Email: rachelkramerbussel at gmail.com



 

Lusty Lady

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Friday, September 19, 2008

Is my Dirty Girls book cover sexist?

I'll be responding more to this soon, but I wanted to post about it so you can go read what's being said.


Apparently my Dirty Girls cover (photo by Merkley???) is causing controversy. Again.


from Erotica Cover Watch:

Time and again, women are put in the position of ‘object of desire’ rather than ‘subject actively desiring’. And the object of our desire – a man – is missing from the picture entirely. For a woman to say she wants a sexy man is not, as is sometimes thought, a weakness, a chink in the armour of female liberation. Expressing your lust, claiming your right to sexual satisfaction, being a person who is actively desiring is poles apart from the caricature of a needy, dependent woman who yearns for a man because without him she is a moony, ditzy sap foundering in her own inadequacy.
In rejecting this caricature, let’s not chuck out the baby with the bath water (or the penis with the patriarchy). Let’s not be afraid to say, as women, ‘I want a hot guy.’ We can retain our autonomy and do this without adding the usual fucked-up twist – I want a hot guy to want me, to find me attractive, to look at me with lust as I lie on this couch in a sultry mish-mash of availability and aloofness.

from the Lust Bites post:
Sure, if you’re a bi woman, you might like the picture too but presumably you’d be equally happy with a gorgeous guy. And it’s odd, isn’t it – suspicious even – that on erotica covers, the only aspects of female bisexuality represented are the ones that heterosexual men get off on quite majorly? How jolly convenient! Because the fact is the preponderance of the female form in erotica isn’t an act of generosity towards women who like women, anymore than the plethora of hot-honeys-go-pussy-crazy porn is about lesbian consumer choice. It’s just a side effect of what straight men like.

What I think is interesting is that I'm publishing a piece from Lust Bites by Kristina Lloyd, co-creator of Erotica Cover Watch, called "The Pleasure of Unpleasure" in my non-fiction anthology Best Sex Writing 2009, out in January from Cleis Press. The cover, shot by the fabulous Christine Kessler (do check out her drool-worthy Flickr account and her blog and her book Pervy Girls), is below:

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1 Comments:

At September 20, 2008, Blogger Kristina Lloyd said...

Hey Rachel, looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Although, um, I'm not quite sure what you're implying by saying it's 'interesting' you're publishing a piece of mine. I have to confess, that does give me a few concerns.

 

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