Feminism and the Rise of "Monster Smut"

I try to stay on top of the trends in American culture, not because I am interested in following these trends, but because it helps me understand the spiritual needs of people immersed in it. Particularly, I try to address these needs when they arise, but sometimes, I’m completely oblivious to certain trends.

I’m not into fiction reading—at all. So following trends in this genre just doesn’t happen very often. But this one fell right into my lap as I am seeing it more and more on social media.

So I decided to research this, and what I found was actually surprising, even to me. I’m looking around at what’s selling on Amazon and I see covers draped with serpents, demons, beasts, and horned shadows clutching women in their arms—and they call it romance.

They call it intimacy. They call it “fantasy.”

But let’s strip away the glossy veneer. This garbage is nothing more than pornography wrapped in gothic fan-fiction, luring women into desiring monsters while scorning men. This is more than harmless escapism. It is a symptom of a much larger cultural problem, and it screams louder than the bookshelves it decorates.