by Emily Southard-Bond
In March of 2024, Pornhub, one of the most frequented sites in the world, blocked Texas from accessing its entire platform and is the eighth state to be blocked by the site. The adult entertainment site was retaliating against the state’s 2023 law that requires pornography websites to enforce age-verification blocks and display health warnings on its pages. A move that made searching for “faerie porn” pertaining to this article particularly difficult. I called on the help of my cousin, whose partners were baffled as to why he was looking at “straight porn”— and only became even more concerned when he quipped back, “It’s for my cousin.” He’s based in Ohio, where Pornhub hasn’t been banned and became a de facto researcher for this article. I asked him to search for specific terms and let me know what came up, all to find out whether or not the influence of a popular book genre was drifting into the adult and erotica space.
The search in the banned site was for “romantasy,” the book subgenre that blends romance and fantasy, and found performers who use names like “Feyre Darling,” several animated style adult videos, and art depicting sexually explicit scenes from popular books.
Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses, Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing and Jennifer Armentrout’s From Blood and Ash are among some of the most popular inspirations behind this content — content the authors did not create but is entirely made for and driven by fan interest. Likely because of trademarking laws, most of the content didn’t use direct names or titles, but to any fan of the genre connections could be made.
Adult content creator Catjira uses themes from films and books for her work. Catjira, a Florida native presently based in Nashville, and has a B.S. in business. She began an adult entertainment career in 2015 as a webcam model before switching up her content.
“It just wasn’t really fitting with what I wanted,” she said. “I was watching all the videos and porn that everyone else was making, and I was kind of trying to do that and hated it.” Instead, she decided to focus on her own interests and became a popular performer on Chaturbate, OnlyFans, Fansly and more. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Catjira found herself renovating a rural farm in Tennessee. You’re as likely to find her teasing fans with sexual videos as you are to see her gardening or priming wood for her home. In a recent Instagram video, she’s staining a prop coffin.
“My audience is into darker fantasy, like taboo type of things, and so am I.” She takes inspiration from horror and pop culture and has mixed adult content with everything from A Clockwork Orange and The Walking Dead to lore and stories about fantasy creatures, dressing up like succubus sirens and sexy villains. “I had done a lot of reading while on stream. I would read scary stories while having a vibrator in.”
In 2020, she started privately re-reading comfort books, such as Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight. Soon, Catjira went from reading for her own enjoyment to acting out versions of fanfics sent to her (“Like one of the crazy ones was ‘Gangbang by Wolves,’” she shared.) and then to slowly introducing books she was actually reading to her OnlyFans subscribers and fans on other sites.
In 2021, she started reading A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) by Sarah J. Maas. The romantasy series has sold over 45 million copies worldwide and is undoubtedly one of the driving forces behind an estimated $610 million in book sales anticipated within the genre in 2024, according to market researcher Circana.
Catjira admitted feeling embarrassed about reading ACOTAR, which is sometimes off-handly referred to within BookTok as “faerie porn.” She wasn’t embarrassed about the romance in the books, saying the series felt more like a “guilty pleasure,” but if she shared what actually turned her on, some barrier would be crossed. Yet she was so excited by the books and others within the genre that she couldn’t help but mention them to her subscribers. The first book she shared was the dark erotica romance Priest by Sierra Simone, and her fans “ate it up,” so she decided to share her love of ACOTAR with her subscribers.
Catjira’s subscribers are almost entirely men, and after the first BookTok-esque read-a-thon, they started to buy what she recommended — everything from Maas’ young adult series Throne of Glass to adult romantasy like Armentrout’s bestselling From Blood and Ash. She joked that when she’s sexting with certain fans she can tell which ones have stacked Kindles. Catjira became a book influencer like any other excited fan on BookTok, but she laughed and pointed out “kind of, but behind a paywall and with her porn fans.” She even started a September event on her OnlyFan’s account she’s coined “Smutember,” in which she cosplays spicy scenes from books she’s read with her subscribers.
There’s also a growing trend of erotica art inspired by romantasy. Ada, who prefers to only be referred to by their artist’s name, is a popular freelance illustrator and designer that works often with authors. When asked who they feel is driving the interest in erotic romantasy art, Ada replied, “We are visual creatures. We love fandom and we love sex. It’s no surprise we create erotic art from the stories we love.” Ada, who previously worked as a sex therapist, added that the community of romance readers, which is primarily women, is one of the “the few places where womens’ and femme nonbinary sexuality is not only acknowledged, but celebrated.”
But Ada also mentioned their hesitancy to call interest in erotic art a type of sexual empowerment though. “True empowerment requires dismantling the systems of oppression and romantasy is still firmly rooted in the racism and white supremacy of the publishing industry.” But they also added that they do believe “the popularity of erotic art is a step toward sexual liberation. Erotic art provides language and community, both of which are required when seeking empowerment.”
Catjira, who has special edition copies, bookish art work, and character t-shirts, is a true fan of the books that inspire her content. But when asked if she ever thought of tagging the authors in her incredibly detailed cosplay photos or joining BookTok, she admitted feeling self-conscious and hesitant. Crossing out of sex work spaces into the book world makes her nervous.
“I think I’m scared to go into any BookTok space because it’s very different from the space that I’ve existed in for so long, and I’ve seen it be negative in some ways… I’ve been in a dark, taboo fantasy porn space that’s been — I don’t want to say safe, but I’m very comfortable here,” she explained. “BookTokers scare me a little bit. I just get scared that they’re going to be like, ‘How dare you?’ It’s funny, I actually am used to men commenting on my body and the way I look, but with women who might get upset, I’m a chronic people-pleaser. I don’t want to enter a space that I’m not welcome in. And I don’t know if, as a sex worker, I’m welcome here.”
S.T. Gibson is the international bestselling author of The Summoner’s Circle series and more. One of the first character’s Catjira cosplayed for her fans was Constanta from Gibson’s A Dowry of Blood. Asked if she is aware of the crossover and adult performers cosplaying in characters from romantasy and her books in particular, she mentioned she is. And that she’s supportive of blending of art forms, “I’m all for that. I think it’s incredibly important that adults have spaces to explore sexuality with candor and an attitude of play and discovery,” Adding that “it always delights me when eroticism is fused with creativity to create art that celebrates bodies and desire.”
“If engaged with from a place of curiosity and compassion for the human artist on the other end of your internet connection, I think these playful spaces can help de-stimagatize sexuality and kickstart important conversations about health, safety, consent, and relationships. Also, it’s just hot and fun. I think it’s great for some things to just be hot and fun.”
Gibson added she would love to see more collaboration between spicy romance authors and adult performers who love books. And that there are more connections between the two spaces “We’re all struggling to do our jobs and make art in a society that is stripping protections from adult content creators and romance authors alike, shutting down online retailers and flagging promotional posts and refusing to process payment for services. That isn’t even touching on the book bans spreading across the country…”
The porn industry is known for exploitation of women and predatory practices, but there are studies that also support the sex positive impact of the business. The adult entertainment industry, including romance in publishing, have seen monumental gender shifts in recent years. More women are becoming managers of their content and are controlling what they want to do in the content they produce, creating a space that provides artistic control. The same is happening in the Romance industry within publishing.
No one manages Catjira: She is the person subscribers chat or sext with. She creates her own sets and manages her content like an editorial calendar months in advance. Her hobbies in gaming, nerdcore and books are authentic aspects of her performances and interests. The books she shares with her almost entirely straight male audience highlight the female-gaze and emphasize the importance of healthy sex lives.
Leah Koch, co-owner of The Ripped Bodice, romance bookstores in Brooklyn and Los Angeles, explained that romance books currently popular have more themes and tropes surrounding sexual autonomy. “It’s very easy to see how, with each generation, authors get more and more comfortable about exploring sex and sexuality. Language becomes less cloaked in metaphor and more honest and straightforward. The end goal of romance novels is no longer heterosexual marriage and procreation.”
It makes sense a genre that makes $1.44 billion annually, with millions of readers would have a crossover into other spaces. There are several adaptations in development, Amazon Studios’ upcoming Fourth Wing series, Hulu’s still in production, A Court of Thorns and Roses, and more. Even book themed balls are a growing industry because of this market — romantasy items sold from Velaris scented candles to fantasy themed vibrators are a micro-economy with hundreds of thousands of posts. Whether or not adult entertainment and erotica art should and shouldn’t be in this bookish space is a moot point. This subgenre is a peg in pop culture right now. And its reach is going to go as far as its fans want…but with a safe word.
