I am shocked

While your comment did make me laugh out loud and say "Right on" I think I can also understand their point of view, to a degree. No we should not be told we have to have our characters perform Safer Sex. Especially if that is a plot device, but they also have the right to lay some guidelines down for the type of erotica they promote.

I say write it the way you want, there will be publishers out there that do not need the condom explicitly depicted.

That is shocking. I believe that's the first time I've heard of a publisher requesting condoms to be used.

While I kind of understand where they're coming from, wanting to promote safe sex and all, I'm just not sure that reading about a couple putting on a condom before doing the dirty is going to make people go out and stock up on Trojans. I like to believe that people aren't that impressionable...but I've been wrong before. :-P

See, I can understand both points, but I have to say, I think it's one of those things that should be left up to the writer. For example, I know how to do that nice little trick where a girl puts on the condom with her mouth. Therefore I incorporate it into the writing a lot because it impresses guys in the stories as well as in real life, and I find it one of those nice little details to write about. I also add a lot of akward little "how do these things go on?" scenes when writing about akward teenagers and first times. But having said that, I don't go out of my way to promote safe sex in my stories any more than I do to promote the dangers of smoking when I have a character who smokes.

Some publishers, small and large, do require at least a mention of the issue. I've never had a publisher go "Make them wear a condom!" but have had one say "They're not using a condom, could they at least talk about it a bit?"

In my opinion it has less to do with promoting safe sex and more to do with realism. That's an editor's job, after all, to make your story realistic. And in this day and age, most people have "the talk" at some point before sex. To have them frolicking like it's 1965 and AIDS doesn't exist is unrealistic.

I am surprised but not at a loss. Gone are the days of erotica the way Anais Nin wrote it. My characters mirror real life so my heroines always have them tucked away in their nightstands ready for use when it's time to get hot and heavy. Only the erotic romances between two characters who know each other well practice unsafe sex because they want children. There are ways to describe sex with a condom and you don't lose any of the heat of the moment. There can be even some moments of humor as well; I can say from experience that condoms don't always go on the right way. It's sort of erotic to describe a sex scene that's taking into account the safety of both partners. You never know who's reading your work, a young woman (or man) may read your novel and think s/he could play it out in real life, so make it safe.

I understand their point, and I kind of get it. If you've ever been bored enough to read Cosmo's One Handed Read (I know, I know, eyeroll, whatever) you'll notice that they always have the characters use condoms.

Unprotected sex is becoming more and more common, and I can see how a publication that writes about sex for the masses, such as Scarlet or Cosmo, might feel an obligation to promote safe sex. In a perfect world, we'd all have complete artistic freedom, and STI's and unplanned pregnancies wouldn't exist. But we don't live in a perfect world, and adding a condom into your scene only takes a sentence or two.

I think in this day and age, some publishers look at characters that don't use some sort of protection--or at least discuss the consequences--fall in the TSTL category (Too Stupid To Live). I would guess that everyone writing erotica has known at least one person who had an unplanned pregnancy or a STD. It's sometimes hard to imagine people taking a chance in real life, why should characters in books be any less intelligent?

I have mixed feelings about this. I write my stories about monagomus couples, but there's no condom use. If an editor told me to add them, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

At the same time, I hope my readers have the common sense to take necessary precautions and not mirror what they read in a novel. It's my job to entertain, not to lecture adults about safe sex. After all, I write fiction.

Oh yeah beacuse condom use is horrifying and shocking and trying to reinforce that safer sex practices are vitally important is totally lame.

I think herpes is really unsexy. I think HIV is really unsexy. I think unwanted pregnancy is really unsexy.

Its fine if you don't want to write condom use into your story, that's your choice I have no beef with that. Having an actual issue with a publisher of erotica who is trying to do something posative is embaressing though. For all of us.

If we want to promote sex posative attitudes I think we need to be at least accepting of publishers who want to promote safer sex.

That may well be fine, but I don't think a publisher of erotica would help much. What would help is if high school sex-ed classes stop teaching abstinence only and start adding condoms to the course. The reason why there are so many pregnant or infected teens out there is because that knowledge (and in some cases, the condoms) is unavailable to them.

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Script Frenzy '08
Working Title: Nate and Dick
Script Type: Stage Play
Genre: Dark Musical Comedy
Page Count: 35

So because it's not doing enough erotica publishing houses who want to insist on condom use should be mocked? I absolutely agree that American Sex-Ed needs to be comprehensive but that doesn't mean that we should twiddle our thumbs until that happens.

I'm not saying it's going to make some big change in condom use, I'm just saying that we should be supportive of a publishing house who wants to promote safer sex practices. We shouldn't be ridiculing it.

I have nothing against publishers who want to promote safer-sex practices, it's just that I don't think it would help much. And you got to think that with some subgenres (namely historical) you can't have condoms because the weren't around :P

... And if they had an aproximation they would have been really useless. Like, epically useless.

Hell! Now I'm in trouble. All my stories are based in fantasy worlds...and usually in a 5th century setting. I'm kinda stuck on getting my characters down to the local chemist...if you know what I mean. Also, some of my characters are brutes and love taking unconsented sex. Hard to write condoms into their behaviour.

Still, I agree with safe sex in today's society and if I were writing topically and my setting was based on the here and now, I would find it quite sensuous to engage my characters into the art of placing and using condoms. However, I'd soon get them into a relationship where they no longer needed to. Like showering with a raincoat on if you ask me. :(

For those writing historical or fantasy, I doubt an editor would question the lack of condom use. In my vampire series, I don't bother with condoms--it's paranormal fantasy! For anything contemporary, I do write in safe sex practices. My editor and publisher prefer to promote safe sex and they didn't question the lack in fantasy.