Let me tell you something

I've been invited to speak in a friend and colleagues college course on Human Sexuality about the romance genre (erotic romance in particular) and I'm ecstatic. I had grandiose plans of having goodies to hand out and possibly a costume to wear (because I always want to wear some kind of costume), but inevitably life looked me up and down and laughed hysterically, gasping out between chuckles, "Bless your heart." I was able to create a PowerPoint and still consider myself victorious to some degree.

As with my other grandiose ideas my vision for my guest lecture hasn't quite met the pinnacle of historical reference and research validity I'd planned, BUT I was able to avoid the dreded trap of justifying the genre with more than, "It's not porn!". I'm actually so tired of this disclaimer because I feel it automatically puts me in a defense to justify the importance of women (as the majority of the genres readers are) having an outlet to explore and embrace they're sexuality. I of course had to include some aspect of it because as these students are a reflection of larger society's beliefs regarding sex and sexuality it can't be avoided. 

I'm hoping that we'll have frank and direct conversations about erotic romance and why it scares the mainstream so much. Because frankly, I can only think of fear as being a motivator for the constant barrage of distasteful comments readers and writers of erotic romance receive. I often feel there is a subconscious thought of, "Kill it with fire!", when it comes to the genre I find myself writing in. Regardless of how one may feel personally about Fifty Shades of Gray, it did provide us a look into the pysche of society when it comes to their beliefs regarding women's expression and consumption of sex. 

I've got all of these great plans for my lecture that is founded in my belief that romance and all of it's sub genres shouldn't be the black sheep of fiction, made to feel like the gaudy relation that is invited to the table because of the wealth it brings but never truly respected. I've got those grandiose plans you see, and I'm giving life some major side eye as it smirks at me, but bless my little heart because I'm going to try my best anyway.