Warning: This article contains sexual content
Remember when everyone made fun of middle-aged mums for loving the smutty novel Fifty Shades of Grey?
Well, there’s a whole new generation of young women online falling in love with X-rated novels, and the content could make you blush.
TikTok has become a place for influencers to try and sell you their personalities, silly dances, funny stories, and now it has become a place for women to share their love of written porn.
Young women are sharing their sexual desires via their reading choices on the app, and from there, Facebook groups have been created such as SpicyTok – where women can share book recommendations and give reviews on smut.
On TikTok, the #spicybooks has hundreds and thousands of views, and searches using the hashtag surfaces videos of women sharing sexy books or posting lines from their favourite romance novels.
The comments are filled with women sharing how much they love the scene and demanding to know the book’s name and title.
“Book name, please?” someone commented,
“Love this!” Another added.
“I finished this in one day,” another shared.
It is a community of women sharing their likes, dislikes and favourite moments about sex.
Similarly, the Facebook group SpicyTok has more than 150,000 members, featuring women constantly posting call-outs for smutty romance recommendations.
They also get very specific in what they want from a spicy read.
“Smuttiest hockey romance books! Looking for something hot and steamy,” someone wrote.
“Strong leads and good plots with spice,” another posted.
“Looking for a recommendation on a heating guy that comes over,” another shared before explaining she’d recently been having trouble with her heater, and it got her wanting to read about that kind of fantasy.
There’s also posts where people share they are looking to find a smutty novel with a specific type of trope for example ‘good girl meets bad boy’ or ‘rich girl meets poor guy’.
Often these posts will also feature disclaimers for example they don’t want recommendations where cheating happens in the book or perhaps they’ll request a sexy novel where there’s monogamy.
The Facebook group is an insight into women’s wants, needs and sexuality.
This smutty reading is having an impact on the women’s real life sex lives as well because it has become common to see posts of women asking for book recommendations so their partners can become familiar with what they want sexually.
Lovehoney’s sex and relationship therapist Christine Rafe said there was a good reason why women were so hooked on smut.
“Women may be drawn to erotic literature because it offers a safe and private space to explore their sexuality without fear of judgment or social stigma. Erotic literature can provide a way to explore sexual fantasies and desires in a way that is not possible in real-life sexual encounters,” she said.
According to Ms Rafe, sex isn’t the only draw of erotic novels.
“Women may also be drawn to the emotional and romantic elements of spicy books, as they often include detailed descriptions of intimate relationships and emotions. Reading erotic literature can be a way for women to connect with their own sexuality and gain a deeper understanding of their desires and needs,” she said.
“Spicy books can be an effective way for readers to experience sexual arousal and pleasure, and can also help to promote healthy attitudes towards sexuality by normalising the exploration of sexual desires.”
