Spicy Books is Just a Euphemism
The world of books, literature, and writing has drastically changed over the past few decades. I don’t need to point you to statistics or studies to make that claim, just look around you. Look at the rise and popularity of self-published authors. Look at “BookTok” that features a lot of indie authors right alongside the traditional authors. BookTok is calling a lot of the shots when it comes to book marketing. We can see the tables around Barnes + Noble and other book stores that have signs about “popular on BookTok” or whatever clever phrasing they want to use. The books that are usually on these shelves or on those table— romance books. There is nothing wrong with liking a good love story (Hi, it’s me, I’m the one!), but after spending a few years following indie romance authors, reading their books and even promoting their books, I started to notice a few things.
Now, I’m just going to speak about this from my point of view, my perspective, and my experience. This is a hot button topic and my goal is to bring light to a topic that isn’t talked about in Christian circles. My goal is to look at these types of book from a christian perspective. We’ve made up cute little terms and socially acceptable phrases to make us believe that reading these types of books is okay. That it’s “just entertainment.” I even convinced myself it was okay to read these types of books because I would skip over the explicit scenes.
Truth and reality hurts. Which is something I had to accept because I clung to these types of books for many reasons. Some of these romance books were funny and I liked the characters. These types of books were usually short and I could finish a book in a weekend, sometimes two books, and I liked the idea of reading more books. I clung to these books because it was what everybody else was reading and I wanted to be in the know.
(I am talking about the romance or “romanctasy” books that have explicit sex scenes in them. I am not talking about books with “zero spice” or “closed-door romance” categories.)
But the truth is, I shouldn’t be reading these types of books. These types of books that have “spice” and “smut” and “sexual content” are all terms used for books that contain pornography. It’s a simple truth really, these books are pornography.
Now, before you start yelling at me, let’s look at the definition of pornography:
“1: the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement
2: material (such as books or a photograph) that depicts erotic behavior and is intended to cause sexual excitement
3: the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional reaction” (Merriam-Webster)
If you are thinking to yourself that authors don’t put in sexual scenes to cause excitement, let me direct you to definition three. Sexual scenes, if not written to create sexual excitement are written to cause an intense emotional reaction. That’s the whole point of writing, you want your reader to feel something.
We’ve seen the results of this. We see the obsessions over the leading male characters in The Fourth Wing, A Court of Thorns and Roses, and (from what I understand) a lot of Coleen Hoover books. It’s like we have completely forgotten about E.L James and the Fifty Shades trilogy, which started off as fan fiction for Twilight. In fact, because of E.L James’s success, she is considered to have brought more legitimacy to fan fiction. (Also, the obsession over the main male character in that series.)
So what did I notice after reading these types of books for years?
It is the same house with different furnishings- There was one author I liked, and her books had less of the sexual content than other romance authors so it was easier to skip over. I was reading my second book by this author and I got to a point where I had to go back to check the cover of the book I was reading because the characters, their words, and their reactions were sounding the same as the characters from the other book I had just finished by her. I seriously thought I bought the same book twice and didn’t realize it.
These types of books follow the same type of formula with just changing up the characters and even then, the characters fall into the same adjectives and the same troupes and they all start to read the same. That is across different authors too.
The books never left a lasting impression- For most of these books, I would forget everything about them by the time I got to work on Monday. If I did remember them, it was never for anything awesome or thought provoking. It was because of something that annoyed me or stuck me as weird. It was usually something that made me uncomfortable.
Why can’t books bring questions and discussions? Now some of you might be telling me to stop reading romance and I would find thought provoking novels, and you are probably right. However, why can’t lasting impressions be made with romance novels? Why can’t we have good stories and good writing in romance? Now, some of you might be thinking that there are good stories in romance and I know they exist but I would say those are the exception, not the rule.
I saw how these types of books lead to darker stuff- there are studies done about this with pornography videos but I saw the same thing happen with the books. I saw reel after reel on Instagram of people saying how their book addiction started (showing titles like Fourth Wing, A Court of Thorns and Roses) and then saying “and now we’re here” showing titles of dark romance, involving stalking, kidnapping, strangling, and other dark behaviors and acts.
If we know one is true about pornographic videos why wouldn’t the same be true about pornographic books?
I wasn’t always great at skipping over the explicit scenes- Sometimes these books have the lead up scenes so you’re clued into what is about to happen, giving you the opportunity to skip, and then there are the ones that just go from flirtation to sex in the next paragraph. It was the latter that I found it hard to skip over. I was already reading it, what was the harm?
It messed with my head- if I got interrupted reading a book, I would get so mad and frustrated. I used to just want to read books and I would race to the finish, to get to the happily ever after. I would want to see how the couple survived whatever ridiculousness was thrown their way and I hated waiting for it. I never felt good when I was reading those types of books either. I would feel uncomfortable. I would question whether it was okay that I read them as a Christian. (Hint, if you won’t recommend the book to your friends who love Jesus, probably a red flag.) (Another hint, if you find different ways to explain what you are reading and are not comfortable saying titles or things to christian friends, another red flag.) Then I found myself irritated that I couldn’t listen to my audiobooks because my kids were in the car. The books had a hold on me.
After spending far too long ignoring the Holy Spirit, who was telling me to stop reading these types of books, I finally gave them up. I repented of my choosing those types of books over my relationship with Christ. I am no longer reading these sexually explicit romance novels. At the end of the day, these books are pornography, we just found different ways to phrase the content so that we feel better about reading it.
Let’s be honest, the word pornography fills us with a certain idea, a certain image, certain adjectives that we don’t want associated with ourselves. I grew up in Vegas, I know exactly how that word makes people feel. I also know how easy you can bring people to the same content through different words and phrases. I fell into it myself but the truth is more books than not have this type of content in it these days. A lot of popular books have sex in it than books that don’t.
I wonder why. In Vegas, we learn at a young age that “sex sells” and the current trends in books are pointing to that truth. My question though—why is this content necessary? Why do we need explicit scenes written into stories? You can show love in so many other ways.
I’m going to leave you with what Jesus says about adultery in the sermon on the mount.
Matthew 5:27-30 You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; 28 but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 Now if your right eye is causing you to sin, tear it out and throw it away from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand is causing you to sin, cut it off and throw it away from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.
If you look at the reaction to the characters in these books, it seems like adultery to me. Instead of cutting out my eye, I decided to cut out the books.
Just because it is fiction with made up characters doesn’t make it less pornography. In videos, people play parts too. As a christian, I think we need to stop making the distinction.
CITATIONS
“Pornography.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pornography. Accessed 23 Aug. 2024.