So they're trying to ban smut in Oklahoma

Here's the real reason.

In January of 2025 (which was like… 2 years ago in terms of a post 1/20/2025 world), Oklahoma State Senator Dusty Deevers introduced Senate Bill 593 (SB 593). This bill proposes banning all forms of pornography in the State of Oklahoma. The legislation proposes to criminalize all production, distribution, and possession of material that is deemed to be pornographic.

The way the bill has been presented is to frame porn in any form or fashion as being a detriment to society, due to the addictive nature of explicit material. “Save the children” is largely being bandied about as the primary reasoning behind the necessity of such a bill, as though parents aren’t the ones who are responsible for monitoring their children’s the media consumption.

The phrasing of the proposed bill is incredibly vague so that there’s room for broad interpretation of what is and is not considered porn. And yes, romance girlies, that means the smut that we all know and love will fall under that umbrella.

Setting aside your feelings on whether or not open-door romance and smut are pornographic, there are a few very scary reasons that the Purity Police are trying to shut down our literary good times.

First of all, making open-door romance literature illegal to produce or consume is going to cripple the publishing industry. How? Romance is always the number one genre in sales, meaning that romance books are what pays for all of the other books. If the money for all of the other books goes poof, this is bad for literacy outside a politically accepted judeo Christian worldview, but it’s especially bad for books that educate about… idk Black history, the Civil Rights movement, women’s rights, community building, modern medicine; I could go on.

In order to have a well-educated society, we need books. Literacy rates have been struggling for decades, and this? This will only make that much worse.

The other biggie on the list of “why the MAGA movement wants smut gone?” Because in all media, no other genre is written primarily with the pleasure of women in mind. Even cookbooks at their heart intend for the woman who is utilizing it to prepare food for someone else— like a husband and children. Romance, whether it’s smutty or no… it’s largely written for women.

Sidebar for a very important note: The queer community has also FINALLY started to see some decent representation in the romance genre as well over the past few years, and if smut’s banned, that goes poof as well. However, I’m writing this particular entry from my own POV, and that of a straight woman is what I’ve got to work with. I’m happy to feature a queer guest author if any of my buddies wanna borrow this here platform of mine though!

Now. Back to why the loss of a genre that is largely for the female gaze is so sinister.

Where else in media do you see women’s pleasure centered? Where else in media do you see the idea that women should also be a priority in the act of intercourse because they’re supposed to be an equal partner and participant in that act? Where else in media do you see the idea of women enjoying sex as normal?

And most importantly: where else in media do you see sexual consent modeled in a healthy way?

Remove romance, and you remove a trove of cultural knowledge that is only just starting to become publicly understood, and internally known en mass. The fact that sex without enthusiastic consent is rape, that women are supposed to enjoy sex, and that if they aren’t having a good time that there’s a problem that needs to be solved… those are lessons that many of us learned from the romance industry.

Setting aside the outrageous penis descriptions that most of us just roll our eyes at (because spoiler alert: we’ve read that shit about our breasts for centuries) romance doesn’t set unreasonable standards for men unless you’re actually holding out for a fae male with bat wings— in which case, ren faire, honey. Ren faire.

Romance just illustrates what most women want: emotional maturity in their partner, and agency within their own relationship; and MAGA men can’t stand it that it’s now public knowledge that the bar is basically on the floor and the vast majority of men in general are STILL failing to meet it while holding their female partners to the same impossible standards they’ve held us to for centuries.

I understand that on the surface “save the children” sounds like a good thing, but this doesn’t actually do that. Rather, it sets up large swaths of the population to be hurt in some very insidious ways.

If you are a woman or if you love women— or if you’re someone who cares about someday living in a society where people have basic reading comprehension— you need to get really loud really quickly about this; because it won’t stop in Oklahoma.

I have hope that the way the government is now won’t be the way it is forever but if we don’t get loud and stay loud about shit like this, it’s only going to continue to get worse.

Until next time, dear readers.

-XOXO,
Jess

PS. Alas, I am a mother who has to exist in… all of this. I don’t love asking for money for my work, but these kids of mine need things like shoes and shelter, and fancy medical procedures so we can confirm a diagnosis and come up with an earball treatment plan. I do keep the bulk of my content free, because I don’t love hiding things behind a paywall; but if you like the occasional recipe that is curated by my chef husband (I got him to record his recipe for tortilla soup, y’all), those are indeed behind a paywall. Paid subscribers have open access, however, and you can become one of them by clicking this button here and managing your subscription settings.

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