the fact that it is not culturally sanctioned.”

What happened? Why are readers satisfied with so little when we have current authors who are working hard to provide audiences with quality content? Despite the cultural stigma, we have evidence of independent content that can satisfy the curiosity inherent in the search for “taboo” materials. Similar to the problems of record labels in the music industry, the mainstream publishing industry values mass marketing campaigns for a few highlighted authors who can push sales over substance, regardless of whether that strategy pans out or not. I’m not one to push all the blame on consumerist mentality when these structural barriers exist to bar all but the most risk-free profitable ventures, but we should hold publishing companies to a higher standard and not capitalize on abusive narratives. Simultaneously, we should also work to have better conversations about sexuality and not promote rape culture. But nothing I’ve written today hasn’t already been said by much more educated voices.