Housewives at Play: "Lez" Be Friends
by Rebecca
Eros Comix, ISBN 978-1-56097-902-9
I probably shouldn't say this out loud. Not if I want keep my reputation as a critic and editor of serious adult comics. But I have a real soft spot for the Housewives at Play series. No, it's not brilliant or groundbreaking; no, it's not exceptionally well-crafted; no, it doesn't offer any shatteringly new ways to look at human sexuality. Yes, it's kind of cheesy. OK, very cheesy. No arguments with any of that.
But I'm still very fond of Housewives at Play. It has an enthusiasm behind it, a joyful glee in dirty kinky lesbian sex that comes across as heartfelt and authentic. And while the drawing isn't exceptional, it is professional, done with skill and care -- a care that comes across as another aspect of the artist's heartfelt enthusiasm for the subject.
For those of you who aren't familiar with it, let me introduce you. Housewives at Play is a series of adult comic books and graphic novels featuring wholesome, clean-cut suburban housewives engaging in activities that would make Mae West blush. Bondage and strap-ons are on almost every other page: spanking, whipping, and paddling all make frequent appearances, as do anal sex, exhibitionism both forced and voluntary, and sex toy play of every stripe. And even "edgier" kinks like , piss play, age play, pet training, lactation, enemas, and more are displayed commonly, and with the same shameless, good-natured glee that's on display with the more standard variations. (The single-issue comics typically tell stories in the usual comics format, with the more recent ones in color; most of the books feature single-panel drawings with self-contained scenarios, done in black and white pencil.)
One quick side note, in case you care about this sort of thing: The artist's pen-name is Rebecca, but I've heard from several reliable sources that Rebecca isn't actually a woman. (I tried to confirm this rumor, but didn't hear back from the publisher by press time.) I was personally a bit disappointed when I heard this; I sort of liked the idea of a lesbian artist with this cheesecake sensibility about lesbian sex. Ultimately I don't really care -- the comics are the same no matter who created them -- but if you care about your lesbian porn being created by lesbians, I thought you should know.
In some of the comics, the tone is playful and cheerfully consensual. In others, there are fantasies of force -- not physical force, but blackmail and other forms of duress, with the heartless cruelty of the perpetrators, and the suffering and humiliation and tears of the victims, being central to the fantasy and the turn-on. (One of the loveliest things about dirty comics -- you can enjoy some seriously fucked-up fantasies without worrying about whether the performers are really into it... or suffering through bad acting that shatters the mood.) But all of it is executed with the same clean, well-scrubbed, almost aggressively sunny tone. The contrast between the wholesome suburban exterior and the filthy goings-on behind closed doors is one of the main charms of Housewives, and is definitely one of the main reasons that it's so popular. And there's no sense that the artist has any shame about any of it. The raunchiest, edgiest, most out-there fantasies are all done with enthusiasm, energy, and a genuine love for the subject at hand.
Well, almost all.
Which brings me to my review of the latest book in the series, Housewives at Play: 'Lez' Be Friends. I've spoken fondly here about the series. But this latest book is a disappointment. The drawings look...well, tired. And I don't mean "tired" as in "old hat," or, "so five minutes ago," or, "Girlfriend, that look is so tired!" I mean "tired" as in "exhausted." I mean "tired" as in "needing a good night's sleep."
It's hard to put my finger on what exactly the problem is. It's hard enough to describe what gives porn -- hell, what gives any art -- the quality of excitement and exuberance. It's even harder to describe what takes that quality away.
What I can say is this: The characters in 'Lez' Be Friends look tired. The line of the drawings looks tired. The scenarios lack the wild, anything- goes imagination of the earlier Housewives books and comics. Yes, they're loaded with many of the same themes -- the strap-ons, the exhibitionism, the bondage, the peeing, the domination and shame, the plain old lesbian Doing It. But there's not that excited sense of discovery and invention, There's no bizarre objects being used as dildos, no crazily adventurous locations for the exhibitionism, no outlandish forms of shame and degradation being forced upon one suburban housewife by another. There's not that kid-in-a-candy-store feeling of, "What game shall we play today?" It feels more like "Here we go again." It feels cranked-out, like the artist was bored and distracted and would really rather have been doing something else. It feels like the title should have been Housewives at Play: Contractual Obligation.
And that's absolutely deadly in porn. It's deadly in any art form -- but it's double-deadly in porn. In porn, you have to feel like the person making it -- the writer, the photographer, the model, the actors, the director, the artist -- was as excited about it as they're trying to get you to be. Especially with the glut of porn on the market these days and the easy overexposure we have to it, the only way to get your audience to give a damn is for you to give a damn. Without that, all you're doing is dumping a few more pussies and asses and tits and cocks onto the pile.
And if you're not doing brilliant, insightful, beautifully- crafted, cutting- edge art porn, then this is triply true. If you're doing fun, dirty, "cheesy but who cares as long as we're all enjoying ourselves" porn, then all you really have to offer is your own excitement and passion. That's what wakes an audience up, gets our dicks and clits to sit up and pay attention. If you don't have that, you really should be looking for another line of work.
For all its cheesiness and lack of true artistry, I am very fond of Housewives at Play. But if you're not familiar with the series, I strongly recommend you start with earlier books and comics. And if you're already a fan, you might want to give this one a miss.
(Conflict of interest note: I work for a company, Last Gasp, that sells the Housewives at Play books and comics. That's how I found out about them.)
Greta Christina has been writing about sex professionally since 1989. She is editor of the annual anthology series Best Erotic Comics. She edited the anthology Paying For It: A Guide by Sex Workers for Their Clients, and author of the erotic novella "Bending," which appeared in the three-novella collection Three Kinds of Asking For It edited by Susie Bright. Her writing has appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers, and online publications, including Ms., Penthouse, and Skeptical Inquirer, as well as several anthologies, including three volumes of Best American Erotica. She blogs about sex, atheism, politics, and other polite topics at gretachristina.typepad.com.
