erastes | Lets talk about sex (again)

Jessewave has an interesting discussion going (I love Jessewave's Blog because she so often has interesting discussions) about "m/m" and the level of sex and emotional impact within them. E.g. what do people like? When is too much? Etc etc. Pop along and add your two cents.

What interested me was the promiscuity section. I've seen this discussed on many a het romance forum and I am gobsmacked that most people don't want promiscuity in their book, or unfaithfulness at least. They don't want any unfaithfulness at all from their heroes once they've met "the one." I find this baffling, really. Unfaithfulness (as I said in the discussion) is a standard romance trope.

I mean - look at Gone with the Wind (to pull one title from the ether) if Scarlett had remained "true" to either Ashley or Rhett it would have been a much smaller, and a much lesser book. She wouldn't have got married twice for a start.

In these discussions of both types (m/f and m/m) people say they won't read on if someone is unfaithful--they'd certainly not have got far with Standish then, with Rafe and his brain in his breeches.

Do you agree? Do you think it's because people think--deep down--that a Rake can't ever be reformed and that the HEA won't last?

So after you've commented on Wave's discussion, pop back and talk to me about unfaithfulness, will ya?

ETA: R W Day is also discussing this, purely co-incidentally, so go and chat to her too!!

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I still haven’t even TOUCHED (or watched) Gone With The Wind (mainly because I never liked Scarlet, and now that I know she was disloyal I like her even less).

Depends on how you define disloyal.

Scarlett fell for Ashley Wilkes when she was about sixteen. She accepted the proposal of her first husband right after she told Ashley she loved him and he rejected her. (And I mean RIGHT after--about fifteen minutes to a half hour after. Talk about rebound relationships.) She married her second husband because he had a lot of money, she and the remnants of her household were starving and she couldn't pay the taxes on Tara, so they were all about to lose their home. She married Rhett, basically, because he was rich (and at this point, money to Scarlett meant security and safety in a Reconstructionist world) and because he promised her that this marriage would be fun.

She loved Ashley through three marriages. She only lost interest in him when she realized that the man she thought she loved wasn't real. She described it in the book as making a suit of clothes that she thought was beautiful, and then forcing Ashley to wear the suit. She thought she loved the man, but what she loved was the image she'd created for him.

But was she physically unfaithful any of her husbands? Never.

Edited 2009-02-27 15:33 (UTC)

Well, at least there's that. If he rejected her, then its his fault and there s no loyalty to forfeit. Even so, at least she was upfront about only being after (most of) their money.

I still can't stand her, though.

But how can you say that if you havent' read the book? *confused*

Just the little bits I have seen and read turn me majorly off.

Lets talk about sex (again)

Re: And right now, I'm going to be a hypocrite.

Re: And right now, I'm going to be a hypocrite.

Re: And right now, I'm going to be a hypocrite.

Re: And right now, I'm going to be a hypocrite.