This new location

The problem is a “no-sex” tag does not equal a “non-erotic” story. Another detail is the Golden Clitorides are not limited to stories on StoriesOnline.net but open to any freely available work. Many venues do not require a “no-sex” tag or even any tag at all.

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with that being said, how about a practical example: “greenies” by al steiner is typically regarded as a purely science fiction story with “no sex”, however it it would be “eligible” according to the previous paragraph as it does contain *SOME*.. not much, but enough, IMHO, to be considered.

Basically, you’re asking whether we approve of a form of censorship – whether we think that your judgement (or that of a faceless committee) should determine whether stories gain access to these awards.

There are two major questions here.

The first is “what is erotic”? Is it the same as sexy? Is it the same as pornographic? Is a first kiss erotic? What about cuddling or putting on sunscreen lotion? What about a solo description of a young woman shaving her legs, or getting dressed? Well, my opinion is it can all be erotic. In my personal opinion, I’d much rather read those types of stories than ones about sadism, rape, torture and snuff – which I do not find at all arousing, but which are certainly eligible by your classifications. Erotica is not necessarily the same as pornography, and there’s a huge gradation between. Erotica need not be explicit – it can be implicit, and acts other than the sex act can still involve the senses in an erotic manner.

The second point is that many authors write some stores involving sex and some that don’t. Do you want to try to handicap them by banning some of their work from consideration in some areas (best author, best new author, etc.)?

I know I’m stretching terms just a little by using the term “censorship”, but not by much. The erotic literature movement has been asking to be considered equally as valid as mainstream literature. Now you want to introduce reverse discrimination? It’s just as ethically and morally slippery as reverse discrimination in employment, child custody, or any other field.

I say let the readers vote. If an author of a story that could qualify as mainstream literature wins, and is happy to have his or her story bear the “Clitorides” imprimatur, then good could come of it in many ways, and I can think of no harm it would do.

Should there be an award for the non erotic writer? I think there should be. Put that is something that has to be worked on in the future. As for now…

No-Sex stories as desided by the author should not be concidered.

Now that I have put my two cents in I will leave.

John Q

I think the decision to keep the clitoride awards as awards for erotic literature is best. Let the readers define what is erotic. Jefferson had some good comments as did Autumn Writer and others. A story should only be accepted for nomination in one category. If a story is nominated in more than one category then the author should be given the privilege of deciding which category it should remain in.

I think in future years we as a community might want to tighten up the categories. Wizard made an excellent observation as to there being a “Coming of Age” category. I think some categories that we have are not categories of erotic literature but categories of literature and need to be dropped or combined. But again, these are projects for the future. Maybe Lazeez could form a committee of some past winners to oversee this.

At the same time, it is tricky explaining to people who I would like to share my successes with what a ‘Clitorides’ is…

In the end, I write because I need to, and the emails I get from readers are all the recognition I need, but it would feel odd being excluded because someone decided that these awards couldn’t outgrow their origins, as the site itself obviously has.

The Clitorides Awards are for erotic stories. Period. The Clitorides should only go to EROTIC stories.

So what is erotic? The people commenting in this post seem to be debating “what is erotic?”. Some here might think the Bible is erotic. Some might think the latest Clancy novel is erotic. That’s a matter of opinion, just like I might think the latest Dan Brown novel is comedy (he meant to make it that bad, right? That has to be a joke! )

But I think that an erotic story should be considered any story that focuses on sex as its primary theme. Even a story with few if any sex scenes described: if sex is the dominant theme, the story is erotic.

Let me ask you this. The Godfather. Great book, right? Even better movies. And in the book especially, there’s a lot of sex. Does that make it qualify as an erotic novel? No. Because the primary theme is violence/criminality. That book falls into the genre of “mafia” or “crime” or “thriller”. Maybe something else. But erotica? With sex as the theme? Never.

Let’s look at Braveheart, another book turned movie. Again, there is sex. But would you describe either the movie or the book as erotica? Was sex the theme of either? No.

And bookstores and libraries are dominated with “Romance” sections that don’t always include erotic novels. When Romance is the predominant theme, it is no longer an erotic novel, necessarily. Just like when a sci-fi story is dominated with sex, it is no longer considered a sci-fi story, but an erotic one. There a TON of stories on SOL like this: great sci-fi tales that would NEVER be considered as science fiction by the sci-fi community; they would consider those stories as “smut”. Or “romance”. Or “tawdry”. In other words: erotica.

Stories that are erotica can be mysteries. Or science fiction. Or fantasy, or contemporary, or literature (O?), or romance. Whatever. What makes a novel erotic is its theme. When sex is the theme, a story is erotica.

So should non-sex stories be allowed to receive the Clitorides Award? No. Absolutely not. A comedy should not be allowed to win Best Drama at the Academy Awards, even if the movie in question had a dramatic element. And I highly doubt you’ll find a romance-themed story in the “Best Mystery Stories 2008″ anthology. I buy and read all of those, btw, every year: the Best Mystery one, the best Romance one, the Best Sci-Fi one. They’re always what I expect: amazing compilations of amazing works by amazing writers… and all of them with the themes I expect from the title.

If there was a “Best Erotica 2008″ I would be really mad to discover that non-erotic stories were included in such an anthology. Even if the editor said in the forward, “We consider erotica to be any story that has sex in it…”

The Clitorides Awards should go to erotic stories. Only.

Erotic stories have sex as the theme. Only these should qualify. If your favorite SOL.net story is focused more on romance, or sci-fi, or mystery? Great! Nominate the story to relevant sites. But if the Clitorides Awards are supposed to promote erotica, then the theme of all winners should be erotic.

When a sex is an afterthought in a story it is not an erotic story. Goodfellas was not a romance just because the main character fell in love and got married.

shannon

Just because it may have an “erotic” scene, or even several scenes, does NOT make it the same as a sex story in my opinion. It is also true that these “nonsex” stories sometimes have a disproportionate popularity. I would really hate to see sex stories become the redheaded stepchildren in their own awards.