AIBU to read porn on a kindle at work during lunch

[FifiVoldemortsChavvyCousin]

Not 50 shades, better quality. Not touching or anything. No one can see what it is as I sit eating my lunch. If anyone asks, I say ‘war and peace’. Should I save it for home?

BTW, for recommendations of some great erotica, plus some hilarious reviews of the not-so-great ones, check out the SBTB website, which stands for Smart Bitches Love Trashy Books.

Indeed!

My PA brought FSOG into work. I asked her to take it home.
You had no right to do that.

I wouldn’t be happy if a male colleague did this so YABU
You would have no way of knowing unless you picked up their kindle and started reading it.

So why would you want to sit at your desk deliberately seeking arousal in your lunch break?
It's entertaining, it raises blood pressure, gets the heart pumping a bit faster - just like horror, only nicer.

I've had jobs where this would be a sackable offence as you have explicit literature on work premises.
This could not possibly extend to a person's private kindle. They wouldn't have the right to inspect it. Nobody would be able to see what was on it.

Yeah, there's an overall problem with employers who think they actually own their staff and have the right to police their private lives.

While an employer might be OK to demand you hand over your phone for checking, they would have to have good grounds (eg thinking that you are passing on trade secrets to a competitor or engaged in some form of workplace fraud) they would have no right to examine your reading choices which are stored on your own phone/tablet. It is absolutely none of your employer's business what you read.

And all those of you wailing and whining about how you'd put in a complaint and think bad thoughts about a coworker who had explicit fiction on his/her e-reader, how do you expect to know what your colleagues are reading, without snooping? Even if they are reading gory murder mysteries, or Breitbart, as long as they don't behave in a way that causes anyone else problems, what they read is up to them.

voice

If I had no right to tell my PA to take the book home - and how would I have known unless it was openly talked about? - then I would have no right to tell a male employee to take a porn mag home.

Sorry, don't believe that for a second.

Also, whatever happens on my business's premises, whether at lunch or not, is MY concern. I have young, female members of staff and I would not dream of expecting them to tolerate the male members of staff bringing soft porn into the office. Actually, I would be deeply unhappy about the male members of staff TALKING about soft porn in the office - so no PICTURES there, just WORDS.

Wow, you get time at lunch?

Helmet

You are right - they didn't say that, but that is the logical extension of their arguments.

Because nobody has yet explained why, in this context, words and pictures are different when their end purpose is exactly the same - sexual arousal.

The purpose is not purely sexual arousal -it’s part of a novel/short story with a plot.

So one aspect of words and pictures may be the same so ALL aspects of words and pictures are the same?

Nope, still not getting it.

Still, at least you've climbed down from your weird - unsubstantiated- assumption about posters being pro-women and anti-men.

So it's not "purely " about sexual arousal. How nice for your colleagues.

So, still not getting it.

And since when were any of my comments anti-women and pro-men?? Now that is weird!

Both items are designed to produce sexual arousal - one generally preferred by women, one by men. Some posters seem to be anti-pictures (perhaps because these are the item preferred by the other sex)

I was merely pointing out how illogical this is.

OP, you say "The purpose is not purely sexual arousal - it's part of a novel/short story with a plot."

I've just Googled the 'M/M M/Preg' genre you're into and it's basically men having very rough animal-like sex with other men, impregnating each other and then giving birth to poo-covered babies. This often involves members of One Direction apparently!

Kindle-based erotic fiction sends its readers down a rabbit-hole of increasingly depraved porn and no, you don't sound very bright.

The argument seems to go "words are just words, because they are the type of erotic stimulus which some women enjoy but pictures are porn because they are the type of erotic stimulus some MEN enjoy"

This is what you said. It's not true. But yes, well done for back-tracking.

But really, if you are struggling to tell any difference between a photo of real-life people and words from a writer's imagination then there really is no hope for you.

I'd be interested to know from those who are defending the OP how they would feel about someone wearing a clitoris stimulator at work?

how do you expect to know what your colleagues are reading, without snooping?

I'm a teacher. None of my colleagues has time to read anything at lunch .

Adner - if someone is wearing any kind of genital stimulator at work, how would that be anyone else's business? If the thing makes a distracting noise, or the person wearing it might lose concentration at a crucial moment, that could be regarded as unprofessional (in that it affects the job/colleagues) but otherwise, again, it's nothing to do with anyone else.

And this constant fussing about the difference between words and pictures - FFS, read this very slowly. Pictures may be seen by a colleague who doesn't want to see them. Words on a screen are not going to be seen/understood/cause offence unless someone is snooping where they have no business snooping.

And it's clear that one particular type of sexual dysfunction is ongoing - the type where people are unhealthily obsessed with putting a stop to others' pleasure when it has no effect on them or anyone else.

Again (for the stupid) people getting sexually aroused at work is no one else's business unless they behave in a way that annoys colleagues - talking about it, making odd noises, skiving off or messing up their work.
People do all sorts of things that are of no interest to colleagues or have the potential to annoy colleagues: praying, eating noisily, cracking their knuckles, skiving off... People can also eat whatever they want to eat quietly, do their work properly, say their prayers silently (or nip into a private room to do so) and thus their personal business has FUCK ALL TO DO WITH COLLEAGUES.
If you are so grossed out by the idea of other people having sexual interests you don't share, try minding your own business.

"This could not possibly extend to a person's private kindle. They wouldn't have the right to inspect it."

That depends on work policy. At dh's workplace any personal tech can be checked and/or confiscated and having porn on it would be a sackable offense Someone recently had an ipod confiscated by security ( and never got it back) because he plugged it into a computer to charge it.

Unless you peer over and purposefully try to oogle someones book how would you know what they were reading? Kindles dont havd front convers..I didn't have a clue that my workmate read some really nasty graphic crime fiction until she showed me.

Hairyball mentioned a workplace book swap table always containing 50shades. I can beat that, my church which at 44 I am the youngest member had a book swap table. Just before the service one Sunday all three of 50shades turned up and by the time I was leaving they had gone again. I always did wonder and could just imagine on of our elderly congregation having a happy afternoon

"Kindle-based erotic fiction sends its readers down a rabbit-hole of increasingly depraved porn"

Oh, this is beautiful. I'm LOLing so hard at some of the attitudes and pearl-clutching on here!

hairy
I read the Omegaverse primer on AO3 (where else) and choked because I laughed so hard! I've discovered the author also writes in several of my fandoms! Decent writing and a sense of humour is an excellent start.

cdtaylornats
Greetings fellow Terry Pratchett fan! It is definitely an analogy that works.

The internet is full of erotic writing, free to read, of assorted qualities. It is also full of non-erotic writing where scenes that happened off-screen in your favourite TV show or movie are filled in and many different kinds of playing in other people's sandboxed. It was one of the reasons the FSOG phenomena puzzled me. Reading crap porn for a geek is incredibly easy, not reading crap porn is hard. That said I prefer to read pining, angst, unrequited (for most of the fic) to requited, people oblivious to how the other party feels about them etc etc. I prefer this as slash (m/m) because of the elimination of gender issues. I skim through the sex scenes because that's not my thing.

If you see someone being slightly furtive with their mobile screen, just endlessly scrolling up the screen and they are female, the odds are good that it's fanfiction!

Can’t see the problem to be honest. If it’s not interfering with your work or disrupting colleagues around you, who’s to know what u really read? I read thrillers and crime novels on kindle at work. No one even asks what I read about, as they probably couldnt care less.
I’m off to google some new (naughty) novels, think I need to expand my library 😀

@RiverTamFan - I too like the fact that slash takes oppressive sexual stereotypes and the fetishisation of female submission out of the picture, and instead offers a chance for a genuine partnership of equals (it's one of the reasons I hate omega-verse, because it seems to shoehorn slash into a form of "Men are from Mars women are from Venus"). Like you I tend to skim the naughty bits because they don't float my boat. (I am aware that that sounds a bit like saying "I buy Playboy for the articles.") I've made it a mission to try to write het that's a genuine partnership of equals.

I am now tempted to write the filthiest piece of PWP I can (complete with feathers and the whole chicken) and post it on AO3 with the strapline "Kindle-based erotic fiction sends its readers down a rabbit-hole of increasingly depraved porn"

I’d read that Hairy

Can you link to any het you’ve written?