The respectable rise and shine of coffee-table erotica.

Let me tell you about our act de présence at the annual book fair in Antwerp. http://www.boekenbeurs.be/
Yes, dear foreign blog readers, we wrote a book. It’s a selection of 12 short stories about BDSM. Both women and men share their fantasies and experience on the subject matter with you. Unfortunately it’s only available in Dutch, but we are working on the translation.
http://www.lamaitressedupirate.be/uk/PublicatiesVUHL.html


Lately we’ve been slapped around with books about sex. Removing it from its sleazy wrapping and slamming it down on the coffee table instead.
So here we are. Are we pioneers? No. Do we care? Even less.
Let’s quote Dian Hanson, the sex book editor at Taschen, on this: “We are proud of what we do and treat art and pornography with the same reverence. In fact, the bigger the slut, the glossier the finish . We pull out all the stops for a risky subject.”
I admit, the last part is quite blunt, but why shouldn’t we applaud when we hear things like that? In a world where censorship still rules, I find it more and more necessary to write and talk about what makes us tick regarding sexuality.

Some people ask me why I find it necessary to make BDSM socially acceptable. It’s not because I’m trying to be shocking or because sex sells. Some tell me that they finally know that there is nothing wrong with them, that they just have an unusual approach towards sex. When I reflect on that, then I don’t think that BDSM is something that should be kept behind closed doors, in the privacy of the bedroom or the occasional Sm cellar. In my opinion, BDSM is a disposition, like homosexuality. And where would we stand if that was still not discussable.
We can avoid a lot of frustration and alienation by making it approachable. Like a mirror, that doesn’t reflect but absorbs.

Meanwhile, me and my co-writers were pretty salonfähig at that book fair. Listening to people who told me that they loved what we did and that it opened their eyes. So tell me, who would not nourish those words.