I've Got No Use For Innocence

[redbrunja]

(It was hard picking which ~provocative~ icon to use for this post, let me tell you.)

The combination of a conversation I was having with fairest1 and reading the first Psy-Changling book (Slave to Sensation, which I’d heard raves about and is not living up to the hype) reminded me that a lot of fandom and the larger cultural context (especially with romance novels) seems to think it’s just so. damn. sexy. to have a virgin heroine. And I am just 100% not on board with this trope. Just… no. It’s almost 2014, can we please, please, please stop with this.

I’m not even going to go into how virginity is a bullshit patriarchal and heteronormative construction (but it totally is, and the more you learn about how and why it was constructed and the very real consequences of that, the more horrifying it is), I am going to stick with the fact that I JUST DON’T FIND VIRGINITY SEXY.

I come to fandom and romance novels for entertaining, titillating fiction, and do you know what I find sexy? People who know what the fuck to do in bed. People who have previous sexual experiences (good and bad) that inform how they interact and what they feel about their current partner.

I am so not down with the whole virgin protag that I don’t even like the male subversion where he’s the virgin and she’s more experienced (those two Steve/Darcy fics, excluded, you know the ones what I’m talking about).

Comments

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

Post that might make you more sympathetic to Jane's deal (http://anonsally.tumblr.com/post/72843175316/episode-56-a-dlgheogndb); short version -- in the original book, Jane turned down Rochester because he told her about a few mistresses that he had who he assures her meant nothing to him. It's not out of morals that she turns him down but the fact that she becomes sympathetic toward his former mistresses and fears being added to the list.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I'm actually pretty sympathetic to Jane not wanting to sleep with Rochester, especially in the original novel, where I think her comparing herself with his past lovers is super-groundbreaking and says great things about Jane; my problem is fandom/romantic novels just fucking loving their virgin heroines and me, just about ready to rip my hair out about it.

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah; I'll only defend Jane (or, well, the individual right to decide you're not into sex) rather than the systematic fondness of virginal heroines. Seriously, if it's done right, it should set off an embarrassment squick rather than some kind of virginity kink.