{"id":51592,"date":"2022-12-13T17:33:09","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T17:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/?p=51592"},"modified":"2022-12-13T17:35:39","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T17:35:39","slug":"the-romance-revolution-how-booktok-has-stopped-smut-shaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/the-romance-revolution-how-booktok-has-stopped-smut-shaming\/","title":{"rendered":"The romance revolution: how BookTok has stopped smut-shaming"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Since BookTok has taken off in 2020, the community has managed to boost book sales, encourage many more people to dive into a story and also removed the stigma around reading steamy romance novels. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether you want to call them erotica, spicy books, smut fiction, or simply romance books, there has always been shameful energy towards reading these kinds of stories. It is often just seen as anything from Mills & Boon<\/a> publishing or Fifty Shades of Grey<\/a><\/em> – trashy, overtly sexual tales, either filled with sexual practices such as BDSM or targeted towards older women. With covers decorated in half-naked bodies and romantic embraces, there is the assumption that there is no plot, just sex, and there is something wrong with enjoying books of this nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People would hide their books when out in public because the cover gives them away, read from online sites such as Wattpad<\/a> – where books are often published under an alias in order to keep their identity hidden – or they would download it all onto an e-reader such as a Kindle where no one could ever know what you are reading. But over the past decade, romance books have taken on a new, discreet look with digital art or cartoons for covers and include more diverse characters and plot-driven narratives which have made the genre more modern. But despite this new branding, BookTok is what has made them socially acceptable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Credit: Summer Rogers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With videos showing people\u2019s favourite sexy recommendations, their love of faerie porn and open discussions of what intimate activities they personally enjoy and have found in books, this side of TikTok has explicitly started the conversation of enjoyable sex and where to read about it too. Not only does this bring normalcy towards reading books that often seem taboo, it creates a positive notion around sex and pleasure – especially for women – which is something that is becoming more widely talked about and accepted amongst women and the media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to BookTokker, Marley McMillan, @marleymcmillan<\/a> on TikTok, who is a sole romance reader and a representative of Kennedy Fox – a duo best known as the authors of their Circle B Ranch<\/a> books, a cowboy romance series. Being a content creator who often posts and discusses the sex scenes within books – sharing the #smuttok on every post – particularly those written by Kennedy Fox, she explains how this wasn\u2019t always the case, saying: \u201cI always found it awkward to read, it was cringe, even the name \u2018erotica\u2019 is horrible, I prefer \u2018smut\u2019, it sounds better. It\u2019s subtle\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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@marleymcmillan<\/a>

Not to be dramatic\u2026 Kennedy Fox have me in a chokehold \ud83d\udc95 #kennedyfox<\/a> #romancerecs<\/a> #favoriteauthor<\/a> #bookboyfriend<\/a> #smuttok<\/a> #smutrecs<\/a> #cowboyromance<\/a> #loveinisolationseries<\/a> #bishopbrotherseries<\/a> <\/p> \u266c original sound – soleil\ud83e\ude70 \u2649\ufe0e \u2b50\ufe0f<\/a> <\/section> <\/blockquote>