March 27, 2008

This letter is in response to two letters printed recently in the Romance Writers Report pertaining to erotic fiction. I felt compelled to write this letter because I believe it is necessary to stand up for those writers who write under this genre and for the MILLIONS of readers who enjoy reading it – myself included.

Admittedly, there is a thin subjective line which can be drawn between pornography and erotica since both are mediums that arouse and sexually stimulate. Erotic romance is stimulating fiction in which through plot, conflict, and a resolution both satisfies the reader while giving them the arousal they expect. And despite the uneducated opinion, erotica does not function as pornography, which according to Encarta is “based on the exploitation of women by representing them merely as sexual bodies, rather than as full, thinking, feeling people.”

Ms. Fielder’s and Ms. Reeder’s letters were not only archaic but insulting. In my opinion, their letters are a veiled attempt to initiate a witch hunt against those who refuse to fit onto their narrow soap boxes. If they’re afraid to read about real love and the honest, open sex that comes with it, then don’t read it, but don’t shame us into censorship.