SUPERMARKET EROTICA

...Perhaps you, or at least your daughters, can love a man and be yourselves, too...

...Silhouette Romances editor Karen Solem told writers attending the Romance Writers of America meeting in Houston last June that Silhouette would come out with two new lines: Rendezvous Romances would be short but sexier and Special Editions (which reached bookstores this January) would be longer and sexier...

...the heroine had intercourse before marriage in two-thirds of the stories, and with more than one man in almost half...

...And they agree that these inferior books may have contributed to the recent decline in bodice-buster sales...

...Unsubstantiated reports from publishers describe typical readers as women between eighteen and sixty, most in their mid-thirties, with some college education and annual incomes of $20,000 and up...

...It is not in nature," Rhys growled...

...Such specifications often leave little for a writer to "create," as with the admonition that, "The hero and heroine meet early in the book and are never apart for more than ten pages...

...Barbara Doscher is a professor in the School of Music at the University of Colorado at Boulder...

...Men have never known whether to worship or destroy them, and so have done both...

...bringing publishers an estimated $250 million...

...Rubbish...

...What...

...But it doesn't, not in any fundamental or profound way...

...What do the well-fed priests and bishops, snug in their stone houses on this snowy night, know of these poor souls and their endless torments...

...You were interested only in your own pleasure and didn't think of her.' 'But that was different—' 'Nonsense,' she declared, her voice sharp...

...Failing to elicit a response, she provided him with one...

...She laughed and turned to Gillian...

...says Scotswoman Janet Leslie in Bertrice Small's The Kadin...

...Rather than the abductions, rapes, and betrayals common to the genre, it is the overcoming of these misadventures that is the central focus of the stories...

...Such episodes portray the kinds of bodily and psychological threats that women, and especially feminists, now decry...

...Still, erotica always wins the day because the heroine overcomes degradation and finds a partner with whom she can "celebrate...

...But we recently looked at more than fifty erotic hisCarol Thurston is a professor in the School of Communications at the University of Houston...

...Now publishers of the short so-called "category" books report that even their readers want "more sex...

...She smiled and watched him with her sea-variable eyes until he scowled and looked away...

...Since both the heroes and heroines are much more androgynous than romance story stereotypes would suggest, if these portrayals do have any influence on readers' thinking or behavior, it is probably through the redefinition of "masculinity" and "femininity" that pervades the interactions of the characters...

...The more that imagination is activated by an erotic stimulus, the more it is women who respond...

...Critics, especially feminist critics, tend to lump all paperback romances together and take great delight in aiming potshots at the archetypal submissive-pure heroine and macho-stud hero or in attacking the whole bunch as soft porn...

...He found some difficulty performing under the circumstances: "His face became bathed in perspiration, and trickles rolled down his neck...

...U THE PROGRESSIVE 151...

...Category books are constructed around highly specific publishers' formulas...

...I assume you've been intimate with a number of women on many occasions over the years...

...But I have hope, my dear...

...Oh, our physiology is different, but that's all...

...She merges the virtues of the Gothic heroine and her sexy, "bad-girl" counterpart, with the independence and career expectations of contemporary heroines in mainstream fiction...

...But doesn't the Church forbid such wicked practices...

...If they knew what I offer them they would not take it beause they truly believe the Church's threat of eternal damnation...

...And the readers we queried appreciated the difference...

...Heroines in bodice busters know they have sexual needs as strong as their lovers', and they are not ashamed to seek satisfaction...

...For too long, women who should know better have assumed that the gender-free concepts of equality of opportunity, responsibility, and respect were the exclusive property of a highly educated, liberated minority...

...At the same time, they dismiss readers of such drivel as mindless drones living in a fantasy world...

...No one knows for sure what share of the lucrative market each type controls today, but throughout the 1970s, the erotic historical romance—the bodice ripper—was the unquestioned queen of the supermarket and newsstand...

...It's extremely pleasant being your mistress, but 'tis even more pleasant being my own mistress...

...The—the circumstances make it difficult for me...

...She married more than once in a third of the books and was sexually enterprising outside her marriage in one out of five...

...We are not different from you, John...

...Jeanne Williams, writing as Megan Castell, says much the same thing in Queen of a Lonely Country, & story set in Fifteenth Century Wales: "Till now there has not been an hour in all these passing years, Cerri, when I would not have gladly made you my wife and mistress of Heriot...

...The Purdue researchers concluded that if imagination is such a simple, powerful sexual stimulant, "individual differences in sexuality, such as sex drive and preferred frequency of orgasm, may largely be due to the way we learn to use sexual fantasies...

...Recently asked to summarize the advances made by the women's movement in the last decade, Gloria Steinem responded, "We've come to understand that it is the power to choose that is important, not what we choose...

...Freedom, dignity, the right to pursue your own destiny, the opportunity to make those decisions that affect and influence your spirit and soul and body...

...There were times after that when she wished that glowing spot, the ember Of her passion, would go out...

...Now you begin to know better.' " In spite of cover illustrations and blurbs, heroes in these books are gentle and sensitive, or if they are not in the beginning, they change as they come to admire and desire the woman of independence and integrity...

...But if erotica is a "celebration of the body" (Gloria Steinem) and pornography is degrading to females, many of these books are both...

...But I'll nae wed again...

...he challenged...

...The macho male patterned after the Steve Morgan of Rosemary Rogers's books has fallen out of favor and now is more likely to be the villain of the piece...

...A man has such vanity that he believes a woman will be receptive to him at any time and under any circumstances...

...And while the majority of the books we studied conform to a generalized romance story formula, in focusing on the male-female relationship and in portraying the love of the hero as the most important motivation in the heroine's life, the fundamental power relationships between men and women have begun to be changed or at least challenged...

...Sir Rhys, my old friend-enemy, you have forgotten the loneliest country of all...

...they have a desire to control events, yes (as do the heroines), but a sense of fairness, sexual security, and understanding usually lets them compromise...

...As long as he remained hard within her and she could move her hips against him, she continued to erupt into flames which lit her inner explosions...

...In Bertrice Small's Skye O'Malley, a Catholic nun mounts an especially strong attack against sexual dependence...

...She reminded us of the women Betty Friedan (in her new book, The Second Stage) says the first stage of the feminist movement has produced...

...The profile we drew of the bodice-ripper heroines was that of the independent "total" woman: passionate lover, wife-confidante, devoted mother, astute businesswoman, and social worker...

...So much so, editors admit, that some of the tasteless tomes now on the stands were acquired about three years ago, when the market was so hot they were buying every manuscript they could get their hands on...

...Successful or sleazy, the books accounted for almost 40 per cent of the mass-market paperbacks printed in the United States in 1980...

...Ye may have my love, my body, my undivided attention . . . even my money...

...Because of both plot and length restrictions, these stories are generally unimaginative and repetitive...

...The bodice rippers, or busters, depending on the whimsy of the critic-writer, get their labels either from the bodice-ripping sexual encounters they portray or the hyperventilation readers are said to suffer while reading about them...

...The determination to be accepted in one's own right, not defined by sex, marriage, or family lineage, is a common theme in erotic historical romances, as in Marilyn Harris's Women of Eden: "What have you always wanted, from the very beginning, John, even when you were a little boy...

...Easy access to these books in supermarkets and drugstores allows many women for the first time to "legitimately" obtain material that is sexually stimulating and informative, and for many this may be their first opportunity to "learn to use sexual fantasy...

...Certainly there is little doubt that avid readers of erotic historical romances are encountering lots of sexual fantasy...

...Oral sex came up in almost half of the books we read...

...Perhaps you won't have to rule to keep from being devoured or broken...

...Historical settings seem to give authors a chance to send messages about contemporary women's issues, and also to imply that the drive for individual dignity and'respect has motivated women for hundreds of years...

...Please be reasonable.' "Janine looked kirn up and down slowly, making him even more conscious of his nudity...

...But it would not...

...Cerridwen stood quiet and straight, unmoved by his attack...

...What seems to be critical in this male-female difference is the extent to which mental processes beyond the purely sensory are engaged," says Glenn Wilson of the University of London Institute of Psychiatry...

...Surely the new-era bodice rippers, with or without artistic defects, have helped spread these ideas throughout society...

...They do not need to dominate...

...In stark contrast, the virtuous virginals generally feature saccharine-sweet, submissive heroines, chaste unto their inevitable marriages when, in a euphemism for sexual intercourse, the heroes transport them "up to the stars...

...In probably the most militantly feminist story we found, Michelle de Winter's Janine, the heroine is the captain of a pirate ship who accedes to a captured captain's plea for mercy by demanding that he satisfy her sexually or take his chances with her crew...

...VIEWS REV I E W S SUPERMARKET EROTICA 'Bodice-busters' put romantic myths to bed BY CAROL THURSTON AND BARBARA DOSCHER Much comment on paperback romances has appeared in the popular press of late...

...Over and over, wc saw a drive for personal independence so strong that marriage seemed too compromising...

...Surely you never stopped to wonder whether the circumstances were appropriate for the lady...

...The hero's love for the heroine is also the most important element in his life, and he often is heard to say that he is not "whole" or complete without her...

...There have always been women who ruled themselves," she returned equably...

...Only their audiences have been different...

...For years, centuries, we've tried to convince each other that it does...

...Whether knowingly or not, these books and the feminist movement have been moving toward the same end...

...A 1971 study at Purdue University found that women are more aroused than men by erotic writing, especially when the story is removed from reality, in the sense that a fairy tale is...

...You must be queen...

...In short, we found that most of the books we looked at did not fit the mold—did not portray submissive women or focus only on degrading sexual acts...

...That is the overall impression the reader is left with—that women who insist on self-determination, independence, and respect are "winners...

...The innocent and superstitious poor I offer a 'tonic' to help them regain their strength...

...Their involvement with other characters is only for the purpose of moving the story forward...

...As I know there has not been one moment when you would have left me my own person...

...she is asked...

...Psychologists say "nonvisual relationships'—what comes across on the printed page—are more sexually stimulating to women than men...

...She gasped and clutched his arms, hearing him say, 'Godal-mighty, what a woman you are,' just before she again erupted, harder and longer than the other times...

...Another cornerstone of the feminist movement, the belief that women must have control over their own bodies, also crops up again and again...

...To call the readers of these books sick is far from fair, in our opinion...

...Nor is it in nature—except in man's—to clip the wings of swans to bind them to earth and your territory...

...Historical romances have a mixed record on the issue, but we did find many attempts to come up with a successful contraceptive, from the special herbs of harem women in the Middle East to the sponges of the brothel ladies in the old American West...

...In the events that follow, she turns the tables on the usual male-dominance scene...

...Such changes probably have been helped along by the many women authors and editors of romances whose own social views are "feminist" in character...

...The atmosphere isn't—well, it isn't right for making love...

...The heroine of Lynn Bartlett's Courtly Love rails, "A woman has as much pride, as much honor as a man, but she is treated as if she had none...

...She paused...

...Rapes did occur in about half the books we examined, but in most of those, the hero expressed today's view that rape is a physical and emotional assault, not a sexual act, and certainly not the fault of the woman...

...The country of the self...

...Such behavior is so common, in fact, that the stories seem to be telling readers that it is to be expected, and normal, and not in conflict with the roles of good wife and mother assumed later on...

...You, sister, are not so foolish...

...Even if it is a lonely country where beasts and birds are your subjects along with those who serve you...

...You know that very well...

...Heroes are not ashamed to reveal emotions or admit to limitations...

...And there I will rule...

...Women's rage at their perceived vulnerability is echoed in the experiences and responses of the heroines of these stories...

...Star Helmer, editor-in-chief at Richard Gallen Books, says, "The reason I got into [editing these kinds of romances] in the first place was because I hoped to achieve some subtle brainwashing for the women's movement...

...But not too sexy...

...She acts as midwife to her sister (Skye) twice in ten months and then tells her she must take an herb potion to regulate her fertility...

...Am I correct?' He had no idea where her question might lead, but was forced to nod in agreement...

...All this sexual activity by the protagonists smacks more of contemporary society than of Victorian England, in which so many of the books are set...

...If the price of that is living lonely, then I will live alone...

...All were attempts to escape physical domination by men...

...Critics on the culture beat alternately call the books the marketing success of the decade for the troubled publishing business or deride them as either "bodice rippers" or "virtuous virginals...

...Yes," he said, mocking...

...Wc found not simpering acquiescence but vehement protest against unequal treatment...

...The nun responds, "The Church has not seen innocent babies dying of starvation because there are too many mouths in the family to feed...

...The author's tipsheet for Rendezvous Romances advises writers that "Sexual encounters— which may include nudity and lovemaking even when the protagonists are not married—should concentrate on highly erotic sensations aroused by the hero's kisses and caresses rather than the mechanics of sex...

...How do these books function for the estimated twenty million women who read them...

...The bodice rippers, as expected, vend fairly explicit sex, but always in romanticized language, as in male author Elizabeth Bright's description of multiple orgasm in Passion's Heirs: "The flames burst inward and upward...

...And the difference does nothing to alter our hearts or our minds or our needs...

...The central message in the erotic historical romances rings loud and clear: Macho males and saccharine ingenues are the losers in society...

...Historical settings help send the message that the drive for dignity and respect has motivated women for centuries These stories also suggest that freedom and responsibility are prerequisites for a complete and fulfilling life, regardless of gender...

...Men forced them to be goddesses, saints, or witches, or they took refuge on islands or in nunneries...

...It would be easy to fit all sexually descriptive passages into some category of pornography...

...And most of the authors I have worked with have had strong feminist attitudes...

...tortcal romances published between 1964 and 1981, and came to a different conclusion...

...They admire the high-spirited heroines above all other women, prizing them as sexual partners, as friends, and even as business partners, whether in privateering or cattle ranching...