Adult Fiction

Over the last few days I have been assigned to shelving and organising much of the adult fiction section in our new store. We have over two bays of it - categorised as 'sex' and 'erotica'. Sex is basically more scientific and grown up - read 'safe and pedestrian' - than the erotica section which tends to be lots of sex story books and photo books called, rather unambiguously, 'Panties'. The number of books on the subject makes me wonder whether the company thinks the city is a rather dirty one - where many of the people are going out to find sex books in their bookshops. I know one isn't supposed to think of sex as an issue that one should shy away from or one that a person should be ashamed of buying a book regarding, but these are not quality books. Some are good quality , and I assume the Dorling Kindersley make a rather healthy profit from their numerous Karma Sutra guides, as they publish enough of them! I didn't think of it as a chore to have to do - they're really more of a good laugh - to see what some companies do to entice readers, to attract the eye, and to see how much a mainstream bookseller can get away with. The large numbers of books by publishers such as Nexus that have girls in high boots and panties is astonishing.
The one thing that seemed to me rather insensitive was the way that Sex was positioned right before Religion as well as Abuse and Feminism. To see books such as Dave Peltzer's A Child Called "It" nest to porn books on domination is not the most appealing or sensitive situation.