I think it’s because this new wave of smut is coming in at a weird time for books in general. There are a lot of debates going on right now about literacy, anti-intellectualism, and how art is treated under fascism. It’s produced some good takes and some godawful takes (like the people who now think any criticism of any piece of art is “fascist”). I think smut books are also just becoming more prevalent, which draws more attention to their existence, which sparks more debate.

18

It’s just misogyny unfortunately. It never completely goes away, but sometimes, when there is a big push in political narrative to return to conservative values, it gets normalized. There’s nothing wrong with reading smut and romance. But some folks will always find a way to judge and have a superiority complex.

14

It is? Seems like it’s every other book and I feel like it’s all I see on book social media, even here. I don’t shun them, just get annoyed when I think I finally find something different and it’s still all smut. Either way just read what you want and ignore everyone else

10

they used to be banned. ig they’re technically less controversial now?

7

I’ve never heard of it being taboo or controversial. Smut/erotica is a super popular genre, especially on booktok. I don’t always like it personally because I’m very much a mood reader, but I do enjoy it from time to time

5

I think it’s because of booktok becoming so popular. Conversations that usually just happened between people who read a lot were pushed by an algorithm towards people who didn’t! I read a LOT as a child and teenager, a lot of adult books that were not labeled as romance or smut that just had sex scenes in them. From my own personal experience and bias as a reader, its an incredibly normal thing to have in a story. But for people who don’t read as much or who are newer to book communities it’s

4