Erotica readers and writers...

[51stcenturyfox]

Following today's fandom!secret on this topic, some questions about... foreskins!



Here's the secret someone posted:




Do they have a point? I was going to do a poll, but LJ is being very naughty about polls.

What are your thoughts? Should fic writers mention foreskins more often (for characters who are likely to be uncut?)  Do you not need or want this detail? Do you assume they're there anyway, depending on how you imagine the characters and who they are? Is this something you've never really considered, either way? 

Do you not give a hot damn?

ELVES?  VAMPIRES?  HOBBITS??? I don't even know.

Are you pretty sure Jack Harkness has a fiveskin? Because I am.

ETA: Thank you to my f-list (unlike the F!S thread) for not being judgey about people's parts. Every cock is pretty!

Comments

[rm.livejournal.com]

I think they are probably right. I also think that it's not a detail I necessarily need as a reader, just as I don't feel I need the obligatory lube sentence. But if someone writes a non-Jewish British character as explicitly cut, I'm like what the hell?

[kita0610.livejournal.com]

"I also think that it's not a detail I necessarily need as a reader, just as I don't feel I need the obligatory lube sentence."

Agreed.

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

Well, some are cut for medical reasons. But, no, I don't want to know whether there's a foreskin or not, just as I'm not interested in descriptions of the shape of someone's vulva. There's eroticism and there's TMI, and that's definitely the latter.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

That would be totally weird, but I'm not sure I've actually seen an explicit description of someone being cut who shouldn't be. Have you seen much of this?

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

I can see that POV, too.

No need to describe every pulsing vein...?

[topgeargirl2.livejournal.com]

It's just one of those things I just don't think about. I just don't care and it's the same with condoms, not many people use them in fanfics.

[spoggly.livejournal.com]

ok i might be getting too much queer all over fandom BUT WHAT THE HELL IS THE OBSESSION WITH FORESKINS

FUCKING GROSS OK JUST LEAVE THAT WHOLE AREA BE

IT'S CALLED GLOSSING OVER DETAILS, FANDOM

UGH THE ENDLESS DEBATING OVER HOUSE'S DICK UGH

[rm.livejournal.com]

Not a lot, but I've definitely seen it here and there in pretty much every fandom I've been in. It's like people want to describe the cock in question in detail and decide that there can't be foreskin in the way to do it or something. Odd shit.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

You know what happens when I'm with a dude for the first time and he's not cut? I say, "Oh. Okay," and continue with whatever we were doing.

IT'S NOT A BIG DEAL WTF.

Moreover, I don't see how or why it would be mentioned, beyond a laborious, pre-sex scene description.

Once a guy is hard, especially if you're not used to seeing foreskins or unless you're looking for it, it doesn't matter if the foreskin is there or not.

Sheesh.

I guess I just want to know what fic the OP was reading that they even get annoyed by this!

[quean-of-swords.livejournal.com]

Well, personally, I don't really care whether they say foreskin/no foreskin or not. It seems... Like needless detail. And like someone above said, TMI.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

I BET HOUSE HAS A FIVESKIN.

Seriously, I didn't know there were big debates over House's dick.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

I want to see condom use if it's risky or first-time sex, personally. But I can buy that in Torchwood, people are either exclusive, medically checked out, immune to STDs (Jack), etc.

I also figure death is a germ-and-virus-killer for old Jack, too.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Once a guy is hard, especially if you're not used to seeing foreskins or unless you're looking for it, it doesn't matter if the foreskin is there or not.

Precisely!

I guess from some of the comments, it might come up in fan art more often than in fic.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

That is REALLY odd.

[pocky_slash.livejournal.com]

Well, okay, before I go any further, caveat: I am a lesbian, the closest I will get to a penis is the naked photoshoot that I did with my college BFF (and a hundred other people), and I think the whole thing is pretty gross.

All that aside, I don't really get the foreskin debate because I don't see why it should be mentioned in the first place? I mean, maybe people go into long descriptions of dude's cocks in fic and I just gloss over that part? But I just assume, you know, that it's there regardless of whether or not it's explicitly mentioned. I feel like, if anything, making a big deal about the fact that the dude has a foreskin would take me OUT of the porn. It's like fics that go to all the trouble of making sure it's mentioned that the characters are using a condom, even if it's REALLY IMPROBABLE that a condom would be there/be mentioned. (I once read a Without a Trace fic where Danny and Martin were having sex in the photocopy room and Danny just like, magically pulls a condom out of a cabinet. I laughed so hard I almost peed. THE FBI IS CLEARLY TOTES OKAY WITH THEIR GAY SEX LIFE.)

I don't know if any of those sentences made any sense. I HAVEN'T REALLY SLEPT IN DAYS D:

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

If it puts them OFF A FIC, that seems a bit extreme, unless the presence/absense is made into a huge deal or something in the story. I...guess.

[xtricks.livejournal.com]

Well. I generally don't mention it unless there's a spesific reason to do so, OTOH hand I *assume* the non-American non-Jewish characters *have* one and so if it comes up, or it seems like something that scene/character would think about, I do.

I must also say, however, that I really, really dislike the whole ew, dirty, dirty foreskins thing. That's a crappy message to give anyone about their genitals and no better than 'ew! smelly cooch!'

[pocky_slash.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHAAHA I CAN'T BELIEVE I WROTE THAT MUCH ABOUT FORESKINS. THEY ARE GOING TO TAKE AWAY MY LESBIAN MEMBERSHIP CARD ANY SECOND NOW.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

BUT SOMEONE TOLD THEM CONDOMS HAVE TO BE IN EVERY SINGLE STORY!

I think I'll have to put some condoms in the nearest office supply cabinet or the copy room and see if anyone notices.

[spoggly.livejournal.com]

O GURL IT NEVER ENDS I AM FUCKING SERIOUS THERE ARE ACTUAL DEBATES OVER HIS FORESKIN OR LACK THEREOF

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

I don't really care much, since (my haphazard google searching reveals that) some estimates put about 20% of males in the UK as cut for varying reasons. And for the sake of porn, unless you have a driving need to know in order to make your sexual fantasy complete, I don't get why anyone would care. This always smacks to me of some person who had a grudge against writers from another country--it's true, a lot of american females writing erotica are going to automatically assume cut, just like a French writer might assume not. I don't bitch about it when I read SPN fic about Sam and Dean's uncut cocks.

I don't think foreskins are dirty (though I do have opinions on them in the medical sense), but I don't care either way if they are there. And you know, tongue fucking things is hott.

Completely unrelated to big dickings and more on the secret itself, I'm tired of this whole "if you do x i judge you/think less of you" thing. God people. These aren't secrets anymore. It's just a bitching forum. You know what a secret is? Something you wouldn't tell another living soul, not "something I only complain about to my closest fandom friends in private emails". Something like, "I masturbate in a Snoopy bathrobe when I watch old episodes of Rainbow Brite, and I'm thinking of Harry Potter from Book One." THAT'S A SECRET.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I totally agree... that's really offensive. I haven't run across this at all, frankly, though I did exeunt! from the comments at f!s before anyone brought that up, if they did.

By the way, have you written any docking? I know that came up in conversation somewhere. 'Cause I want to read that.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

It just sounds to me like this is a person who's read a lot of fic and has had very little sex.

Or, just has never seen an uncut penis before.

Or, has an uncut penis and has a complex about it.

[blathery]I'm 27, raised Jewish, and grew up in the North East. I was pretty well into my sexual experience before I saw an uncut penis, and guess what? It didn't shock, disgust, frighten, or bother me the first time it happened. I CAN'T EVEN REMEMBER WHEN IT WAS. (lol hor)

Maybe I'm a special snowflake. ::shrug::[/blathery]

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Do you get like, 10% off at Barnes and Noble or something? Air travel points? :D

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sounds a little "pick on the silly Americans!"

I don't think any part of the human body is "dirty", unless, you know, the characters are in a cell with no shower for two months.

But then they can just give each other daily tongue baths, like cats.



ETA: I told you about Rainbow Brite in CONFIDENCE! *shakes fist*.