NSFW: Speaking of Sex Blogs

Anyone with a nodding acquaintance with the blogosphere knows there's a niche blog for everyone.

Underwater basket weaving? Got it.

Durian smoothies (thanks Hiromi). Yummy.

George Bush is an alien? Got that too.

Sex blogs? Got 'em 39, 700,000 times at Google.

Anything that's been created 40 million times has got to be a topic of interest and sex blogs most certainly are.

Rather than being the exclusive domain of those with socially odd predilections, they can also be places of great art. For every pervert, there's someone producing high quality writing that just happens to be about sex.

At the risk of it sounding like a lame excuse, I really do read them for the stories. For me, the best of the genre stays away from the tired cliches of the world's most successful types of blogs and sites to write about something close to home.

Quite often, sex is just part of the brew. Always Aroused Girl writes about her problems with being on top one moment - apparently it's all about the grinding motion - and the meaning of truth the next. In a virtual world filled with all sorts of illiterate miscreants, her writing is a breath of fresh air. And though she has plenty of banners pointing to sex blog directories, her taste in "erotic" photography seems to lean more toward beautiful flowers than T&A. Perhaps that isn't an intentional metaphor, but it works.

Sexy is as sexy does.

Over at Goose and Gander, you can read the trials and tribulations of a couple in love with each other and with bondage. It might sound salacious, but there's something a little endearing about the juxtaposition of posts on rope and pain with everyday posts about life around the house. Their easy - and sometimes not so easy - transitions between the mundane and the erotic can make powerful reading.

While almost all of these blogs carry a heavy load of exhibitionism, some of them can reveal more life than skin. Life of a Demure College Student does a little of both. A few pictures and plenty of stories about the adventures of being, well, a demure college student - only not so much emphasis on the demure. Watching her adventures is sometimes a little like watching a kid learn how to walk. You find yourself poised for the next stumble, but appreciate the fact that she's feeling her way along.

As you might expect, there's a high mortality rate for sex blogs. The types of relationships some of them portray can be full of pitfalls for average mortals. Happily, some seem to navigate the dangerous waters. But others, like the Cuddle Slut's Den, simply stop one day, proving the ephemeral quality that many modern relationships have.

Hiromi X is a good example of the evolution of sex blog into personal story. Her original blog was co-authored by her lover and combined sharp writing and wit with recipes evoking her Okinawan heritage and tales of sexual adventure. One day, a simple page appeared saying that things were over and the blog was through, but just as mysteriously it reappeared soon after.

Since then, readers have learned about the sexual and emotional intimidation her former lover/blogger inflicted upon her. Through her posts, she's recognized addiction, began treatment for a bipolar disorder, and now is seeing the sun for the first time in years. Her blog plays out the unbroken circle one day at a time - sex, death, rebirth, life.

All these bloggers might be derided for writing filth by some, but you'd be hard-pressed to find as many honest and talented writers in any forum. Personally, I think they have much to tell us - especially those who see it as mere filth, thereby denying an important part of the human condition.

So go. Have a read. Just make sure you practice safe-computing out there.

Truth Told by Omnipotent Poobah, Saturday, August 05, 2006