Sex. Many feel it simply has no place in fantasy, and when they find it there, it’s just like the old Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercial – hey! You got sex in my story! – but without the happy resolution. It all depends on the story being told. A person can write a rip-roaring tale of heroes caught in romantic adventures without having to find a way to describe bodies bumping. Others may differ.
Does sex matter? Sex is part of most of our lives, and certainly not an unimportant one. Our government sees fit to legislate where it can and cannot occur, and what percentage of nipple can appear on our television screens. It’s codified, controlled, and explosively popular: sex propelled Fifty Shades of Grey to the bestseller list and earns the pornography industry $14 billion a year. I would say yes. Sex matters.
There are many ways to talk about sex in books. One is the craft of the actual scenes which I suspect would be boring to read about. Another is the purpose of sex in the book – what it is meant to convey. Yet another is the societal overtones of that sex, from unconscious Puritanism and sexism to post-colonial biases.
So where does one begin to unravel sex in our literature? Certainly the temptation is to leave it be. Art is not exactly meant to make sense of our lives – only ask questions or find beauty in it. The great mystery of sex – what it means to each of us and to the characters and world of a book – is only one of a great many riddles in any good story. And yet there persists the worry that something harmful could be there, something twisted, that begs to be opened and put into the sunlight. (more…)
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Science Fiction is sexy.
I’ve a confession to make. I’ve a very conflicted relationship with romance. I’m a closet romantic, you see. I’m also a feminist raised in a misogynist environment which makes me extra twitchy. So, I’ll warn you now about the big, red, shiny, candy-like button that’s been accidentally mashed. (Already.) Dear Gentle Reader, do please turn down the volume on your inner ear. Chances are, this is going to come off 40% stronger than I actually mean. I’ll try to keep my gut reactions checked — no one likes being shouted at, and I do believe that other points of view are valid — so do try to keep all this information in mind. Danger, Will Robinson. There. You’ve been warned. 
Before TOOTH AND NAIL, my published work was in the romance genre, and the romance was the story. The romance drove the conflict; the romance ramped up the motivation. Perhaps the hero or heroine were trying to solve a crime, or trying to save a farm, or trying to put each other out of business, but the outer plot was secondary to the question: will they end up together at the end?
“Sex and feelings…the elements of Romance.” I’ve decided this must mean the depiction of a full relationship: not just opportunistic, up-against-the-wall sex, but a relationship involving sex and love which reaches across divides. The divides could be physical, biological, cultural, religious, or political. And, SFF being what it is, those divides will be more numerous and varied than in other genres.
Most fantasy authors choose a low-tech setting for their alternate worlds. Without going into the reasons for that, which are themselves fascinating and sometimes illogical, I will go straight to the result: by choosing low-tech we catapult ourselves backwards into history, often choosing to build a society that is less progressive than our own.