In Defense of Bodice Rippers: Review of Erotic Novel Shanna by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss

Review by Amanda Bulman (The Semantic, Vol 1, Issue 5)

When my close friend Darrah excitedly handed me an ancient looking pirate themed erotic novel and announced loudly that it would “change my life”-I was skeptical. Not that I doubted Darrah’s judgment, it is just that the thought of reading six hundred pages of eroticism was a bit of nightmare for me. My doubts stemmed from three very different reasons. 1) I’m a feminist and as such did not think I could stomach six hundred pages of weak willed women submitting to aggressive brawny men like kittens.2) I’m a book snob and my shelves are stocked with the classics interspersed with post modern fiction (think Dave Eggers) and I seriously did not believe that Shanna would have the kinds of character development, and themes that I need. Finally, reason number three - I had never dabbled in eroticism before and had always figured that if I ever did it would be cowboy themed. Emilio Estevez’s washboard abs in Young Guns 2 had always done a lot more for me than Jonny Depp’s bleeding gums in Pirates of the Caribbean.

After Darrah left my apartment, I picked up Shanna and hesitantly started reading. I skipped school the next day to finish it and was so gripped by the story that I stopped only for food and bathroom breaks. Shanna is more than life changing-it is a sensational piece of literature that will make even the most hardcore feminist, Bleak house loving, lasso-lusting book snob more than thrilled. I judged Shanna by its highly erotic cover, but in fact the story line and sexual scenes are more fluid in their understanding of women’s issues and are just plain more enjoyable than everything I’ve ever read.

The story line is non-traditional for an erotic novel. Okay sure, I admit that the pirates, parrots and men wearing puffy shirts is the norm for many books in this genre, but Shanna‘s plot is original and groundbreaking. The story revolves around a woman forced by her father to choose a husband with an aristocratic name, so the family can have both wealth and a title. The protagonist chooses a man named Rourke who is in prison for murder. Her reasoning is that he will be executed for his crime and she will get to continue living life freely as a widow with a title. He’s pardoned and she beds him again and again, not because she’s forced too, or because she’s trying to manipulate him, but because she wants to. The story has a happy ending that I won’t spoil. The conclusion is the most impressive part of the novel because “tough” or “bad girl” types of women who explore sexuality in roles other than the stereotypical gendered assumptions that most forms of pop culture make, usually end up dead or wounded (think Jen in Dawson’s Creek, Faith in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or any sexual women in Margeret Atwood’s novels). Shanna gives its “bad girl” a happy ending.

More importantly, there are at least five really hot sex scenes and in each Shanna’s sexuality is represented differently. In one scene she is the meek kitten I so dreaded reading. In the others she plays various roles. She is a dominant seductress that bends the male character of Rourke to her will, she is an animal, and an equal partner in a relationship based on respect. Sure some feminists may argue that Shanna is still a heteronormative novel, and still only explores sexuality through the context of a confined male and female relationship, but I would argue that Shanna explores sex in ways outside of the narrow and traditional romantic novel narrative. Anyway outside of the whole feminist issue-the sex scenes are just indescribably excellent. There are no awkward turns of phrase, only delicious page turning readable porn on the page.

If you remember, my third reason for avoiding pirate themed erotiscm was based on a love for all things cowboy. It turns out that both Shanna and her lover Rourke are horse people and there are countless scenes in which they tame wild colts. Awesome. Read Shanna. This novel is the only example that I can think of where a highly sexual cowgirl pirate woman gets a happy ending. As Darrah eloquently put it “It’s going to blow your mind.”