It’s a rare day when I’m not struggling with a WIP. My WIPs are monstrous things, all half-amputated thematic structures and bulbous plot growths sprouting in unsightly places. My eternal jihad against them is but one battle in the neverending struggle between good and evil, and Evil is not only currently tunneling under the walls of Good’s final stronghold at the ends of the earth, but it’s throwing a kickin’ rad party down there, too. Bottles of champagne and some really sick beats, keeping Good up all night with its sweet sound system. (Evil knows how to party down.)
Point is, I’m struggling with the first hot scene in this WIP and it’s kicking my ass because I’m not terribly sure if it’s actually hot…or just creepy. The scene in question involves voyeurism, which can be really hot, but also really, really not.
I see you there, Jimmy Stewart! Stop being creepily adorable!
My leading man is being a total voyeur over my leading lady. This is hot, usually, except my leading man and leading lady, being normal humans living in the 21st century, have limited opportunities for voyuerism that don’t involve stalking (very not hot), so my leading man is doing the next best thing: jerkin’ it to Facebook photos.
I ask you, gentle reader: hot or not? Does it matter if they are friends or not? If he doesn’t actually look at the photo whilst pulling on his pud? If it’s merely a springboard for an elaborate fantasy that takes place entirely in his head? Leading Man was quite attracted to Leading Lady before said photos, so it’s not like he was tooling around on Facebook looking for random, unsuspecting women to baptize with his baby batter, so said photo merely pushed his burgeoning attraction to the fore. But is it kosher (or, hey, sexy or romantic?) to write a scene that is essentially Our Hero adding his future paramour to his spank bank?
I have no idea. You tell me. And now we all see why I have such trouble with WIPs. Next time I’ll ask you about the ethics of emotional authenticity as it pertains to werewolf threesomes.
Without reading it I would say too creepy. Not fair on the character being watched/ spied upon.
I probably agree which is why my brain won’t let me write it! I don’t remember installing a moral stopgap, but it is clearly there.
I’m afraid I have to fall back on the old it depends on how it’s written. Watching a woman undress thru binoculars without her knowledge or participation is not sexy.THAT is what a peeping Tom does in the totally creepy, illegal sort of way. But a man who’s infatuated with a woman, checks out her Facebook page and gets aroused thinking about her sounds more like a starting point for him to fantasize about what he’d like to do with her and then there’s just a small hop to a five-fingered Mary quick relief. If on the other hand she has posted some half-naked pics then she’s inviting him to play voyeur. Just my two cents for ya.
Well the theme of voyeurism was handled in a pretty hot way in Body Double. If you’ve never seen this movie, a tribute to Hitchcock’s Rear Window beefed up with sex, check it out.
In this case, the illicitness only adds to the hotness. The lack-of-consent issue is addressed in that there is ambiguity about whether the woman is an exhibitionist, making a partner rather than a victim.
I think what can make voyeurism work in a story is if the focus is on adoration and idolization, that pure form of love that goes back to our earliest adolescent crushes. Rather than mere masturbation, a solo act with no human relationship involved.
This is an interesting question because I had no idea any woman would ever think of a Peeping Tom as sexy, rather than just a disgusting creep. Makes me wonder about other perverts. Can anyone imagine a romantic or at least erotic story which begins with an encounter with a subway frotteur?
PS: Excuse my ignorance, but what is a W.I.P.?
Hey Mike – the subway rubber was done in Closer as part of the Merry Kinkmas theme, released in December by Ellora’s Cave. Yeah, us ladies do think about allllll that sort of stuff
!
I am with Marilyn. It is all in how you frame it. We all like to look at the pics of guys everyone posts, but I think for women it takes more than pictures to inspire solo flight. Men, so I’m told, are fine with no more connection than a pic. Maybe if you find a way to work in an romatic connection between them, some prior history, it might make the idea more acceptable to female readers.
I’m in the it all depends how it’s written camp as well. I think the whole voyeur/exhibitionist thing can be really hot, but creepy “crazy eyes” like that AT&T commercial, yeah that’s not hot. LOL
In this day and age with cellphones that can snap a photo at any minute I’m sure more than a few new relationships have had a little photo solo run. LOL