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Because the nature of what is erotic is fluid, early definitions of the term attempted to conceive eroticism as some form of sensual or romantic love or as the human sex drive (); for example, the of 1755 states that the erotic “is an epithet which is applied to everything with a connection to the love of the sexes; one employs it particularly to characterize…a dissoluteness, an excess”. Libertine literature such as those by evoked eroticism to the readers.
Because eroticism is wholly dependent on the viewer’s culture and personal tastes pertaining to what, exactly, defines the erotic, critics have often confused eroticism with , with activist saying, “Erotica is simply high-class pornography; better produced, better conceived, better executed, better packaged, designed for a better class of consumer.” This confusion, as writes, “demonstrate[s] the difficulty of drawing… a clear generic demarcation between the erotic and the pornographic”: “the history of the separation of pornography from eroticism… remains to be written”.
recognises eroticism and pornography as “two diametrically opposed uses of the sexual”, defining the erotic as “a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings.” In her 1978 essay, , Lorde identifies the erotic as a source of creative power that is deeply rooted in a spiritual plane of unrecognised or unexpressed feeling and sensation.
Modern French conceptions of eroticism can be traced to the , when “in the eighteenth century, dictionaries defined the erotic as that which concerned love…eroticism was the intrusion into the public sphere of something that was at base private”. This theme of intrusion or transgression was taken up in the twentieth century by the French philosopher , who argued that eroticism performs a function of dissolving boundaries between human subjectivity and humanity, a transgression that dissolves the rational world but is always temporary, as well as that, “Desire in eroticism is the desire that triumphs over the taboo. It presupposes man in conflict with himself”. For Bataille, as well as many French theorists, “Eroticism, unlike simple sexual activity, is a psychological quest…eroticism is assenting to life even in death”.
, a lesbian Caribbean-American writer and outspoken , called a source of power specifically identified with the female, often corrupted or distorted by oppression, since it poses the challenge of change. “For women, this has meant a suppression of the erotic as a considered source of power and information within our lives”. In “The Uses of the Erotic” within , she discusses how the erotic comes from the sharing of joy, “whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual” and provides the basis on which understanding provides a foundation for acknowledging difference. Lorde suggests that if we suppress the erotic rather than recognize its presence, it takes on a different form. Rather than enjoying and sharing with one another, it becomes objectifying, which she says translates into abuse as we attempt to hide and suppress our experiences.
