Audio Erotica by Bellas, Athena; McAlister, Jodi;

Short description:

Audio erotica is sexually explicit audio-only content, designed to arouse the listener and bring them fulfilment. This is the first book-length study of audio erotica, making it a foundational resource for anyone doing research in the area. 

Long description:

Audio erotica is sexually explicit audio-only content, designed to arouse the listener and bring them fulfilment. While it has existed for a long time, it has achieved significant popularity in recent years, driven by apps like Quinn, Dipsea, Emjoy and Ferly. Notably, these apps – and many like them – were founded by women and are predominantly targeted to female audiences, making audio erotica a fascinating form of “porn for women”.

Audio Erotica focuses on these four apps as the contemporary “face” of audio erotica. Through textual and paratextual analysis, it offers an overview of the types and genres of erotic content available on the apps. It situates audio erotica in histories and lineages of both pornography and erotica (and feminist thought about them) and audio media. Moreover, it situates audio erotica in the context of several key discourses, such as wellness, authenticity and intimacy, as it analyses the ways in which the apps imagine their female listener and what she wants from sexually explicit media – which is, importantly, different from what men are imagined as wanting from pornography.

This is the first book-length study of audio erotica, making it a foundational resource for anyone doing research in the area. It offers a multifaceted understanding of the form, and makes several key contributions to studies of sexually explicit media directed towards women and discourses around female sexual desire.

Want to know all about the newest trend in by-women/for-women erotica and sex tech?  This first-ever book-length study of audio erotica is a key research text for those interested in sound studies, popular romance studies, and feminist takes on women’s desire and pleasure.  With clear and lively writing, it enlightened and amused me.  Highly recommended!

Catherine M. Roach, Research Professor of Gender and Cultural Studies, New College, University of Alabama

If Justice Potter Stewart thought of pornography, “I know it when I see it,” we can now ponder what it might mean to hear it. What is audio erotica? This is the question that Bellas and McAlister answer. This book carefully brings together the study of audio cultures, erotica, romance, and the ongoing question of pornography and the obscene. Audio Erotica is not only a welcome, but much needed, contribution that points towards new and future directions. A pleasure to read.

Jonathan A. Allan, Professor in the Department of English, Drama and Creative Writing and Gender and Women’s Studies, Brandon University

Table of Contents:

1. “Good Girl”: An Introduction to Audio Erotica 2. “I’ll Talk You Through It”: Defining Audio Erotica 3. “After All, Consent is Sexy”: Pornography, Erotica and Romance 4. “You Are Perfect, Baby”: Affordances of the Audio Medium 5. [Kissing] [Consent] [Body Worship] [Cunnilingus] [Fingering] [Praise]: Genre in Audio Erotica 6. “Sit Up Straight With Your Shoulders Back”: Wellness and Audio Erotica 7. “Do You Want Me to Praise You Like I Do In My Audios?”: Parasociality and Audio Erotica 8. “So In Tune With Each Other”: Conclusion