Eros Au Feminin: D'Histoire D'o a Cinquante Nuances de Grey

As a result of the taboos placed on their sexuality for centuries, women have fashioned a privileged cultural complicity with the art of love, while neglecting in the process to explore their own eroticism. In the 20th century, pioneer women writers long excluded from an erotic genre viewed as inconsistent with their gender identity nonetheless dared to delve into it without, for all that, relinquishing their adherence to the sentimental code of love. With Story of O, their scandalous entry into a field made by and for men called upon an obscure Eros as if these women were unable to love without submitting, resigning, or surrendering themselves. Today, female erotic literature is becoming increasingly popular with the general public. Yet if, with Fifty Shades of Grey, Pauline Réage's "mad love" is merely a matter of “negotiation,” other female authors are restoring some sense to the senses, making sex magical again and recreating some taboos in order to revive this key facet of the feminine Eros: desire.Alexandra Destais, who holds a PhD in Literature and wrote a thesis on 20th-century female erotic literature, is a lecturer who moderates Rencontres "Femmes et Société" at Caen's Université populaire. She is also in charge of gender equality at the Ministère aux Droits des Femmes. Éros au féminin is her first book.