Where does one begin and the other end?
Like many folks, I recently watched Bridgerton. The love story of Lady Bridgerton and the Duke of Hastings. When the show began with the sweet voice of Julie Andrews (which I know from my deep obsession with Sound of Music as a child) I was intrigued but doubtful. But the moment the Duke walked onto the screen, I understood. I understood that no matter what else they would utter in the show; I was in. I was going to be watching every episode. The wondrous Shonda Rhimes lured my lady pandemic brain. It was as if she knew that in this moment of isolation, frustration, grief and division we all needed to escape to winter balls, royals, and sexy men and women having sex on screen. She. just. got. it.
At first I was unaware of this aspect until Episode 6 aka the first time Daphne (first time like ever- I do think this is a little too “praise the sexy pure women” for my taste but still entertaining) and Duke of Hastings aka the adorable Simon have sex. There is a moment where he drops his pants and the look on her face made me blush just imagining. He asks her again about her masturbation habits and then makes sweet orgasmic love to her. It was WILD! I sat alone in my apartment so torn between am I so turned on right now? Or am I skeptical because I feel like this was legitimately made for women like me to escape and feel turned on? Is this like a more classy porn series? Or is this ladies erotica? Mmm I wonder what the difference between the two is? I wonder how ladies erotica has transformed over the years? Does anyone else feel this way?
And so we begin, my high curiosity….
Am I so turned on right now?
So I will admit, I just have a fat crush on the Duke. He is sexy. I find his face a beautiful combination between pretty boy and jock. His abs are pretty wild. And I feel like he would treat me as a duchess. These are some specific moments when I was just like WOW!
Was this legitmately made for me to feel turned on?
There seems to be a mixture of reviews for those out in the movie buff world. One internet user said, “The point of a scene, other than moving the story forward, is to instigate an emotional reaction in the viewer, perhaps by itself but usually in terms of the context of that scene in the overall film. Sex scenes are no exception.”
He believes sex scenes are meant to spark emotion, whatever that emotion be! He then gives many examples of sex scenes that are awkward, sex scenes that are beautiful, and sexual trauma scenes. Well shit. Internet people that is true, sex is an emotional thing many times, and just such a core human thing.
But then there was the camp of that movie’s sexy sex scenes are just fun and like more glamorous PG-13’d porn scenes. There are other lists of “30 most important sex scenes“. Cosmo even tells me to “admit you’ve watched a movie to have bangin sex!” OMG have I? (sorry readers you don’t get to know that!)
This man even tells me four reasons why porn & movies are alike and four reasons they are not alike! I kinda skimmed after a little bit… but the main jest I got was porn is for turned-on ness and pleasure, and movies try to invoke that AND emotion. I then thought- this begs to question how much and of what emotion does that have to be to transform it from one to the other?
But I think I see the point.
Is Bridgerton like a classy porn?
After my research, I feel like no. It isn’t quite just about making people feel sexy, there is a lot of character tells within their sex scenes. Daphne being all virgin and pure, and having the absolute worse sex education I’ve ever heard of- and I would like to point out most of us have had horrible sex education (that is at least all my fellow Americans- both educationally & culturally). The Duke clearly being a gentleman that cares about the pleasure of women. These are all character tells!!!! So i don’t think its classy porn, which begs the question…
Is this ladies erotica?
So ladies erotica… or really just known as erotica. However, with a large history of being catered towards women.
Let’s just do a quick windback to the history of womens erotica.
- 50 Shades of Grey was like crazy pivotal to women’s erotica and introduced BDSM into modern day erotica.
- Erotica novel? Romance novel? They could be just one in the same, AND they are predominantly written for women, by women and have been through many cultural shifts.
- Eroticas can be a way to track cultures and people of the past relation to sex,etc. There has been research about how orientalism and oppression can be seen through romance novels.
(more of this research helped clarify what the difference between the two might be,
- One researcher even points to the root of the words, Ero is greek and comes from the word Goddess of love, while Pornography comes from the root Porn deriving from the greek word prostitute. WHOA. MINDBLOWN.
and the whole development of erotica was seen with the history of it.)
Okay so with that in mind, Bridgerton could certainly be a modern day series erotica .. which finally led me to-
Does anyone else feel this way?
So after this journey I asked three friends we can call them Friend J, Friend M, and Friend G to confer if they felt this was pretty sexy and maybe just a modern day romance novel turned Netflix series? There answer was all a resounding yes.
Have other thoughts? Please share in comments!
Things that assisted in this blog writing
- My version of a Victorian themed meal of a burger and french onion soup from the lovely Brazen Head based in San Francisco.
- A glass of white wine from Stephen Miller
- A couple puff from a flow kana sativa joint
- Brooklyn the Movie Soundtrack
- No evening plans for more than a week
- Bridgerton
- My public speaking speech in college about whether porn should be censored or not
High Curiosities 