In her ‘Blue room’ of 1923, Suzanne Valadon refers back to erotic portraiture of the reclining Venus, though here she is depicted ironically as a languorous, mature woman of ample form.

For millennia, women’s bodies did not really belong to them. Whether in the collective imagination in general or in literature in particular, “women’s bodies, and by extension their desire and sexuality, have been systematically defined by the male gaze”, says Valérie Cossy, an associate professor of gender studies and researcher in the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Literatures at the University of Lausanne. It was only in the 1980s, with the second wave of female liberation, that women realised that in order to regain their bodies, “they had to learn to ‘speak’ and ‘write’ about them themselves”.

Erotic literature has always existed, whether it specifically intends to arouse excitement or whether its sexual components have other purposes. For a long time, it was published clandestinely, “which did not prevent its wide circulation”, says Cossy. For the vast majority, these were writings produced “by men and for men”, sometimes under the guise of anonymity, or even female pseudonyms.

Despite this continuity, erotic literature is more well-known for its variety. All of its forms and registers can be found across times, countries, and societal contexts. Anouk Delpedro is a doctoral student at the French Department of the University of Fribourg, and she cites the example of female erotic dialogues that developed in 16th-century Italy, which were then emulated in other countries.

“These conversations were intended to arouse the desire or curiosity of a male readership through a staging of female intimacy”. Women were not necessarily portrayed in a rewarding way, Delpedro says. “Indeed, the protagonists were often prostitutes who worked not for their pleasure but in return for material rewards”.

A free spirit in a free body

Almost a century later, in 1655, the French book ‘L’école des filles ou la philosophie des dames’ (The Girls’ School, or The Philosophy of the Ladies) was based on the same principle of dialogue between two female interlocutors. It does, however, diverge from its Italian predecessor in that the exchange is set amid the daily lives of two women whose shared interest is hedonism and not money. The more experienced woman manages to convince her cousin – a naive young woman – to take a lover. She does this by providing a real lesson in sex education and filling it with a detailed account of her own antics. She tells her in particular: “To no longer keep you in suspense, you must know that a boy and a girl take the greatest pleasure in the world together”.

“This novel represents female sexuality in a new way”, says Delpedro. Women’s desire is not only described – and in a pornographic way – but also defended and encouraged. The book goes further: “After indulging in the act and experiencing the ‘greatest pleasure in the world’, the young woman understands the importance of questioning moral prejudices in every possible context. Her sexual initiation therefore also transforms her intellectually”.

The Girls’ School has been emulated. “The combined libertinage of morals and mind occurred throughout the 18th century in the works of the Marquis de Sade, a figurehead of the libertine novel”, says Delpedro. At the same time, however, more traditional – and androcentric – erotic literature continued to be published.

Figures devoted to male pleasure

Lucie Nizard is an assistant professor at the Department of Modern French Language and Literature of the University of Geneva. She dedicated her doctoral thesis to female sexual desire in the French novels of the 19th century. “It was a very conservative era from the point of view of sexuality, and the publication of erotic literature was illegal”, she says. Despite this, reading it “was an integral part of learning – and strengthening – virility for men”. They talked about it among themselves, “just like they went to brothels in groups”.

She points out that the notion of ‘the male gaze’, as proposed by the British director and film critic Laura Mulvey in the 1970s, takes on its full meaning here. Women – at least during the first half of the century – are presented as figures “who resist first of all, before surrendering to the goodwill and pleasure of men”.

The readership becomes more feminine

Nevertheless, by the end of the 19th century, change came about in the portrayal of eroticism in literary works. “In particular, female consent grew in importance”, Nizard says. This change is probably due in part to the feminisation of the readership. “Thanks to the new education laws, women were granted easier access to literature of all genres”.

In addition, “with the beginning of flirting and love marriages, came changes in sexual practices”. In the wake of this, women “are represented more actively” in literary writing, “without however leaving behind their status as objects of male desire”. Erotic literature therefore continues to consist above all in creations written “by men and for men”.

In today’s ultra-contemporary era, the situation is reversed, and the young writers penning erotic content are increasingly women. Although it might be expected that this evolution be accompanied by a more egalitarian, even feminist, way of representing sexuality, it is not necessarily the case.

A problematic representation

“The legacy of having been cut off from their bodies for so long weighs very heavily on women”, says Cossy. “Under these conditions, do they really have the means to reinvent erotic discourse and avoid falling into the trap of writing about sex like men?”. Today, erotic literature continues therefore to be “a real challenge” from the point of view of gender studies.

“The 21st century has further complicated the underlying feminist question, as rule-breaking and explicit sex have become selling points”, says Cossy. “This is what ‛Fifty Shades of Grey’ by E. L. James suggests, for example”. Later adapted to the big screen, this novel of 2011 “implies a problematic representation of the heterosexual sexuality of women, very far from the feminist ideal of self-definition described by Hélène Cixous”.

Cixous invited women “to regain possession of their bodies and their pleasure”. In ‛Fifty Shades of Grey’, however, female pleasure “appears as invariably synonymous with submission and confinement, and if not then as suffering harassment, intimidation and violence, with consent remaining a very theoretical concept, if not to say decorative”, says Cossy.

Both apolitical and highly political

Emma Becker is the author of ‘La Maison’, a novel published in 2019 based on her experience as a sex worker in Berlin. She believes that all erotic literature carries within it possibilities for female emancipation. “I started reading it when I was very young”, she says. “Despite the fact that most of the books were written by men – or perhaps precisely thanks to this – I discovered a lot of true and false things about female sexuality, therefore about myself”.

Becker is now one of the leading figures in contemporary literature presenting sexuality as a space full of nuance, in which genres are not fixed. She sees erotic literature as “a place accessible to all, which is both apolitical and highly political”. She goes on to say: “There is a latent adversity between men and women in terms of sexuality, which unfortunately is an open door to physical violence”.

According to Becker, “this adversity stems from a major misunderstanding. We mistakenly think that women’s enjoyment comes from them putting themselves at the service of men’s pleasure”. To overturn the current power dynamics between the sexes, “women must rid themselves of the idea that they must be objects of desire”. Cossy certainly sees things the same way: “It’s a fact; men won’t do it for them”.