Somewhere in the blogosphere I've seen something lately mentioning that certain sex acts aren't welcome in most Romance novels, particularly historicals, and that actual penetrative sex (in hetero romance, at least) is what readers are looking for. I can understand why masturbation wouldn't be depicted or at least not dwelled on for a lack of moving character development along, although in one of Joanna Bourne's books (I think it was Black Hawk) the H asks the h if she pleases herself, which was kind of awesome to see a mention of in a romance novel. But what about other things?
Admittedly I haven't read too widely in the genre, not finding many authors whose writing style catches my interest, and my tastes do tend to run towards racier books with a high heat level, but it's true that I haven't read an oral sex scene and I certainly haven't read an anal sex scene. The only book I can ever remember with either of those in them would be Kushiel's Dart etc which are not precisely romance though they do have romance in them, and are definitely close to erotica in heat level. What about light BDSM in historicals--you can't tell me that power play is a new concept, particularly in a time when social strata and actual power disparities were a real issue in everyday life.
Is it that these sorts of things weren't done and sex really was pretty tame/vanilla, or is it that authors and/or readers aren't depicting them?
Admittedly I haven't read too widely in the genre, not finding many authors whose writing style catches my interest, and my tastes do tend to run towards racier books with a high heat level, but it's true that I haven't read an oral sex scene and I certainly haven't read an anal sex scene. The only book I can ever remember with either of those in them would be Kushiel's Dart etc which are not precisely romance though they do have romance in them, and are definitely close to erotica in heat level. What about light BDSM in historicals--you can't tell me that power play is a new concept, particularly in a time when social strata and actual power disparities were a real issue in everyday life.
Is it that these sorts of things weren't done and sex really was pretty tame/vanilla, or is it that authors and/or readers aren't depicting them?