Why Curating Erotica Would Benefit Medium Members
If anything needs quality control, it’s sex
Medium is a glorious place where even the sexiest of words matter, and I am head over heels in love with that fact.
Writing erotically has its place in both fiction and non-fiction, and here on Medium, we have a platform that boosts the sex-positive writer’s powerful voice.
In this thriving community of creativity and important ideas, we can share our research, experience, and views on sexuality — setting into motion important discussions on any number of related topics, from reproductive health to enhancing female pleasure to how to give the best blow job of your life.
We even have the freedom to flex our creative sexy muscles by posting fiction erotica to a number of publications or publish it independently.
One more great thing about Medium is that after we publish a piece, we can easily share and promote our work on other platforms to both Medium members and non-members with a couple quick clicks.
It’s a sex writer’s dream!
The only missing puzzle piece is the eligibility for curation.
If your piece, whether fiction or non-fiction, falls under the tag of Erotica — your story is unfortunately automatically out of the running for distribution among Medium members.
Erotica is a disqualifying story type. It’s nestled right above inflammatory business reviews within the list of distribution no-nos. I mean, I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but there’s certainly more craft involved in writing erotica than penning inflammatory business reviews. Right…?
I’m well aware that as meta, this story about Medium won’t be curated either — but again, we do love to discuss it!
I also know that I don’t run Medium, and I fully respect the right of a company to form their own guidelines based on policies that are set in place for the good of readers, writers, Medium Staff and Medium Leadership. It takes a lot to run a complex machine like this, and I’m sure there are valid reasons why they choose not to curate erotica at this point in time.
But, in the classic Medium tradition of engaging in respectful and open conversation to hopefully incite positive change in the world around us, I humbly ask (read: whine):
Why NOT curate erotica?
Reading is knowledge. And knowledge is power. And reading about sex is SEX POWER. Think about it.
Here are some of my personal thoughts on why I believe members of the Medium Partner Program would benefit from a change of the rules when it comes to erotica distribution.
1. Medium used to curate sexier sex stories — and we’d love to go back to that
While I can only offer theories on the subjective matter of curation, based on my experience of having some sex pieces curated and others rejected, it seems to me that nowadays, quality content won’t be distributed if it crosses the line of being slightly too descriptive. Too evocative. Too…sexual.
If we use words like cunt and cum and cream pie — we may have just sent a powerful, sex-positive piece to the bottom of the bucket, never to be distributed to readers who are actively seeking articles on such topics.
However — there was a point in 2019, shortly before Medium changed its way of paying authors, that more explicit sex pieces were distributed. My article, The Ecstacy of Sitting on a Man’s Face, was published in Sexual Tendencies and quickly curated back in October of 2019. It has over 4k claps and is my most read piece to date.
But I don’t think this article would be curated today. (Though I can only speculate.) Sometime after the payment changes, I started to notice that hot and dirty (and helpful) pieces that would have been curated before, weren’t making the cut now, though the quality was arguably the same.
I’ve been part of many discussions with fellow sex writers about the fact that things seem to have shifted when it comes to sex-writing distribution, and we’ve all noticed a similar change.
Instead of throwing a fit about it, I’ve turned my focus to working with the change. I noticed that if I toned down pieces so that they focused more on educating and less on spiking the libido, my work could be curated. But the read time would be far less.
I still love to publish the hottest pieces I can imagine, even though I know they won’t be distributed. Writing honestly and descriptively about sex is one of my passions. And I’m happy to have Medium to express myself, even if it’s not as widely distributed.
But I’d love to see more explicit pieces curated. Whether it’s to educate or simply to heighten the libido, the craft of writing sex is a challenging one we sex writers take seriously.
Expressing sexual desires and experiences through the written word is a healthy thing, and to have a problem capturing sex descriptively and realistically in writing is to have at least some issue with sex itself. It’s still widely viewed as a subject that is too taboo and inappropriate to talk about frankly.
On Medium, graphically honest and incredibly meaningful stories are curated every day. They depict love, violence, parenthood, racism, suicide, human hope, depression, happiness, rape, spirituality, abuse, etc. Why can’t we get recommendations of stories depicting honest and evocative scenes of lovemaking, too? It’s also a part of human existence.
2. If anything needs quality control, it’s adult content
We know there’s a lot of questionable content out there in the adult world. Authors an Amazon have tried to publish erotic tales involving underage sex, non-consensual abuse, bestiality, and so on.
All of these violate Medium guidelines and wouldn’t be allowed anyway, but, on the flip side, there are some AMAZING sex writers on here. Talented writers like Emma Austin, Meaghan Ward, Demeter deLune, Average Don Juan, and Julia Beaudett to name a few. They have very honest and sexually charged styles. They don’t mince words, and I love what they have to say.
But I want to discover more like them! It would help me out if Medium distributed similar stories to me. You know, the hot ones.
There’s some pretty rough and poorly written sex stuff out there, and we want to know where we can find polished, quality work by intelligent, talented writers.
Curation could also help Medium better regulate adult content, making it available to appropriate audiences over 18 and recommending it only to the readers who seek it out.
3. Medium has a thriving erotica community built right in
Sex writers and readers are a beautifully diverse group. My most explicit sexual tales receive engagement from men in tech, married moms, the most gentlemanly of retired businessmen, women who love being child-free, artists, high-powered CEOs, educators, husbands looking to spice things up — and the list goes on.
There’s also no shortage of great sex publications, such as Sexography, MyErotica, Sexual Tendencies, PULPMAG, and Red Curtain Erotica to name just a few.
Even without curation, we manage to find stories we love and connect with others in the sex lit community. But I’d like to be able to do more of that.
I know I would appreciate recommendations for the best sexy stories from Medium curators — and I have an inkling that many others feel the same. There’s an engaging, thriving community of readers right here who love to consume quality sex content.
4. To have sex is to be human, to read sex (well-written sex) is to improve
The nature of sex is such that it’s studied and analyzed by all groups, no matter our gender, creed, race, or nationality.
We read sexy literature to be entertained, but also to learn. I love reading erotica written by men, for example, because it lets me see directly into their most intimate inner thoughts on sex.
As a woman, I’m still learning what I love and what I want to explore. I read about sexual conquests I haven’t tried yet, because it helps me sort out whether or not something might be for me.
And as a female erotica writer, I love to offer the same insights for those who are interested. But this learning doesn’t just happen on an individual level — erotic writing allows us to see a range of human insight and behaviors.
Even if the main goal of your reading session is to get turned on, and to simply have more pleasurable sex with yourself or a partner, you are still reading.
Reading is knowledge. And knowledge is power. And reading about sex is SEX POWER. Think about it.
5. We communicate best through storytelling
I’ve always been fascinated by sex, especially as it connects to psychology and human behavior. What turns on our brains and amps up our libido? How do our sexual selves relate to our emotional selves?
And why do we love reading vivid accounts of sex so immensely?
Because storytelling is one of the most relatable, entertaining, and effective forms of communication around.
Basically, tales of sex in all its human glory — the good, the bad, and the funny — are sought after here on Medium by people from every walk of life. That includes educational tales, explicit advice with explicit instruction, and erotic entertainment.
Erotica writers come in all shapes and sizes. We’re educated businesswomen. Dedicated fathers with gorgeous dad bods. Clever feminists with a passion for body-positivity. Transgender folk who want to share their relationship experiences. BDSM enthusiasts who’ve studied the art of bondage for ten-plus years and are currently teaching an online course on the finer points of rope play.
Educating and communicating about sex through storytelling is a huge help in advancing the education of human sexuality.
Passionate takeaways
Even if the hardworking folks at Medium continue to make it company policy not to curate erotica (or sexually explicit, erotic non-fiction), there’s still tremendous value here for the sex-positive writer, and I’ll continue to utilize the platform to share what I hope to be thought-provoking and intelligent pieces on sexuality and relationships in a way that educates, stimulates, or maybe just helps readers masturbate.
The naked vulnerability of erotic writing has its place, and I’d love to see that become more established on this platform — for an appropriate, of-age audience, of course.
Keep up the naughty writing, my sexy friends!