Interview with Mathilde Madden by Nikki Magennis
Nikki: 'Wheels on Fire' was a beautiful short story that I read in the Black Lace anthology Wicked Words 10: The Best of Wicked Words. Is this where the idea for EO was born?
Mathilde: Very much so. I always knew there was much more to tell there. Disability and sexuality is such a huge subject. That short story seemed to bulge at the seams. And when I started doing research for the novel… Well, there's still so much I didn't have room for. Maybe this one will have a sequel.
N: Disability and the fetish of 'devotees' for disabled people is thorny subject matter for an erotic novel. What drew you to the idea of Mary and David's story?
M: So many angles in erotica are done to death. Perhaps it is the nature of it but so many hoary old ideas get retrodden again and again. This idea felt fresh to me - fresh and very, very sexy - the idea of using disability and female fetishism to frame an erotic novel.
N: How about research, was that a difficult area? In the current PC climate, so many people would rather avoid discussing things like disability in human, sexual terms were there times you felt you were treading on eggshells?
M: People have said to me that the book is 'brave', but I don't really feel that myself. It sounds a bit naïve to say I just wrote about something that I thought would be an interesting and sexy book, but that really is the truth.
I spoke to a disabled guy called Mik Scarlet and his wife Diane, who really couldn't have been more open and welcoming. They told me everything I needed to know. Mik was very helpful, not just about his own experiences with his disability but also about the world of wheelchairs, fetish and devotees. He also explained how you fold a wheelchair up to put it in a car basic, but essential.
N: How do you think people will react to your treatment of this particular, um, niche fetish? In the novel, Mary has to face the shocked reactions of people who disapprove of her kink. Did you feel like you were writing in dangerous territory?
M: The whole idea of whether it is 'okay' to be attracted to someone because of their disability, or whether it is somehow better to love someone for 'who they really are' is central to the book. I agree with the position put forward by the Coalition for Sexual Freedom, who point out that someone with a wheelchair fetish being attracted to someone because they are in a wheelchair is no different, really, from someone with a long hair fetish being attracted to someone because they have long hair.
The book makes clear that a fetish based attraction isn't enough to form a long term relationship. But all relationships start somewhere. Mary is overwhelmingly attracted to David's physicality to his body the things about his body that she likes aren't conventional, but that's the only reason why her attraction is different.
Having said that, I did sometimes have moments of doubt about the subject matter of the book. When Mary worries about pursuing her desire for David, that really is a lot of my own angst up there on the page.
N: EO is pretty intensely written in the first person, with a lot of internal narrative. Yet David and Mary seemed to deliberately avoid analysing their relationship in great detail. Do you believe that desire can be analysed?
M: Yes, I do. But I think both David and Mary are deliberately avoiding looking too closely into what is going on between them. Mary because she is dubious about her own motives and David because his attraction to Mary questions who he thinks he is.
I think both characters avoid looking too closely at their motivations in case they manage to talk themselves out of a relationship that they are enjoying so much.
N: Another theme I noticed running through the book was the objectification of men. The beauty of men is described almost obsessively. You seem to be almost directly flipping the focus from the female form to the male. Are you consciously creating an antidote to the ubiquitous porn star woman?
M: Don't you think it's funny that you even note that? In an erotic book written for (predominately) heterosexual women, it shouldn't seem strange that male beauty should be central. Sometimes I despair of erotica that spends paragraph after paragraph describing the heroine and leaves the hero as an after thought. Male beauty is a wonderful, magical, splendiforous thing it ought to be celebrated.
N: There is a dearth of material of this kind. I'm thinking of Germaine Greer's book on the beauty of boys, but (other than gay culture) there's not so much that springs to mind celebrating the beauty of men. Can you recommend anything? Films, books, porn, art?
M: We are so used to culture being driven by men that when we see images of beautiful men we mark them as 'homoerotic' we assume that the viewer is male. It's true, though, a lot of the most striking imagery of male beauty is created by gay men. And gay porn has a lot to recommend it.
Work by women that celebrates and fetishizes male beauty is there if you search hard enough. Things like Mary Harron's film of American Psycho which obsesses over Christian Bale's body.
A lot of current images of male film and rock stars, or the way men are presented in TV shows reveal that the currency of the male body in attracting female viewers is very strong. Shows like Lost, which offer a selection of very beautiful men often semi-naked, wet or sticky with sweat. Or something like Prison Break where the plot of the show revolves around a tattoo which serves as a reason for the male lead (nicknamed 'Pretty' in the show) to remove his shirt at gratifyingly regular intervals.
N: Mary gets pretty deep into the pain and domination of her men ("he suffers so beautifully") - do you see this as an expression of power?
M: Mary is sexually dominant and that is linked into her disability fetish. Her sadism is an off-shoot of that. Mary loves having power over David, although she knows that in reality he can be pretty powerful himself he's very capable and quite fiery she builds herself an illusion of power using pain, or his physical limitations.
N: EO is full of clever little twists of language, and there are some screamingly accurate social observations. Lots of pop culture references. I believe you used to be a stand up comic - how similar is writing kink to cracking jokes on stage?
M: Very. Seriously, very, very. Stand up comedy was all about getting a physical reaction writing erotic kink is the same. I also learnt a lot about rhythm, timing and structure when I was a comic. A lot of writers read their work aloud, but I think I've spent so much time working with the spoken word that I can write with the right rhythm without thinking.
N: 'Kinkalicious' is the word you use to describe Mary. Vanilla sex fails to satisfy David. Do you find kinkery more interesting to write, or is this purely down to these particular characters?
M: Everyone's a little bit kinky, aren't they? I suppose that's down to writing what I know.
N: Lately I've seen a lot of interest in m/m stories specifically for a female audience. Do you think women are getting more turned on by the idea of men together? Do you think this is a fantasy that might become more mainstream, in the same way that lipstick lesbians are a mainstay of male fantasy?
M: The problem with women enjoying male/male erotica is the double taboo. Female sexual freedom and male homosexuality are sexual taboos in almost every culture. The combination of the two together is so shocking that this huge area of female sexuality is still relatively unexplored in mainstream erotica. It thrives though, in Japanese yaoi which is currently enjoying a huge explosion in popularity in the West, and in slash fanfiction, as well as in little cultural niches which women have grabbed with both hands things like Queer as Folk and Velvet Goldmine. Brokeback Mountain won the MTV Movie Award for best kiss-- who do you think was voting?
When male/male erotica for women is as prevalent as the ubiquitous female/female stuff for men is well, that'll be a milestone on the road to equality for everyone.
N: Despite exploring the darker side of fetish and SM, there's something very human and very warm about your characters. It seems almost like a normalisation of kinkiness an acknowledgement that we all have our little peccadilloes. How much do you get into your characters?
M: It is normal, I guess. It is normal for me. And if my characters seem warm I think that is probably because I care about them so much. Finishing a book is always a bit of a wrench, but when I turned these two characters out into the world I felt bereaved.
N: You've tackled voyeurism (Peep Show), male prostitution (Mad about the Boy) and fetishism so far. It seems all your books are explorations of uncharted territory. What's next?
M: Would you believe werewolves? I've always wanted to write some paranormal erotica and Black Lace have commissioned me to write two books about werewolves living in Oxford. I'm also working on a short story collection, also for Black Lace, called No Escape and I'm a regular contributor to Scarlet Magazine among others.
N: I can't wait to see what you do with werewolves! Meanwhile, good luck with Equal Opportunities, and thank you so much for answering all my questions. It's great to hear from someone who continues to push the boundaries of women's erotica.