Authors- how do you deal with objectification?

[Cagivagurl]

I agree, and I think it's up to us women to RAISE the BAR, I love erotic, passionate, emotional, loving stories. I say we keep writing from our perspective by utilizing our sexual energy in a respectful and passionate manner, we teach others how to treat us, and the objective degrading aspect needs to be turned into something beautiful and sacred.

Beautifully put...
Loved it

 

[FeralSmile]

With all due respect, I hear what you're saying and all of the emotion behind it, but it's really not an author's fault that their depiction went and twisted the screw in someone else's head to inspire them to do some horrific action. We literally cannot be accountable for potentially everyone's mind, much less their actions. If anything I hope my saying that lifts some potential residual guilt off of your shoulders as a writer. It simply wouldn't be your fault if this happened, unless you directly incited it by telling a specific person to do a specific thing to another real person in real life from within the story. Even the people who write NC/R are not even attempting to do this incitement. If they were I'd be shocked.

That's reasonable and valid. I do think though that normalizing violence is problematic, even if we're not directly inciting violent actions. I don't like the idea that someone would be turned on by something I wrote, and would fantasize about it, and that appreciation and fantasy would contribute - even a little - to a subsequent act of violence. That's one of the reasons I don't write anything that sexualizes or glorifies violence. Of course I don't know the mental or emotional state of future readers, and I'm not culpable for their choices, but... I don't want to contribute to an environment where violence is seen as ok. I don't want to be part of rape culture.

And yes, violence is ubiquitous in most of our media. Our books and movies and TV shows and popular music include a lot of violence, and that's been true as long as those art forms have existed. But it's also true that violence itself has existed that whole time, too, so it's hard to argue that art has never influenced people to act in violent ways. We can argue first causes and whether art reflects life or influences it or (as I suspect) both, but at the end of the day, we choose what we write about, what ideas we're normalizing, what we're putting out into the world. So I feel ethically bound not to make violence look cool or sexy or fun. I believe in enthusiastic consent and nonviolence in real life, so that's what I put into my stories.

 

[policywank]

I beg to differ....
What is written as erotica, often crosses boundaries. I'm not talking about romance stories, with some titilating sex thrown in that moves it from the romance genre, into erotica. It's fun, it's sexy and is enjoyed by many....
All good so far.
Where it gets trickier for me is when we walk a little further down the road of erotic literature. Where we start to unlock doors and move into areas that are shall we say. Kinky...
My concerns are the violent non con stories, where we portray people who have been forced to under take a sexual experience, not because they chose it. Where it was forced upon them. Where vilolence and physical...
A good writer, depicts the story as something very erotic and sexual. It gets twisted into a romance. The brutality twisted like in a hollywood movie.
For most people, we understand it is art...
For those people who live within our society who cannot differentiate art from reality. See's it as a road map to their dark fantasy's. It pushes them over the little hurdle that has up until that moment been a step too far.
Now, after reading a story in which the unacceptable acts appear normal. That triggers them into actually doing it...
Somebody's life could be changed forever. Their life destroyed, never able to live a normal life.
The thing that triggered the persons slide into undertaking the crime, was reading that story.
Maybe I wrote it.... That scares me, that I could be the match that starts that fire.
So yes, it scares me, and when you read some interviews with killers, murderers, rapists abusers. They were unable to separate life from fantasy. It may have been movies, literature, porn, anything that depicts a horriful crime as something acceptable....
This is my opinion. I am not blaming or shaming anybody. A question was asked, and I am offering nothing but how I see it.

Cagivagurl

It is for these and similar reasons that I do not write about violence or non-consent. And while I do explore issues of fidelity, domination and submission I seek to ensure that my characters are informed and consenting even if conflicted and confused at times

However, I am also wary of any sort of censorship. There are limits but we need to be careful in applying them lest we create a whole different set of issues.

 

[LonRivers]

Keep in mind what you consider "Objectification" of a man or a woman. Objectification of another person is treating them like property or something unworthy of your love or care. You dehumanize them. You see them as nothing more than an object or a way to sexually satisfy yourself, and that is it. Don't Harvey Weinstein your characters.

Give your characters "Worth" and keep them strong and independent. Don't objectify. If you do, make sure that it is needed to further the story.

 

[AchtungNight]

Keep in mind what you consider "Objectification" of a man or a woman. Objectification of another person is treating them like property or something unworthy of your love or care. You dehumanize them. You see them as nothing more than an object or a way to sexually satisfy yourself, and that is it. Don't Harvey Weinstein your characters.

Give your characters "Worth" and keep them strong and independent. Don't objectify. If you do, make sure that it is needed to further the story.

Agreed. If you reduce a character to an object that is a bad thing.

 

[LonRivers]

Agreed. If you reduce a character to an object that is a bad thing.

Exactly! Keep your character strong. If you break a character it should be for a reason. It could be a revenge story or they have to learn a lesson from what happened to them. Build them back up to being the focus of your story. The only reason to break a character (and keep them submissive and controlled) in my opinion is for a BDSM story where they are treated as playthings for their Master or Mistress, but in that case they are probably enjoying it.

 

[Ren_eh]

Readers object to my stories all of the time .

I ignore them . . . mostly.

But when I find a particularly gullible one, I make a deal to accept a payment in Bitcoin to stop writing.

Then I open a new free account at Literotica and repeat the process.

 

[Sappho_CGN]

It depends ... .

I think I am not ugly and even I am now 48 I get compliments. If thoses compliments even they are not aggressive are mainly driven by arousement I am angry as I am not only a pair of sexy legs or a pair of magnificent tits. Even someone states only that I am good-looking it depends on the circumstances. If it is a fresh accquaintance I feel it is inappropriate, too much.

If I get a mail in a forum or on a site in which I show pictures of me, It is accaptable but in RL it is often very inappropriate. I would prefer something like, "Oh, today you look very well, the new dress fits you well", this is more neutral and not so driven by sexual needs.

 

[Dearelliot]

Complicated, re objectify. Except for a select few, Wife, daughter, granddaughters, and a few others, I don't think of people as being bright interesting, sharp, hard working, on and on etc. Most people I meet, see, and speak to are just other bodies I come in contact with, I interact with. I don't think anything of them, I have no feelings for them, no interest. I don't want anyone to get hurt, or die just like I don't want a stray dog to get hurt, or a tree to fall over. So when I look at a woman as a sex object, that's a hundred times more thought I put in about her than any man I may meet. I don't think of her as a person with talent or strength or anything else, just as I don't think of anyone that way. I have little interest in other people...other than for the moment when we are interacting...and then they are gone. If she isn't a sex object, she just blends into the gray background with other moving lumps.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being a sex object, provided that that’s not all you are.

I started out writing here with the intent of writing as in as many genres as possible. Turns out that won’t happen, long story, but along the way I’ve pushed my own personal boundaries here and there. For instance, I’ve done a couple with the MFC involved in a consensual 24/7 BDSM relationship.

Those few exceptions aside, I’ve done my best to write both male and female characters as strong, intelligent, self-reliant individuals, maybe with personal flaws, but only ones which add some seasoning to the story, so to speak. But, to the greatest possible extent, yes, I’ve worked to make them ‘sex objects’, individuals who explicitly appeal sexually to the other character(s). How not?

Write with empathy, write positively and ethically and don’t worry about Mrs. Grundy.

 

[ChloeTzang]

In the end, it's about the story you want to write and the characters you want to portray. People are objectified and treated as sexual objects. Racism and violence exist, and so do a range of objectionable behaviors. Sometimes you have a story in your head that demands your portray all that, and yes, those stories can be dark, violent and horrific, but that is also the reality if the human existence. Fluffy feel good stories are nice and they are entertaining, but sometimes we want to go beyond that and delve into the depths of the human soul....so if I have a story that demands objectification, that's where I go....

 

[AG31]

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being a sex object, provided that that’s not all you are.

Absolutely! It adds salt to the soup. Spice to life.

 

[Britva415]

Authors- how do you deal with objectification?

The only thing I know how to do is think globally and act locally. I can't do anything about objectification, but I can not-objectify.

I don't objectify, in my writing, and I don't write characters who objectify.

I'm not doing it this way to "deal with" objectification, I'm just doing it this way.

 

[MillieDynamite]

It prepared my breakfast and then did the laundry. It cleaned the house poorly, so I punished it by spanking its ass beat red, and it cried, trying to pull on my heartstring (which it should know I don't have), so I kicked in the balls.

EDIT: Obviously, this is a joke. If you can't see the joke, that's on you.