SMUT: Erotica in BookTok Heralds Sexual Liberation
SMUT: Erotica in BookTok Heralds Sexual Liberation
SMUT, or sexual material, or raunchy books are the latest trend on Tiktok. Oh, and also on Instagram. Staff Writer Pulkit Srivastava explores this phenomenon by talking to Bookstagrammers and even recommends some channel
When you grow up a bookworm — characters, stories, and quotations embossed onto rustling pages are more than just words. They sometimes, in a Jane Austen classic — elaborate on the complexities of human relationships and make you dream about a love life like Elizabeth and Darcy. Others, in a haunting poetry collection, the same words leave you sleep-deprived reminiscing over the proses. But it’s a young adult novel with a sexy protagonist that becomes your sexual awakening in your early teens (hello, Twilight) — the one that makes you travel without movements, the one which keeps you giggling all night.
Romance, first kiss, and sneaky make-outs in adolescence hold a special place in everyone’s life. No wonder we cannot get enough of it — in all forms (movies, shows, books, you name it). Exploring the little gray narratives of rom-coms, where is where SMUT lies.
What is SMUT?
On TikTok, #SMUT glitters with over 5 billion views. Loosely translating to sexual material, in the viral world of social media — it is a term used to recommend and share quotations of books that explore erotica and sex scenes in not-so-subtle ways. SMUT books are a subgenre of erotic literature that typically includes explicit sexual content and graphic language.
On Instagram too, the trend is immensely popular and if you follow #bookstagram pages, you would certainly have come across reels with quotes that have the potential to make your toes twirl.
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A post shared by Eva Hansen (@bookish.you) 🔗
As the internet became more popular, people who found sexual gratification in these books began writing their own spin-offs and sharing them on fan fiction forums like Wattpad and FanFiction.net 🔗. One such person is E. L. James. Her Twilight fanfiction has become a global juggernaut.
Fifty Shades of Grey is one of her recent books to break through and explode, leaving millions to read this erotic novel (and the movie series) without shame. Eleven years after the publication of this book, the internet is discovering the joys of dirt with a new generation. Only these days, they aren’t shy in filming TikToks and reels about it.
What’s Up with Its Growing Dominance?
Reading SMUT used to be a clandestine endeavor. Case in point — Rachel Green from the hit TV series Friends was not thrilled when Joey discovered the erotic novel she read before going to bed. However, as GenZ and millennial youngsters are not at all terrified of owning their sexuality — horniness on embossed texts is taking a route that isn’t discreet.
Owing to the steady rise of the internet, there has been a rise in the popularity of SMUT books on TikTok and Instagram in recent years.
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A post shared by Ben Alderson (@benaldersonauthor) 🔗
With this skyrocketing demand, men and women aren’t afraid to manifest a bad boy who’d bring heaven to them. Social media accounts dedicated to books, the sub-section also popularly known as Booktube, Bookstagram and Booktok, go bananas over this genre. “Remember when 50 Shades was so spicy…. Little did I know there was a whole different league,” says Rudi, a book bookstagrammer who cannot get enough of reading and recommending SMUTs or smuts.
“His tongue teased hers, showing her how to return the kiss — how the exchange could be a duel of lips and tongue, of breaths and pleasure,” reads prose from Cassandra Clare’s Chain of Iron. Even though the novel is categorized in Fantasy/YA genre — book bloggers have been using spicy quotations from the book to showcase their admiration and it’s obviously working.
“When you look at SMUT, a majority of the audience is usually young females and men belonging to the LGBTQ community. Not that it does not have another audience, but at least that’s the majority. I think that the lack in their experience is fulfilled by reading smut which makes it immensely popular,” says Chaitanya 🔗 Srivastava, a marketing professional at Penguin India.
The Rise of Indie SMUT Books
Owing to the virality of such trends, indie booksellers are benefitting and broadening their readership. This genre also has dedicated fan pages across social platforms and readers end up buying books merely because of that “sexy” quote they saw online. I, persoanlly have lost count of the times I’ve ordered a book merely because I came across an excerpt on the gram.
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A post shared by Sadie Kincaid (@sadie_kincaidxx) 🔗
Owing to this exponential rise, there has been a massive sale increase in indie erotica books as well, which conventionally do not get the visibility they should. This exponential rise of erotica recommendations has been a reason for immense success for tremendous self-published writers.
“Oftentimes Indie-smut books are either self-published or are taken by small publishers,” adds Chaitanya, “which I believe are important ways to empower voices that otherwise aren’t given platforms. It is quite unlikely that these many authors have not pitched it to big publishers. Maybe, they aren’t getting accepted by major publishing houses. The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas, Twisted Series by Anna Houng, and tremendous other books which are now viral were initially self-published. Only after they were buzzwords on social media, are they picked up by giant names.”
The virality of ache-growing, desire-inducing paragraphs are proof that there is certainly a market for it, and therefore, more and more names are popping in.
Unconventional Protagonists
Dracula, Monsters, and Fyre aren’t just antagonists anymore. They’ve turned protagonists in widely popular books and aren’t shy about turning sexual. This has birthed a monster kink across the bookish community. Sarah J Mass, the author of the popular ACOTAR series is commonly referred to as the fantasy dominatrix — who increased Bloomsbury’s sales by almost 12%.
Her books focus on fairies, and fairies might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of sensuality and sexiness. A Court of Silver Flames, which is the latest installment in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series, has a cult following and is by far the hottest.
Based on the story of the fiery fairy Nesta and her companion Cassian, this is a tale of fear and sex. A sassy warrior with hundreds of years of bedroom experience, Cassian has the potential to twirl toes. With the influx of characters, who aren’t just morally gray, but at times, are villainous monsters and fairies, BookTok’s horizon for SMUT is being consistently broadened.
The Female Gaze
Porn and erotica have traditionally been in flux with the male gaze. Of course, there is ethical, enthusiastic, consensual porn out there that is created for women, but it’s not always easy to find. Spicy BookTok and Bookstagram, the TikTok and community focused on erotic novels and stories where a woman in flattering glasses will talk in a calming voice about genres called fae porn and praise kink.
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A post shared by Rudi | Bookstagram (@kindlecritic) 🔗
“It’s also because of women taking their sexual wellness unapologetically these days”, says Kriti, a book blogger based in India. As per Dr. Somi Javaid 🔗, a sexual health specialist, obstetrician, and gynecologist, erotica has proved to have a “profound and positive impact on women’s sexuality.”
Kaniska Sharma, an ardent consumer of erotica novels says, “SMUT books are written and consumed primarily by women. We kinda dominate the industry. Like many other things women enjoy, it has been neglected and reprimanded, of course. After all, how dare we women enjoy sex in ways we deem fit?”
In fact, in a survey study of Rosy 🔗, a mobile app designed to enhance women’s sexual health, researchers found that over 600 women who regularly used the app to review erotic short stories reported an improvement in sexual desire, arousal, lubrication, and orgasm 🔗.
It looks like SMUT books are here to pave the way for sexual liberation in a way that’s never been done before.
#BookTokTrend #SmutBooks #SexualLiberation #EroticaRevival #SexyBooks #BookLoversUnite #RaunchyReading
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