Spice Up Your Life: Swag for Unabashed Smut Readers

What is it to reclaim a word like smut? For readers of romance novels with explicit sex scenes, beloved books have been derided as smut for ages. Scores of romance readers have kept their habits secret, fearing judgment about their intellects, their tastes, even their own sex lives. Reclaiming the word disarms it, making the term a badge of honor rather than an insult. This reclamation within the romance reading community fascinates me. First, it skips over one common defense of romance, namely that stories of relationship arcs are hopeful, heartfelt journeys that show love triumphing over adversity. Stipulated, but also many people enjoy reading about sex. There’s nothing wrong with that! More and more, readers are saying that quiet part out loud.

The second reason I find the smut renaissance fascinating is that it is legitimately very difficult to know which books are smutty! Old school romances with clinch covers telegraphed their content, to the embarrassment of some readers. With the rise of trade paperback romances with illustrated covers, books that seem similar from a superficial glance can be wildly different, sex-wise. This has readers turning to various sources, like TikTok and Instagram, for advice on where the spice is flowing. In the 1980s, some readers hid their paperbacks in quilted fabric covers to conceal their reading preferences. Nowadays, some readers want everyone to know that the characters in their innocent-looking books are heading to the bone zone. With stickers, t-shirts, and more, smut lovers have plenty of options for letting their freak flags fly. Let’s have a look at some.