the feminist librarian reads

The television version of the spanking took what originally read as spousal abuse followed by rape and much more palatably turned it into a somewhat farcical clash between two people of very different eras that was resolved through the timeless language of bonin’. What both versions of the spanking perfectly encapsulate is the paradoxical frisson of romance novels and the media franchises they inspire. These kinds of erotic stories, especially the historical and science-fiction variety, do very heavy-lifting to satisfy women’s conflicting desires — whether it’s with stories of an egalitarian-minded heroine forced into marriage or by presenting a potentially kinky act in a historical setting — and allow them to process the psychosexual baggage that comes along with so many years of, yes, the patriarchy. We may not be in 18th century Scotland, but women are still working through what amounts to a culturally non-consensual submissive relationship with men. You needn’t look any further than their fantasies for proof.