Feminist Embraces Porn The Story of Sex Writer Katy Terrega
Interview by Taylor Cataway

When the womenÿs movement exploded onto the scene in the seventies, pornography was widely considered by most feminists as degrading toward women. Even though some feminists still frown on the adult industry today, many others, such as Katy Terrega, embrace it.

Seven years ago, this self-described feminist mother of two living in suburbia sold her first full-length sex story to Naughty Neighbors magazine, and she hasnÿt looked back since. While at first she thought that porn writing was just an easy way to break into the field of writing as a whole, she soon realized that writing about sex could be fairly lucrative, as well as downright enjoyable. Although she admits that her feminism and her sex writing career can sometimes be at odds with one another, she has no problem defining the lines between her feminism, sex writing, and sexuality.

She says that her success which includes credits in publications such as Playgirl, Gallery, Penthouse Variations, several regular nonfiction sex columns, plus a book, newsletter and website dedicated to helping other sex writers has more to do with hard work and professionalism than it does with sex. And she proudly admits that itÿs been a sweet experience breaking through a traditionally male-centric barrier or two in the process.

Now, whether writing mainstream articles or smut, she insists that writing is writing, no matter what the genre.

When did you become interested in writing, what prompted you to write full time?

I always wanted to be a writer to write for a living. But honestly, it took me a long time to believe that I *could* write. I had some serious issues about personal success and being a professional writer simply did not fit well with that. It took a long time to get to the point where I believed that writing for pay was something I could actually do.

But eventually I got to a point where everything started to fit together. I happened to read a porn story in some magazine and realized, hey, I can do better than that! So I bought that year's Writer's Market, targeted one of the sex markets and wrote a three thousand-word story to fit. To my utter surprise, it was accepted, as was the second one I sent to that same magazine. That was when I started to think that maybe I actually could do this writing thing.

You consider yourself a feminist, right?

Absolutely, I've been an avid feminist since I was a teenager.

Okay, so does writing porn conflict at all with your feminist leanings? Obviously you feel that itÿs okay to be a feminist and still write male-centric porn.

Well, you know, sometimes what I write, or least the genre that I write in, does conflict with my feminist leanings. Sometimes I take a step back and look at whatever Iÿm working on and wonder whether or not itÿs þrightú for me to be writing it.

But in the end Iÿm left with the fact that I enjoy what Iÿm writing. I enjoy creating these characters and scenarios, I love writing stories and articles with sexual themes. I wouldnÿt be doing it if I didnÿt. And as soon as I donÿt like writing it, Iÿll stop.

Years ago, feminism and porn did not mix at all. Early in the movement, feminism in some ways was a reaction against porn and against the belief that women were these stereotypical beings.

Now, however, porn and feminism seem to coexist rather peacefully and even to have emerged as rather strange bedfellows. Thereÿs a new breed of feminists out there and they are embracing their sexuality in ways that they never did before. So nowadays itÿs not quite as stigmatizing to be a feminist pornographer.

Of course, what I write, the male-centric stuff, is not about feminists and women reclaiming their sexual power. Itÿs about turning male readers on. But I figure that as long as what I write turns me on, too, well then it canÿt be all that bad :)

Do you feel that porn negatively exploits women?

It certainly can and does in a lot of ways. Iÿm fairly disgusted by a lot of the porn movie content I see out there, I feel as though a lot of the more crass stuff is just insecure men trying to boost their own self esteem by trying to prove that women actually like some of those more violent, debasing activities. And unfortunately, I think that a lot of women who participate in that have their own self-esteem issues.

On the other hand, this is a free country, and both women and men are free to choose what activities they participate in. And some women are trying to change the status quo. Candida Royalle, for example, was a porn star in the seventies and now sheÿs on the other side of the camera making women-friendly porn movies.

Plus, and I donÿt mean this as negatively as it might sound; thereÿs no accounting for some peopleÿs taste. What turns one person on disgusts another, and vice-versa. I canÿt judge someone elseÿs fantasy because each personÿs likes and dislikes are so highly individual.

In the end, this business boils down to fantasies anyway. I would never even consider participating in most of the activities that I write about, Iÿm just delving into my own rich and varied fantasy life. Itÿs unfair to judge my (or anyone elseÿs) fantasies; we simply like what we like.

Did you try breaking into markets that are perceived to be more women-dominated, such as Romantic Fiction?

I'm not much of a romance reader but I actually did try my hand at romance writing at a couple of different points in my writing career. After I'd had some success with porn stories, I decided to try a couple of short, romantic stories, the kind found in the dozen or so romance mags at my local newsstand. I bought several of them, read them from cover to cover and was rather intrigued by their format, which I found to be somewhat similar to porn. They both have a rather set formula, in which certain things always happen; in porn stories it's the sex, in romance stories it's the, well, romance. The stories tend to have a beginning, middle and end, and there's always some fairly predictable tension.

I figured, with a couple of porn stories already under my belt, that it would be a fairly easy to craft 5,000 word stories to fit the romance format. Apparently I was wrong, however, since every one of my attempts were soundly rejected, one because, according to the editor, my plot was not fleshed out enough.

Sometime later I thought I might try my hand at writing full-length romances and so I bought several contemporary romantic novels. Once again I found that they were quite formulaic, though not necessarily in a bad way. It's just that the readers of those romances expected certain things in a certain order, including tension and a relatively happy ending, and that's what the writer provided. The sex was, of course, not as graphic as in most porn, or even erotica novels, but it did run the gamut from totally chaste to fairly raunchy.

In the end I decided that I really didn't have enough time to try writing a full-length romance novel on spec, but it doesn't surprise me that some writers do both. There's a similarity to the genres that goes beyond just sex, or romantic or sexual themes. They both have some fairly intense male/female dynamics going on that are resolved at the end, either with a meeting of hearts in the case of romance, or a meeting of bodies in the case of porn. A good writer in either genre (or both) knows what his or her audience wants and is then able to present that in ways that are both semi-predictable and unique.

Did, or do you feel, you have any problems getting your work accepted in male-centric porn because you are a woman?

Not really. Actually I think that, as a woman, I've been able to bring something new to the more male-dominated magazine field. A new sensibility, a new angle, even. When it comes to sex writing, thereÿs not much new to say, I mean, there are so only so many ways to describe sex. To keep if fresh, what is said has to be said differently, and as a woman, I think Iÿm able to do that; my slant and focus are different than a lot of the other male-written magazine porn.

I will say that some old-school editors, those that are more used to dealing with men, often don't know what to do with me, or how to interact with me. And I sometimes have a hard time selling to those markets.

But in general, most of the editors I deal with are wonderful kind, appropriate, friendly, funny. The fact that I'm a woman simply never enters into the equation.

And to help others, you wrote your book, þItÿs a dirty jobSWriting Porn For Fun And Profit,ú started your newsletter and, last year, Sex-Writer.com. It obviously seems as if you genuinely want to help others who want to beak into sex writing. Are these the kind of things you wished you had access to when you were starting out?

That's exactly why I started my book, newsletter and then, later, Sex-Writer.com!

My only resource when I was starting out was Valerie Kelly's "How to Write Erotica," which is a great book but very outdated. I realized after I'd been writing and selling for a couple of years that I'd assimilated knowledge that could benefit other writers. It was important to me to share that knowledge, and I was also hoping that others could learn from the many mistakes I made along the way.

Iÿd never really been in that position before, where the experiences that Iÿd had could help others, and itÿs been a wonderful thing. Readers and subscribers write to me all the time to talk about how inspired they were by the book or newsletter or site. Many of them have said that they only finally got up the courage to write and submit because of something of mine that they read, which is very gratifying for me.

It was also important to me that I network with other sex writers; writing is such a solitary profession and it's easy to get locked into your own little world, and I think that's dangerous in that it leads to complacency and stagnant work. It's so easy to get trapped into certain genres or styles, and it's only by opening yourself up to other writers that you grow as a writer.

Does your writing define who you are as a woman and/or as a sexual being?

It doesn't so much define me as a woman or a sexual being, but it has begun to define who I am as a person in that I never honestly expected to succeed at this business. Now that I am more-or-less succeeding, I'm able to define myself in a new, more confidant, more professional way, which is not something I was necessarily raised to do.

The fact that much of what I write is porn also defines me in other ways, namely because I like being a rebel, I like to push the edge. And itÿs pretty cool that I usually win the "who has the most unusual and/or fun job" at parties.

But I never expected to find myself in the middle of suburbia with the typical 2 kids and a dog (although in my case it's two kids, two cats and a house bunny.). Now that I'm here, however, I do enjoy being a bit different, a bit wackier, than my neighbors, and my career as a pornographer definitely fits the bill.

And I suppose I'm probably more sexually adventurous than some, mainly because I'm exposed to porn and fantasies on a daily basis. I definitely have a higher shock threshold when it comes to hard-core porn than many others do. But I'm also a hundred percent monogamous when it comes to my marriage, so sometimes my life and my path and my values and my writing seem like this weird dichotomy, even to me. I do, however, enjoy the hell out of it. :)

So your husbandÿs supportive of your career?

Very much so, as a matter of fact, if it weren't for his encouragement and support, I wouldn't have been able to take the plunge into full-time freelancing. He's been my biggest champion; helping me polish my work and reminding me, even when times were lean, that I was doing the right thing.

Interestingly enough, before he met me, he was never much of a porn connoisseur. And even now, the only stories and articles he reads are mine.

How do your children feel about your career?

They're not all that fond of my porn-writing career :(. I didn't tell them for several years, my daughter was around 8 or so when I told her, and my son was maybe 9 by the time I shared it with him. He still, at age 12, thinks that "sex" is the most repulsive four-letter word around. "Mom, why do your write that stuff!" he often wails.

My daughter, at 13, is a little more tolerant. "I think pornography is vile and disgusting, Mom, but I don't hold it against you that you write it."

Neither one of them has shared (as far as I know) what I do for a living with their friends. Since I also write non-porn stuff, though, they always have a good answer when someone asks what their mom does for a living.

What advice can you give feminists growing up in today's world, especially those who might want to take a career that might not fit in with traditional feminist roles?

Iÿd say go for it. But be careful not to confuse sexuality with exploitation and marketing.

What I mean by that is that I see a lot of up and coming young stars, in the music business for example, who are using sex to sell records yet claim to be embracing their own sexuality.

I think thatÿs bullshit. If youÿre going to use sexuality as a marketing tool, thatÿs fine, but be honest enough to call it what it is. Thereÿs no doubt that sex sells, and I have no problem with people exploiting that for their own gain.

But donÿt produce soft-core porn pop videos and expect me to believe that youÿre somehow exploring your sexuality rather than catering to the massÿs desire to see perfect, nubile young bodies engaged in pseudo-sexual activity.

I have no problem with most porn; itÿs upfront. Porn uses sex to sell sex. But the way sex is so often now used to sell other things galls me, especially when those doing it deny it.

What does the future hold for Katy Terrega?

I have so many things that I want to do! I want to continue to write porn and to explore new venues and new genres and I'd like to write for the higher-end non-fiction porn markets.

I want to continue the newsletter and Sex-Writer.com, but I'd like to see both of them get bigger and better.

I want to expand on my web ventures; I have plans for a sex story site and Iÿve just started a resume site for writers. I'd also like to work more with affiliates.

I also hope to expand into more non-porn markets, I'd love to work my way into the high-end women's mags and do more mainstream non-fiction. And I'm hoping eventually to write a mainstream novel.

In general, though, as long as I can keep doing what I'm doing writing, helping other writers and doing website work, I'll be happy.

Notes: Katy Terrega's book - "It's A Dirty Job...Writing Porn For Fun And Profit" is available through her free newsletter; you can read the current edition at http://www.katyterrega.com/newsletter.html and subscribe by sending any email to KatyTerrega-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. She also runs Sex-Writer.com (http://www.sex-writer.com ,), a market resource guide for sex writers, and The-Write-Resume.com (http://www.The-Write-Resmue.com ), which offers online resume creation for freelance writers. Katy can be reached at katy@katyterrega.com.

Taylor Cataway is a burgeoning sex writer who leads a rich fantasy life not far from Payton Place, New Hampshire. You can email Taylor at hornet51@metrocast.net.