Meet Dr J.C. Parker, an erotica author who specializes in relatable stories about women losing their clothes and enduring embarrassment. His stories often explore the themes of vulnerability, shame, and personal growth.
What inspired you to start writing stories about women losing their clothes and enduring embarrassment?
The exposed and embarrassed kink was something that I found to be sexy since I was young watching tv/movies. The act of someone being embarrassed from being exposed in their underwear or naked has roots in slapstick comedy tropes seen on Looney Tunes, 1950s pinups, and comedy sketches like Benny Hill. Due to it being a rather specific kink, I did not see any of this in mainstream porn or erotica. Online, I found what was termed ENF (Embarrassed Naked Females) and EUF (Embarrassed Underwear Females). The same acronym applies to Males as well but given that both terms apply a binary gender category, I have since tried moving away from that term and instead refer to it as the exposed and embarrassed genre or I’ll say Embarrassed Naked Femme/Masc. My inspiration in writing exposed and embarrassed stories came from wanting to write out fantasies I had that I couldn’t find anywhere else. It started with a story about a demon stopping time, punishing people who were bad by stripping them naked while they were frozen, un-stopping time and laughing as they looked in horror at being naked in public. Later on, I moved onto fanfiction, writing exposed and embarrassed stories based on superheroes and video games that were popular. I started to build a readership on Deviantart and began to write my own original work. It was when I saw an open submission call from Cleis Press that I took a chance to try and write exposed and embarrassed erotica that could connect to a wider audience. After I had a story accepted in the Big Book of Submission vol 2, I had the confidence to self publish my own stories.
What do you find most challenging about writing erotica?
Finding creative ways to write the slow buildup to pleasure, excitement, and orgasm for my characters. As a Cisgender man writing mostly Femme characters, I am not writing from my own lived experience so I spend lots of time re-reading my drafts to see if what I’m writing is unrealistic, inauthentic, or just outright incorrect. I prefer to focus on how a character nonverbally experiences pleasure, focusing on how their body responds to the emotional state of being exposed and embarrassed, what excitement physiologically looks like for them as the pleasure builds and what orgasming feels like for them physically and mentally. I think another challenge is making sure I’m not being repetitive, this is particularly the challenging when I write my Immodest Collection anthologies. Each anthology has three short exposed and embarrassed stories, some written in first-person narrative or third-person narrative. I have a lot of fun writing a new volume because it gives me a chance to write about a completely different setting where exposure and embarrassment can occur. Since each volume focuses on three different characters, I’m at more risk of repeating phrases or wording. I try remedying this by highlighting words I think I’m using too much and track how many times it comes up to avoid repetition. Given the genre I write, you can imagine the word “blush” shows up a lot!
Which of your books are you the proudest of?
Indecent Exposure Therapy was my first attempt at writing a longer form story. It was originally going to be a short story that would be told solely through a therapy session. As the idea became more fleshed out, I wanted to tell the story of a budding exhibitionist learning to understand the psychology of her desire to be stripped naked and embarrassed. As a therapist myself, I knew it would be unrealistic for her to gain this insight in just one session. I made the decision to write it as a novella where the story would take place from the intake session and up until the end. It exhibited growth as a writer because I had to get creative with telling a story through character dialogue, which meant I had to be mindful of avoiding an “all knowing” narrative voice. I was very touched by the kind review it got on All The Filthy Details for its strong writing and character voices, something that matters most to me in all of my stories. Although it wasn’t selected as a top pick, the positive review it received still feels affirming to me as a writer. I’m also proud that I took knowledge I had as a psychologist and weaved it into story that was authentic to what a therapeutic relationship would look like. Another reason I’m most proud of this book is that in addition to it being a representation of my writing, It also inspired me to draw Dr. Halaweh and is one of my favorite drawings.
How do you balance writing erotic scenes with character development and plot?
In the beginning stage of a draft, the erotic scene usually is the first idea that pops in my head and so I will often write that scene first. This is also a way for me to gauge if I myself am turned on as I write it, which is my other assessment for if it should be kept in the story. For character development, I always look for an emotional reason the character is turned on in the scene. In Scrooge’s Christmas Spankings, I knew Scrooge would eventually be turned on from being humiliated. That scene does not work, if I cannot explain to the reader how spanking and embarrassment connected to her past and how it affected her emotionally. For her development, I needed multiple scenes in which she experienced shame or embarrassment, often accompanied with other feelings like anger or sadness. In finding the emotional factor for a character’s kink, I try to avoid explicitly stating it through narrative. My preference is to explain this in dialogue or nonverbal cues, biting one’s lip, slow and heavy breathing, and of course blushing! For plot, every scene has to move a story forward. This does not mean I write multiple scenes that rush to the end, but the scene has to both explain a character’s emotions and drive while also moving the story to the erotic scene. Unless I’m writing flash fiction, I prefer a slow buildup to the erotic scene. I will take a chapter (page if its a short story) or two laying the foundation of a character’s motivation and interest so that when we do arrive to the sex scene, it’s clear to the reader how we got there.
What do you find the most challenging aspects of writing in your sub-genre?
The Exposed and Embarrassed sub-genre has such an interesting community that’s divided in two preferences. Some folks prefer their exposed and embarrassed stories with no sex at all. They do not like any explicit sex scenes whatsoever and I have typically observed this more with readers on Deviantart. For them they just want to read about the character being stripped of their clothes and then the story is over. There are also folks who do like to have sex in their exposed and embarrassed stories, myself included, and so in addition to being stripped naked, the characters will have a sex scene. Many folks like it if the character is embarrassed from the sexual act, perhaps humiliated that they are turned on when they didn’t expect to be or embarrassed from being caught having sex. My challenge in writing this genre has been trying to bridge this gap and connecting the exposed and embarrassed genre to a wider audience. In regard to the readers who only want the exposure and no sex, I’m not sure they like my books because they often include various BDSM/Kink elements in addition to sex that some feel takes away from the exposure and embarrassment aspect. On the flip side, I think some erotica readers may not have interest in a scene I write where there’s explicit focus on how the character is undressed, what type of underwear they’re exposed in, and how they experience the embarrassment compared to the sex scene that follows. When I have tried to appease the former, other readers may feel like there wasn’t enough sex in the story and if I appease the latter, then other readers may feel like there was too much sex. I still remember one review a reader left that they later deleted, which was “Too much lesbian.” I still regret not snapshotting that review because to me that was a positive comment. As challenging as this has been throughout my writing career, it’s been a fun challenge for me. Trying to write a compelling exposed and embarrassed story for an audience who has no interest in this kink or might think “this is so random, why is this author hyperfocused on this?” has made me a better writer by creating complex characters who find being embarrassed psychologically arousing.
What advice would you give to authors who are interested in writing erotica?
Whatever fantasy/sex scene that inspires you to write, go for it! After you write it, think about what emotion connects that character to the sex scene. It seems simple, but people are complex and while the act of sex is sometimes physical, there is an emotional component as well. When we are not having sex or engaged in sexy play, we still feel emotions in our day to day lives, writing erotica is about telling a story that connects a character’s day to day emotions to the emotions they have when they’re engaging in pleasurable activities. My other more practical advice, is buy erotica to get a sense of style. Erotica anthologies are a good way to do this but also listening to erotica podcasts like All The Filthy Details is also a good idea because listening to someone read erotica can give you an idea of how mood is captured. Obviously do not steal ideas, but I know my writing didn’t improve until after I read Cleis Press anthologies because after reading those stories I started to understand what editors look for in terms of story quality.
Who are some of your favourite Erotica creators?
Annabeth Leong wrote this amazing bondage story in Best Bondage Erotica 2013 called This Is Me Holding You. When I read it I was so moved and also had this “AHA” moment after reading really good erotica. It tells the story of a woman who is about to leave herpartner for quite sometime so to remain connected, they utilize rope and it is an emotionally heavy and sexy short story that I have read multiple times. I’ve actually recorded myself reading it and sent it to partners, who have shared their own reactions to the story. Some cried, others were turned on and that speaks to the power of a good erotica story if it can evoke those intense reactions. It’s definitely worth reading if you get the chance.
Erotica X Filth 