So lately I've been reading a lovely little fic. It's cute, the characters are likeable, I can identify with the conflict, the writing is good, there are very few, if any, grammatical or spelling errors. There's just one little problem:
I don't particularly care for the "lemony" parts.
It's not that they're poorly written! And it's certainly not that I'm a prude (ask my husband). It's just that I feel, at this point, there's not really a whole lot of new stuff to say. I've lost count of the number of stories I've read in which the author/narrator describes the exact mechanics of how they perform particular acts (which I won't name on the front page), with some phrases repeated verbatim by different authors across the fandom. I don't require any further exposition of who puts their hands or mouth where. It's. Been. Done.
(Is this why Stephenie Meyer went all fade-to-black on us in the Breaking Dawn honeymoon? Not because of the age of her intended audience or her religious beliefs, but because she thought it was too cliche?)
So, ladies and gents, let me ask you: do you read sex scenes in stories enthusiastically or reluctantly, do you skim them, or do you skip them altogether? Why do you do what you do? If you skip/skim, do you feel like you're missing out on a psychological dynamic to the character, or do you feel you aren't missing anything important? Do you prefer graphic or non-graphic depictions of sex (or no depiction at all)? Do you wish authors would find a new way to talk about it? Does your age, level of prior experience, or current sexual activity impact how you feel about sexually explicit scenes in written fiction? Do you feel the same way or differently about visual depictions of sex in TV and film?
Mods: I tried to keep it clean, but if you feel a little extra mopping is necessary, be my guest.