Just wait until the real feminists hear about this. A pornographic German novel so graphic it’s caused people to faint at public readings will be published in the UK next month, and it was written by a woman — a woman who calls herself a feminist. Charlotte Roche’s Wetlands shot to the top of Amazon’s worldwide best-seller list last year when it was first published in Germany. Featuring an 18-year-old heroine who explicitly reveals her sex life and “has a totally creative attitude towards her body,” the novel has provoked a debate over whether Roche can call herself a feminist while writing porn. “Men think they can be disgusting and sexual and stuff, and now I’ve shown them that women can do the same,” Roche has said. “I am very much for pornography.” The novel is an example of an increasingly popular genre: chicks who write racy erotic stories, including the bestselling The Sexual Life of Catherine M, an explicit memoir by the respected Parisian art critic Catherine Millet, and The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl by Belle de Jour, a book that started as an anonymous blog.

So what do you think? Can a woman write porn and still call herself a feminist? [Telegraph] Keep reading »