Why Teens Should Read Raunchy Novels…

Great opinion piece in The Age by Michelle Griffin – Why teens should read raunchy novels and straight-up smut.

The trouble with much of the porn readily available is not that it’s explicit, or even that it’s brutal, but that it is reductive and samey. Sex therapists report that porn is limiting young men’s visions of a good time to mere delivery-man thrusting. But readers are free to create their own visuals, to skim anything they don’t like, to break free of the narrative and simply daydream. Browse the overheated world of fan-fiction to discover how readily readers imagine the sex lives of wizards, vampires and Jane Austen heroines.

Couldn’t have said it better.

The responses are interesting, far more encouraging than I would have expected. Of course there are a couple of crazy comments from some confused people. The classic comes from a mrsPeg “sex shouldn’t be sexualised”. Seriously.