“We have learned to kiss the penis, and yet are afraid of the lips between our legs. The hands
on its way to the clitoris of another woman traverses centuries It can get lost a thousand times. It fights its way through fragments of civilization. And in addition, the route it takes leads to a place which has no name: I have no clitoris. I have no vagina. No vulva. No pussy. No bust, no nipples.” --State of Emergency by Verena Stefan (From The penguin Book of Erotic Stories by Women) Erotic literature by women for women was very rare in collections of erotica until recently. Erotica was considered to be an exclusively male domain where women had little or no place. With the passage of time however, the ice bagan to melt, and women have started expressing their desire and
sexuality in their own feminine ways. The description of female sexuality by women was found to be more realistic and natural than the artificial description of female sensuality by male authors. The erotic literature of women writers of antiquity like Sappho found new audience in the modern times. This phenomenon of free writing of women about their sexuality, desire and passion etc. gained momentum in the Western World in contrast to other parts of the world like Russia, East Europe etc. This was due to the resurgence of the feminist movement launched by some of the greatest feminist writers, historians and activists like Simone de Beauvoir, Germaine Greer, Kate Millet, Gloria Steinam, Alice Walker, Tony Morrison, Adrienne Rich and many more, which although started in the western world, spread to the other parts of the world gradually . Simone de Beauvoir declared that a woman’s sexuality was completely different from man’s. In her words, “Her eroticism, and therefore her sexual world have a special form of their own and therefore cannot fail to engender a sensuality, a sensitivity of a special nature.” The Penguin Book of Erotic Stories by Women is a Milestone in affirmation of erotic sensuality of the modern woman in her own words. We have great names in literature who have enriched the book with their contributions. They include Katherine Mansfield, Kate Chopin, Collette, Gertrude Stein, Radclyffe Hall, Edith Wharton, Simone de Beauvoir, Angela Carter, Isabel Allende etc. The erotic experience of women of different parts of the Globe like Japan, France, Botswana, Peru, Russia, Taiwan, Canada, Egypt etc. have been chronicled in this book which spans more than a century. The subject matter is also very broad. It includes explicit lesbian sex, sexual fantasy, non-consensual sex, sexual subjugation of women, which are the burning topics of female sexuality. The traditional approach of male domination in sex between man and woman has also been rejected by many authors. The Penguin Book of Erotic Stories by Women is a celebration of emancipation of the new woman who asserts herself through frank depiction of her desire and sexual feelings.