Let Women Read Smut

without being ridiculed

I told myself I wouldn’t make another post about this, but I have a lot of thoughts, and people are pissing me off.

If you missed it, I wrote about this a few months ago, and it was a topic I was (and still am) very passionate about, and it moved me to make it my first official newsletter.

You don’t have to read that necessarily, but it does provide some context. Basically, people have been putting women down for reading romance and, more specifically, smutty romance and, now, smutty fantasy. The discourse died down for a while, but it came back up again, and I have many opinions about it.

I won’t lie, I used to be on the train of hating on smutty romance in particular and how BookTok — especially the mainstream (as I like to call it) BookTok — is obsessed with smut. While this is (sort of) true, and I have my own critiques on it, I have moved away from shitting on women who read it and calling those women “porn addicts” when that is the farthest from the truth (again, I go way more into it here and how reading smut does not equal to a porn addiction).

My opinion has changed quite drastically over time. So, let’s get into it.

BookTok’s “Obsession” With Smut

I started regularly posting on my BookTok account in April of 2024, and I noticed that many videos around that time (and maybe more into Summer) were on the topic of women on BookTok posting about and recommending smutty books. This then spiralled into the issue of calling these women “porn addicts” (which I vehemently disagree with), so much so that now if you ask someone who is not on BookTok about it but they have an idea of what BookTok is, they will most likely say something along the lines of it being full of porn addicts and trashy books.

I believe this idea of romance readers being “porn addicts” started with the reoccurrences of women recommending smutty books, asking for the “spice level” on books spanning multiple genres (even classics), and the subgenre of dark romance. I saw so many videos complaining about these things happening, and the comments would always appear to be even more ruthless. However, whenever I see someone asking for the “spice level” of a book, it is almost always because they want to avoid spicy books.

I am not claiming that BookTok doesn’t have an obsession with smut. “Obsession” may be a strong word, but the “mainstream” — videos you will most likely see on your for you page when first coming across BookTok and are usually the most viral/popular types of recommendations — part is where the problem lies. This is where the ACOTAR, Fourth Wing, Icebreaker, and Haunting Adelines live. I have a separate issue with Haunting Adeline. Still, ACOTAR and Fourth Wing do have a reputation for being “smutty” fantasies (Romantasies, if you will), and Icebreaker had been catching a lot of attention earlier this year.

I would argue that Fourth Wing is not even that smutty. From my remembrance of the book, there were only a couple (or three) chapters dedicated to a spicy scene. I would hardly call it as extreme as people would make it seem to be (this will be the only time I defend this book >:( ). I can’t account for the other books in the series as I have not read them, though.

My Critiques

I will not ignore the glaring problems in the BookTok community regarding these matters, either. As I mentioned in my last article about this, there was an incident of grown women on BookTok recommending dark romance (notably Haunting Adeline) to a sixteen-year-old boy, which is highly inappropriate. To add on, there is a phenomenon of adults asking for spice to be included in YA books, which is very strange as well. Yes, these are issues that should be addressed. No, it does not justify calling women who read romance/smut “porn addicts”.

Additionally, there are some BookTokers who have made videos saying that they will not read a book if it doesn’t have smut. Now, I don’t particularly have a huge issue with this. However, I do believe, in my opinion, that reading across all genres and reading stories that are not romance-based are important. There are very unparalleled and beautiful stories without the inclusion of smut or even romance. Where it becomes a problem for me is when people say that a story is not valuable because it has no romance or smut in the story. The opposite also bothers me: when someone diminishes a book because it has some smut in it.

Imagine if we talked about Game of Thrones the same way people talked about romance stories written by women that happen to have some smut in them? Game of Thrones is a great story with immersive world-building, complex characters, and multiple storylines. It also has an abundance of “smut” and scenes with rape and/or sexual assault. Yet, it is not diminished or described as only a smutty book.

Many women have actually brought up valid critiques of the amount of rape or sexual assault in the series, and men specifically say that it is “accurate to the time period” and has a place in the story. However, whenever a book goes viral on BookTok and it happens to have some spice in it, it’s not “necessary” and “ruins the book”. The rhetoric is just stupid.

Spicy Romance

Books that fall under this specification have especially been under fire in the bookish community. Icebreaker has recently come up in controversy earlier this year in January I believe, when a popular creator (KallMeKris) made a YouTube video “criticizing” BookTok and the types of books that are popular. I haven’t seen the video and I think it has been edited or taken down, so I can’t speak to the specific content of the video, but it has made its impact on the BookTok community.

I didn’t particularly like Icebreaker, but most of the critiques I see about it on different platforms is that it has a lot of spice and it is a “porn without plot” type of book. It does have a lot of spice, that is true, but I think that the second critique is incorrect. It still has a plot; whether that plot is well written is different.

There is also an issue with the way the book is marketed in bookstores and online — like how the cartoonish cover has confused people on the contents of the book and has led to younger girls picking it up, which is a problem, yes.

I think people are being really dramatic when they say whoever reads it has a porn addiction. Women are allowed to enjoy smutty things, and if they want to, they should. I don’t understand why women cannot pick up a book like Icebreaker and enjoy it without being called a porn addict or weird for liking it. Really, there is nothing wrong with a few chapters of smut.

Even if the entirety of a book is smut, there should not be an issue. I specify women here because I do not see this issue with people calling men porn addicts if they read smutty books. While BookTok is predominantly made up of women, there are men on there that read ACOTAR or other popular books, yet they are not ridiculed for it or called porn addicts. I would argue that the Game of Thrones fanbase is mostly men and they are not criticized for liking a book with so much smut in it.

Another point I would like to add is that sex happens between couples. While not every relationship has to involve sex (asexual people do exist), it is common and, at most times, is a driving factor for becoming more intimate with someone and deepening a relationship. That is what these romance books intend (or at least, that is what I think they intend); they are trying to further the connection between two people in a relationship.

So yeah, romance books are going to include sexual scenes sometimes. That is what some adult couples do when they are involved in a romantic relationship. I don’t understand why spice is being turned into something that is “wrong” or something that makes a book worse. I personally love a romance that includes a lot of tension and build-up; whether or not that happens to be sexual is fine with me.

I’m guessing where a lot of people take issue with this is when the quality of books decreases once it only includes spice as its main progression; the characters, the development, the plot, etc., are not there and are covered up behind sexual actions. I see and understand that point; I think a lot of books in the romantasy genre especially rely on overdone tropes that are just there to check off a box and add nothing else to the story.

We can have a conversation about the quality of books and how BookTok has contributed to that downward slope, however, I do not believe that gives people the right to call everyone who reads romance or a spicy book a “porn addict”.

BookTok is Diverse

As mentioned, the “mainstream” side of BookTok is usually what you will see when searching “BookTok” in the search bar which recommends the same books over and over again and most happen to include smut. Nevertheless, many sides of BookTok exist. It is a diverse community on TikTok, you just have to put in some work to curate your for-you page (fyp) to the kinds of books you want to see.

I will argue that more diverse creators and book suggestions should make it onto the “mainstream” part of BookTok, but TikTok as a whole likes to suppress videos that are not part of the “norm”, and authors like SJM will always be popular regardless of her racist and zionist beliefs. This is why you should be following creators that suggest a wide range of genres and books by BIPOC authors to diversify your shelf and your fyp.

If you do not enjoy smutty books, you do not have to watch BookTok videos about smutty books. Follow people or search for books that you like, and your fyp will most likely get the idea and show you videos based on what you search/who you follow. I follow so many amazing creators who call out problematic authors, speak about Palestine, the DRC, Sudan, etc., suggest books by authors of colour, and suggest books from genres I don’t typically read from.

So I will have an issue with people who generalize BookTok and characterize it as trashy or porn addicted. Unfortunately, the most popular side of it will ruin it for the rest.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this has brought attention to the issue. Honestly, I started the draft of this article a while ago and when I fell into a writing slump I forgot what my original point was. When I started writing this I was very angry and annoyed at the people who were perpetuating the idea of women being porn addicts for reading certain books. I hope this ended up having a cohesive structure that highlights my point.

If you have any differing perspectives on what I wrote, please discuss it below. I would like to see different points of view in this discourse to see where you are coming from. If you learned something new or agree, also discuss it! I love getting comments and talking with you guys!