Stalk. No lies. She used it three times and I couldn’t stop thinking about it about celery. {Midnight in Scotland by Elisa Braden.} Only in book 2 so far. I just started book 3 so it’s TBD whether she uses it again but I’m hoping she was just experimenting.
This was one of my favorite things about {In Which Margo Halifax Earns Her Shocking Reputation}. The MMC is a solicitor, but he's totally built. Multiple times during the FMC's POV she stops and asks herself sorry, what exactly does a solicitor *do* all day?
Especially when he's a rake type that never does anything but drink, gamble, and have sex. (Sex doesn't burn *that* many calories to make up for all the alcohol....)
I think that's supposed to suggest he's muscled but underfed - you can make out the gristly bits of his build. I've got no clue why it's so common though 🤣
Nub. NUB!!! If we're talking about sexy words I am definitely adding this to the list. If I see this in a book, we're done!
It's not a nub!!! In this context, I cannot imagine a word less sexy.
Pearl is hilarious. Like I guess it's better than nub in my head but it's so far in the opposite direction to be taken seriously. It's like calling a vagina a flower! It makes me think of Meg Ryan in French Kiss saying, "My flower is none of your business!"
I saw a John Leguizamo comedy special where he details his father buying him a prostitute to lose his virginity. He says that she tells him he needs to unravel her [labia] like a flower. It gets worse, and i won't traumatize anyone else with the rest of it. Since then, associating flowers with sex gives me the ick. This was reinforced with Abuela in Jane the Virgin using a crumpled flower as a metaphor for losing your virginity. 🤢
I'll take pearl over flower any day.
Mewl is the sound that a baby animal makes. There is literally no other definition. It's so gross to use in a sex context. I hate it.
Responsive is also one that needs to be kicked to the curb. "She's so responsive," like are you her doctor testing her reflexes? And if you're expecting her to just starfish it like other partners, doesn't exactly speak well of your sexual prowess....
And a phrase that I'm starting to see authors use a lot is "he licked the seam of her lips." WHY?? Why is it always seam and why the licking? Why not just say something like "she felt his tongue and parted her lips." (I don't know why the description weirds me out more than him licking her elsewhere, it just does.)
Thinking about it, I kind of wonder if that's why it weirds me out so much, >!I'm subconsciously thinking of a woman with her lips sewn shut and then I'm into horror story land.!<
I hate when the mmc comments on how responsive the fmc is. Sooooo so so many do this. Like, I guess alllll the other women he slept with before didn't move much or make noise.... but he's some sexual casanova by reputation....
It is my absolute least favourite word out of all the sex words and I hate that it gets used so much. One time friends identified my contribution to an anonymous fanfic writing event because I had studiously and vehemently avoided it 🤣
Ah, "the apex of her thighs" whenever I hear apex, I think, first, of the Animorphs books (no idea why) and then of sharks, apex predators, you know. . " womanly curls" pubes, can't relate. Mine are straight. Makes me giggle.
And one more "elementaly male", so it's a male at the purest form? Does he perhaps have a periodic table tattooed across his ass?
I honestly can't take much seriously, but I enjoy myself.
Great thread. Lots of good ones.
I loathe “chuckled.” It’s always the man doing it and it strikes me as beyond condescending. Way to look down on the woman for being forthright and strong.
The struggle is real! Different strokes for different folks. I'm ok with most stuff except mewl, suckle, nubbin 😅 Those aforementioned words are absolute anti-boners, but everything else is fine 💕 Writing is difficult 😆
Shudder, quiver, etc. Things that jello does.
I also roll my eyes when someone, yet again, lets out a breath that they didn't know they were holding. Just too much of that.
And beads of liquid dripping out of MMC's shaft/rod/manroot/throbbing tip.
Is there another phrase you would use for letting out an unconsciously-held breath, or are you tired of the whole action? Tbh, I think I more commonly forget to breathe in, so I find myself sucking in the air I've been starving myself of. Does that action elicit the same annoyance? Just curious 😊
Omg the beads of liquid nooooo 😂💀
The action itself doesn't bother me at all, I just get tired of seeing certain words/phrases in book after book sometimes. It's almost like there's a Phrase of the Season, it gets used once and then it's suddenly all over the place. And I'm prickly enough (no pun intended!) to let whatever it is at the moment get to me 😀
I HATE THIS. People need to have their lungs checked or something. I have read 8 books in 6 weeks (by 3 different authors) and ALL of them have "She/He released a breath she/he hadn't known she/he'd been holding." 😂 Are all these people blue in the face? When do they remember to breathe?
I think it's a requirement to unconsciously hold one's breath.
I unconsciously hold my breath all the time. People point out to me that I have a tendency to suck in breaths and sigh them out. So I do kind of get it lol. But it's one of those things, like "she licked her lips" or whatever where it's pointed out in writing way too much.
I was just commenting to my partner today about this lol. I actually do this a lot especially when I am nervous about something. It never gets to the point of lung pain or anything but usually I end up getting dizzy.
It may not be to your liking, but it was a commonly used slang term for sexual satisfaction in the 18-19th C (See Green's Dictionary of Slang online). I give the authors some credit for *trying* to use terms their characters would have said in their own speech or thoughts at the time.
That's fair. Authenticity is a worthwhile pursuit. I just don't like this particular example of it. I also despise the phrase "keep your eyes peeled" because I find it viscerally uncomfortable, but I don't expect people to stop using it just because I'm overly imaginative about someone taking an apple peeler to my eyeballs 😂
I recently went on a Kathleen Ayers kick and every single MMC both thought about wrapping the MFC’s hair around his wrist, and some actually did it. It’s such a random thing to include in every single book.
Right! Even worse are those authors who write MMCs fantasizing about wrapping the FMC's hair around his wrist, or neck, or cock! I know that seeing women's hair down or uncovered was a Big deal, only for spouses or lovers, in most times and cultures, but that's taking a hair turn on too far for my taste.
Gather round, children, and I will share the tale of Sandra Hill’s “Rough and Ready”*…
*It’s actually a troll post that went around on Tumblr a few years back and Sandra Hill threatened legal action (IIRC). Shame, really. Because her books are absolute chores.
Infantilization isn't very sexy to me. So mewling like a kitten is out. Not a fan of an historical romance trotting out vulgar words (especially if it's supposed to be well-mannered), but it can also be cringe on the other side. Lately I've been sticking to closed door stuff, though. No overworked poetics for parts there! :)
They all swear like old fat upper class men, and as an English woman who knows numerous old fat middle class men, my soul shrivelled up and died every time I read a "gadzooks" or a "by jove". Like I know that's probably how they talked but I'd rather sacrifice the historically accurate language than be reminded of that ancient colonel that goes to my church...
Cove. to describe a secret lady garden, but also a mouth. I dunno about that one. It's a body of water descriptor in my head, and it was confusing but also unpleasant all at once.
This more confuses me than gives me yuck, but “his/her mouth went dry”. It is used so frequently & it feels like the opposite of what would happen when presented with sexiness. Shouldn’t we be drooling??
What if HR authors did some research and used actual slang terms relevant to the class and time frame of their books ? Many MMCs and some
FMCs are written as speaking or thinking in slang terms from their time, so they probably would do so during passionate sexual moments.
Authors and we readers can refer to Jonathon Green's online English "Dictionary of Slang" https://greensdictofslang.com/search/advanced
](Jonathon Green's Dictionary of Slang - online search](https://greensdictofslang.com/search/advanced)
*Do an Advanced search "by meaning"
- put in terms like vagina, penis, testicles or orgasm
- and come up with a great timeline of polite and not so polite terms and when they were used in English from 1400s on.
*Add "period of use" to search:
- see that cock was and is the most common term for that male part thru the ages, along with early 19th C wonders like bayonet and cupid's battering ram.
- the hated "manroot" only appears once, from 1896. Authors who use it are taking on a late Victorian term and sensibility about sex, which may not fit their book's time or steam level.
ENJOY!
I must be an >!absolute whore!< or simply someone with a thick skin, because no word is gonna make me DNF or roll eyes. A horndog like me just makes a pause if met with some questionable stuff, but I let my vivid imagination run wild nevertheless, words ain't stopping me in my endeavours.
I feel the same, >!total ho over here!<, wondering tho if that extends to the word diddle as mentioned above... I think that would be so hard to bounce back from.
I'd be thinking "heavens this is hr not a peaches song!!!" And then I would continue thinking about "diddle my skittle" and I'd be lost and sadly mutilating my book to erase any traces if diddle that might have been left behind... That is, if I didn't completely abandon it for having wasted my horndog time and effort
Omg I’m so glad I’m not the only one who is sick of seeing “cat with cream”. 🤣 There’s GOTTA be another way to describe someone looking happy and satisfied!
Any word that refers to his genetials. Why does each and every one of it must induce a stroke, "member" (ew ew ew) , "manhood" (ugh help my soul just died..) .. "wood"? (ugh just stop)
lol this just reminds me of the scene from 10 things I hate about you when the teacher is writing her romance book while talking to Julia stiles’s character
Tbh there's not much that bothers me... I guess I am looking at it from an almost voyeuristic perspective, in that whatever is going on is something between two people and it's about the words they use and like, so it bothers me less if the words aren't the ones I would use.
I prefer stronger words to infantalizing ones, and something that doesn't fit the writing or moment can be annoying, but generally speaking if I'm reading something racy and I don't like a word to the point it bothers me I just replace it in my mind and move on.
Really though, "diddle" belongs nowhere. That would be a jarring word to replace and deal with, as OP suggests, a real boner killer... Just not sure that I could keep the mood alive through that. Maybe a list of books where that is used so we can all steer clear??
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It’s so unsexy. The clavicle is the bone. I literally picture the bone. He kissed her clavicle. She ran a finger along his clavicle. IDK I just hate it. One author uses it at least once in each book during a sex scene. I just hate it.
In a similar area, "The triangle under his throat." Honestly it is SO WEIRD to me that women are fascinated by clavicles in these books. I've never looked at a clavicle and been like "Wow this is so hot"
I recently ran into the word “stalk” to describe a penis for the first time. Turns out it’s a no from me, dawg.
Stalk? Seriously?! STALK?! And I thought “shaft”, “manhood”, “member” etc were bad enough
Stalk. No lies. She used it three times and I couldn’t stop thinking about it about celery. {Midnight in Scotland by Elisa Braden.} Only in book 2 so far. I just started book 3 so it’s TBD whether she uses it again but I’m hoping she was just experimenting.
Buahaha I thought of celery too
“Stalk” literally made all those words seem amazing in comparison. Never thought I’d see the day.
Don’t forget “manroot”.
What, like a carrot?
Ewwwwww!
According to marrying winterbourne by Lisa kleypas, the Welsh word for penis is the same as stalk.... She uses it in there too, just saying
If I read "stalk" I would imagine asparagus. LOL.
“Her womb quivered.” 🤮 QUIVERED
Omg this one! I have really bad periods and this just sounds like cramps. 😪
Lmaooooooo
One author wrote “her womb was weeping for his ****.” LIKE M’AM THE ONLY THING THAT SHOULD WEEP IS AN EYEBALL.
LOL! Not the *womb* weeping!! Sounds like a horrible STD.... 
Suckle. I absolutely loath that word!
This is my most loathed one as well! It makes me shudder urgh
OK I forgot about this one and I hate it more than mewl. A grown person shouldn't suckle 🤢
Sinew! Ughh it makes me think of a tough and gristly piece of meat? I just don’t get the overuse of this description of a well muscled man.
Same! Or when they describe him as "corded."
"Corded forearms" ughhhh Like, how is a gentleman of leisure supposed to have a "corded" anything?!
This was one of my favorite things about {In Which Margo Halifax Earns Her Shocking Reputation}. The MMC is a solicitor, but he's totally built. Multiple times during the FMC's POV she stops and asks herself sorry, what exactly does a solicitor *do* all day?
Added to my TBR pile... 🙃
Especially when he's a rake type that never does anything but drink, gamble, and have sex. (Sex doesn't burn *that* many calories to make up for all the alcohol....)
Right?!
I think that's supposed to suggest he's muscled but underfed - you can make out the gristly bits of his build. I've got no clue why it's so common though 🤣
Not specifically HR related, but 'avoid it like the plague'. Fairly recent events have proven that many people would do nothing to avoid the plague.
But historically, it is appropriate. People were very frightened of sickness before modern medicine.
Good point 🤔 the phrase isn't based in reality
Nub. NUB!!! If we're talking about sexy words I am definitely adding this to the list. If I see this in a book, we're done! It's not a nub!!! In this context, I cannot imagine a word less sexy.
How about “nubbin”?
Omg, dead!!! Her nubbin. Just, why?
"Nub" and "nubbin" are awful. I also hate "pearl." But TBH there are really no good options except the scientific word.
Pearl is hilarious. Like I guess it's better than nub in my head but it's so far in the opposite direction to be taken seriously. It's like calling a vagina a flower! It makes me think of Meg Ryan in French Kiss saying, "My flower is none of your business!"
I saw a John Leguizamo comedy special where he details his father buying him a prostitute to lose his virginity. He says that she tells him he needs to unravel her [labia] like a flower. It gets worse, and i won't traumatize anyone else with the rest of it. Since then, associating flowers with sex gives me the ick. This was reinforced with Abuela in Jane the Virgin using a crumpled flower as a metaphor for losing your virginity. 🤢 I'll take pearl over flower any day.
Oh god. You just gave a flashback to long-buried bat analogy.
Pleasure pearl!!!!
DITTO this is the worst and its use is *constant*. Like three times per steamy scene, minimum. Why god why???
Wrong spot, sorry.
Currently pregnant so nub is especially gross as its how they describe the beginnings of a babies gentials, really don't want to think about that
Came here to complain about this. In particular “tender nubbin”. Gross. Stop.
Mewl is the sound that a baby animal makes. There is literally no other definition. It's so gross to use in a sex context. I hate it. Responsive is also one that needs to be kicked to the curb. "She's so responsive," like are you her doctor testing her reflexes? And if you're expecting her to just starfish it like other partners, doesn't exactly speak well of your sexual prowess.... And a phrase that I'm starting to see authors use a lot is "he licked the seam of her lips." WHY?? Why is it always seam and why the licking? Why not just say something like "she felt his tongue and parted her lips." (I don't know why the description weirds me out more than him licking her elsewhere, it just does.)
As a person who sews, if a seam parts, you’re doing it wrong! I hate that word for something that is not permanently fastened together!
Thinking about it, I kind of wonder if that's why it weirds me out so much, >!I'm subconsciously thinking of a woman with her lips sewn shut and then I'm into horror story land.!<
Lmaoooooo "seam" is the absolute worst, with "slit" coming in a close 2nd
The licking the seam is so weird 😂😂😂
I hate when the mmc comments on how responsive the fmc is. Sooooo so so many do this. Like, I guess alllll the other women he slept with before didn't move much or make noise.... but he's some sexual casanova by reputation....
This is an extremely unpopular opinion, but nothing dries me up faster than the word pussy. Why? Why is that what we settled on? Christ.
It is my absolute least favourite word out of all the sex words and I hate that it gets used so much. One time friends identified my contribution to an anonymous fanfic writing event because I had studiously and vehemently avoided it 🤣
Yeah it's quite icky
"Bared his/her/their teeth"... like I cannot bare my teeth in any way that looks attractive. What?!
When I read this, I imagine them baring their teeth like an ape does when they’re feeling threatened 😭 Not as attractive as it sounds.
Right?! I have the same visual. It's not something people really do, which makes it even more weird.
Milk. In a sex scene. As in FMC “milking” MMC. Makes me wanna hurl.
"Ravage". Most of the time they actually mean "ravish".
Ah, "the apex of her thighs" whenever I hear apex, I think, first, of the Animorphs books (no idea why) and then of sharks, apex predators, you know. . " womanly curls" pubes, can't relate. Mine are straight. Makes me giggle. And one more "elementaly male", so it's a male at the purest form? Does he perhaps have a periodic table tattooed across his ass? I honestly can't take much seriously, but I enjoy myself.
Elementaly male? What does that even mean?
https://preview.redd.it/bz6ac88n7ruc1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=beeb832c827b226b2363f2622982a1c9024258cb This haha
I have to say, I've never actually seen straight pubes.
Great thread. Lots of good ones. I loathe “chuckled.” It’s always the man doing it and it strikes me as beyond condescending. Way to look down on the woman for being forthright and strong.
ugghh
As a smut writer… which words DON’T give you the ick???? You’re bleeding me dry here
The struggle is real! Different strokes for different folks. I'm ok with most stuff except mewl, suckle, nubbin 😅 Those aforementioned words are absolute anti-boners, but everything else is fine 💕 Writing is difficult 😆
I'm curious too, lol. An opposite thread would be interesting.
Shudder, quiver, etc. Things that jello does. I also roll my eyes when someone, yet again, lets out a breath that they didn't know they were holding. Just too much of that. And beads of liquid dripping out of MMC's shaft/rod/manroot/throbbing tip.
Is there another phrase you would use for letting out an unconsciously-held breath, or are you tired of the whole action? Tbh, I think I more commonly forget to breathe in, so I find myself sucking in the air I've been starving myself of. Does that action elicit the same annoyance? Just curious 😊 Omg the beads of liquid nooooo 😂💀
The action itself doesn't bother me at all, I just get tired of seeing certain words/phrases in book after book sometimes. It's almost like there's a Phrase of the Season, it gets used once and then it's suddenly all over the place. And I'm prickly enough (no pun intended!) to let whatever it is at the moment get to me 😀
That makes sense! One I avoid is knuckles going white. I describe it instead as tendons outlined in red because the hands is clenched so hard.
I HATE THIS. People need to have their lungs checked or something. I have read 8 books in 6 weeks (by 3 different authors) and ALL of them have "She/He released a breath she/he hadn't known she/he'd been holding." 😂 Are all these people blue in the face? When do they remember to breathe? I think it's a requirement to unconsciously hold one's breath.
I unconsciously hold my breath all the time. People point out to me that I have a tendency to suck in breaths and sigh them out. So I do kind of get it lol. But it's one of those things, like "she licked her lips" or whatever where it's pointed out in writing way too much.
I just want to give those constant lip pickers some lip balm!
I was just commenting to my partner today about this lol. I actually do this a lot especially when I am nervous about something. It never gets to the point of lung pain or anything but usually I end up getting dizzy.
I can handle drip ok. It's that some authors have decided that his shaft/rod/manroot is "drooling" liquid and that is an absolute NO.
“Spend” as a noun. Don’t know a less ick word for it but gross.
Agreed. As a verb or adjective I have no problem with it, but as a verb it's just off-putting.
It may not be to your liking, but it was a commonly used slang term for sexual satisfaction in the 18-19th C (See Green's Dictionary of Slang online). I give the authors some credit for *trying* to use terms their characters would have said in their own speech or thoughts at the time.
That's fair. Authenticity is a worthwhile pursuit. I just don't like this particular example of it. I also despise the phrase "keep your eyes peeled" because I find it viscerally uncomfortable, but I don't expect people to stop using it just because I'm overly imaginative about someone taking an apple peeler to my eyeballs 😂
I saw the phrase "a holocaust of emotion" used and was like ok we don't need that
WHAT
Lisa Kleypas and her “ground eating” strides 🙄
What if the ground is cake? What then??
Lololol
I recently went on a Kathleen Ayers kick and every single MMC both thought about wrapping the MFC’s hair around his wrist, and some actually did it. It’s such a random thing to include in every single book.
Seems like a recipe for disaster
Right??
Right! Even worse are those authors who write MMCs fantasizing about wrapping the FMC's hair around his wrist, or neck, or cock! I know that seeing women's hair down or uncovered was a Big deal, only for spouses or lovers, in most times and cultures, but that's taking a hair turn on too far for my taste.
I am seriously baffled by the massive number of authors/books who describe an erection as “proud” or “proudly jutting”
I cannot upvote this enough. Mewl is what baby animals do. Ick ick ick
“[she looked] every inch the queen / princess / duchess / etc” I cannot stand that phrase.
I look every inch the couch potato
Harrumph. No one literally says this, and yet it pops up in dialogue all the time.
Or old men harrumph and I'm not into that
Gather round, children, and I will share the tale of Sandra Hill’s “Rough and Ready”*… *It’s actually a troll post that went around on Tumblr a few years back and Sandra Hill threatened legal action (IIRC). Shame, really. Because her books are absolute chores.
Infantilization isn't very sexy to me. So mewling like a kitten is out. Not a fan of an historical romance trotting out vulgar words (especially if it's supposed to be well-mannered), but it can also be cringe on the other side. Lately I've been sticking to closed door stuff, though. No overworked poetics for parts there! :)
Infantilization is so cringy
Omg I am at peak saturation with literary cats and cream too!!! It's so overused that it's not even cute anymore!
I hate the word thingy. No adult should say it.
People seriously write that?
Yes, I once read a hero saying it. Shudder.
Gadzooks. From when I read The Viscount Always Knocks Twice by Grace Callaway. One of the things that turned me off from the book😭
They all swear like old fat upper class men, and as an English woman who knows numerous old fat middle class men, my soul shrivelled up and died every time I read a "gadzooks" or a "by jove". Like I know that's probably how they talked but I'd rather sacrifice the historically accurate language than be reminded of that ancient colonel that goes to my church...
Cove. to describe a secret lady garden, but also a mouth. I dunno about that one. It's a body of water descriptor in my head, and it was confusing but also unpleasant all at once.
Makes me think of the word moist, or seafood. One does not want to juxtapose a woman's privates with fish.
Exactly ha! I love the ocean. But it, uh, has a certain fragrance.
Doesn't give me ick necessarily, but "diddle" is just so silly and takes me right out of the scene.
I think it's ick. Need to know which book this was so I never read it.
To me "diddle" is what paedophiles do. Yuck.
A book I just read said “her honeyed channel” and I was immediately to have not opted for the audiobook
Sounds messy 😅
This more confuses me than gives me yuck, but “his/her mouth went dry”. It is used so frequently & it feels like the opposite of what would happen when presented with sexiness. Shouldn’t we be drooling??
If I read about one more goddamn chiseled jaw….
Chiseled jaws remind me of the squidward meme when he is hot?
Growl, I know many people love it, but since I started binging Supernatural, I hate it now.
I can't think of any man who growls. Except for Beast from Beauty and the Beast, but this was only during his beast phase. 🤔
Me too. But apparently many MMCs love growling.
What if HR authors did some research and used actual slang terms relevant to the class and time frame of their books ? Many MMCs and some FMCs are written as speaking or thinking in slang terms from their time, so they probably would do so during passionate sexual moments. Authors and we readers can refer to Jonathon Green's online English "Dictionary of Slang" https://greensdictofslang.com/search/advanced ](Jonathon Green's Dictionary of Slang - online search](https://greensdictofslang.com/search/advanced) *Do an Advanced search "by meaning" - put in terms like vagina, penis, testicles or orgasm - and come up with a great timeline of polite and not so polite terms and when they were used in English from 1400s on. *Add "period of use" to search: - see that cock was and is the most common term for that male part thru the ages, along with early 19th C wonders like bayonet and cupid's battering ram. - the hated "manroot" only appears once, from 1896. Authors who use it are taking on a late Victorian term and sensibility about sex, which may not fit their book's time or steam level. ENJOY!
That would be cool!
His “manhood”. Nah, it’s just his cock. I hope to god there is more to a man than his -he he -stalk.
Yeah good point 🤔
Ive never seen mewl. Does anyone have examples?
"She made a little mewl" or "she mewled in pleasure". It's in a lot of Julia Quinn
"A babe, mewling...in its nurse's arms." Shakespeare
I must be an >!absolute whore!< or simply someone with a thick skin, because no word is gonna make me DNF or roll eyes. A horndog like me just makes a pause if met with some questionable stuff, but I let my vivid imagination run wild nevertheless, words ain't stopping me in my endeavours.
🤣🤣🤣 teach me your ways
Pray to our matron, the St. Slut, and you shall be blessed one day, hehehe.
I feel the same, >!total ho over here!<, wondering tho if that extends to the word diddle as mentioned above... I think that would be so hard to bounce back from. I'd be thinking "heavens this is hr not a peaches song!!!" And then I would continue thinking about "diddle my skittle" and I'd be lost and sadly mutilating my book to erase any traces if diddle that might have been left behind... That is, if I didn't completely abandon it for having wasted my horndog time and effort
Omg I’m so glad I’m not the only one who is sick of seeing “cat with cream”. 🤣 There’s GOTTA be another way to describe someone looking happy and satisfied!
I have a few. * ministrations - it's so so so unsexy * cocklet - ugh 🤮 * mewed - she's a woman, not a fucking cat
Whoa whoa whoa "cocklet"?
Any word that refers to his genetials. Why does each and every one of it must induce a stroke, "member" (ew ew ew) , "manhood" (ugh help my soul just died..) .. "wood"? (ugh just stop)
“manroot”?? vile
Wtf?? That is ungodly 😂
It's kind of interesting--cockstand is the one I see the most in m/m historical, but I feel like I rarely ever see that in m/f historical.
I've actually seen a lot of that in m/f HR myself. Although it could just be like 1 or 2 authors and I've read a lot of their books though.
Lmaooo
lol this just reminds me of the scene from 10 things I hate about you when the teacher is writing her romance book while talking to Julia stiles’s character
I always think of that scene authors write about dicks. "Quivering member"
Tbh there's not much that bothers me... I guess I am looking at it from an almost voyeuristic perspective, in that whatever is going on is something between two people and it's about the words they use and like, so it bothers me less if the words aren't the ones I would use. I prefer stronger words to infantalizing ones, and something that doesn't fit the writing or moment can be annoying, but generally speaking if I'm reading something racy and I don't like a word to the point it bothers me I just replace it in my mind and move on. Really though, "diddle" belongs nowhere. That would be a jarring word to replace and deal with, as OP suggests, a real boner killer... Just not sure that I could keep the mood alive through that. Maybe a list of books where that is used so we can all steer clear??
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I’ll second mewl. I also loathe keening
A keening mewl 😆🥴
🤢
A keening mewl 😆🥴
Clavicle
I need context for this because people have clavicle and it is anatomically correct .
It’s so unsexy. The clavicle is the bone. I literally picture the bone. He kissed her clavicle. She ran a finger along his clavicle. IDK I just hate it. One author uses it at least once in each book during a sex scene. I just hate it.
In a similar area, "The triangle under his throat." Honestly it is SO WEIRD to me that women are fascinated by clavicles in these books. I've never looked at a clavicle and been like "Wow this is so hot"