Regardless of who you’re targetting, for erotica to work most effectively, a reader needs to be able to place him or herself easily inside a character in order to get those wheels of arousal whirling. If a reader can’t identify with a character, chances are the eroticism of the piece will fall flat.You’re left with either a nice story with lackluster sex scenes, or if the sex itself was the story -- always a risky move for a writer to make -- you’re left with nothing at all. What happens when you’re a fan of erotica but can rarely find any targetting your unique sexual experience of yourself? For a variety of reasons -- and it isn’t so much an issue of overt racism as it is an issue of covert racism that has created strict cultural taboos and social expectations the writers themselves are often forced to overcome first -- erotica targetting readers of color or of non-traditional-white ethnicities, let alone lesbians of color, is hard to come by in your local Barnes & Noble. What Joel Tan’s exquisite collection, Queer PAPI Porn, did for gay Asian men back in 1998, Jolie Du Pre’s collection, Iridescence: Sensuous Shades of Lesbian Erotica, now does for lesbians of “various shades of non-white” nearly a decade later: it helps defeat stereotypes (as in the wonderfully written “The Sound Inside,” writer Jacqueline Applebee states: “There’s a persistent stereotype...that says [a Black woman] must be constantly sensual and exotic, have natural rhythm, and be able to sing like a pro.”); it helps give a rebellious voice to queer women who might be subjugated by racism and sexism in their own homes (in “A Special Dessert,” Winnie Jerome explains: “...you can’t imagine it because you’re not Asian. I’m sure you never experienced the narrow-minded shit that I did. Did your father rant to you about ‘racial purity’ when you were in kindergarten? Probably not.”); and it offers up good, solid writing that’s sexy as hell. In the opening piece by Fiona Zedde, a little “Night Music” turns one woman’s body into an instrument of lush sexual pleasure for both the giver and the receiver. You probably need a hormone infusion if that story doesn’t get you hot. And Du Pre’s own “Monisha” is a poignant Christmas seduction that is nothing but sheer lust in the back seat of a car between two horny women who will not meet again -- one woman is destined for a job out of state, the other, heading toward hetero matrimony. It’s a story full of all the little details women who are hot for other women will recognize:
I walk into a coffee shop. A jazzy instrumental comes out of the speakers to the tune of Silent Night. She’s behind the counter. Tawny skin and a face full of freckles. Brown dreadlocks. Large breasts. Big hips. She turns around and bends over to get some cups. I stare at her full behind and imagine us naked: she on her stomach, my chocolate hands on her caramel ass.
There are some old favorites of mine here -- the tough-as-nails Sofia Quintero (aka Black Artemis), Rachel Kramer Bussel, Tenille Brown, and the always hard-hitting Jean Roberta, this time taking on Native American prostitutes on the Canadian prairie. And there are plenty of writers here who have been making names for themselves in online erotica, including CB Potts, Amanda Earl, Terri Pray, and JT Langdon. It makes for a vibrant and up-to-the-minute mix of important erotic storytelling by and for women (and the guys who get off on them). Iridescence is a collection you should experience -- for your mind as well as your equally important other places. It will get you hot and it will get you thinking. What could be better than that? Review © 2007 Marilyn Jaye Lewis |
