"The Bad Sex in Fiction award wrapped up in 2019. It is not missed for me, its offence was that it conflated comically bad writing about sex with great writing about sex that happened to be bad."
"Still, the funniest and most excruciating winners were straight men trying and failing to write sincerely and exuberantly about sex, and landing somewhere between the ludicrously metaphorical and the shoddily pornographic or exoticising."
"To leave sex out of this is to neglect both the minutiae and excesses of human experience."
"I tried not to shy away from writing about sex in my latest novel, Black Bag, because it's part of what forms a character."
Straight male writers frequently hesitate to include sex scenes in their work, fearing they may come off as exploitative or gratuitous. In contrast, women writers often incorporate sex as a central narrative element, portraying nuanced relationships and masculinity. The Bad Sex in Fiction award highlighted the struggles of straight men to write about sex authentically, often resulting in ludicrous or poorly executed scenes. This avoidance neglects a significant aspect of human experience, as relationships and intimacy are central to character development.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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