“Through Glass a Stranger” Spotlight – Is There a Bit of ‘Voyeur’ in Each of us?

Ready to get your kINKED on?

This month we take a closer look at Through Glass a Stranger by Renee Dominick from our kINKED anthology. In the story, Liliya has been watching a man from afar but then he decides to change the rules to their game.

To kick off our spotlight, Renee explores the voyeurism in her story.

Is There a Bit of ‘Voyeur’ in Each of Us?

by Renee Dominick

When I think of the kinks we commonly see depicted in erotic romance—bondage, impact play, dominance—voyeurism comes in pretty low on the list. Understandably, because let’s face it, voyeurism without consent is creepy. But what if I put ‘voyeurism’ in quote marks, indicating a consensual practice?

I’m a visually-oriented person. I take in and process information most effectively through sight, and then I form mental pictures with the input. As a reader that manifests as me “seeing” what I’m reading play out like a movie in my head. As a writer it means the genesis for most of my stories is some particular vivid image that causes me to wonder, what if… Sometimes that image arises from a place (or people, or an event) I’ve actually seen. Sometimes my imagination patches together an image wholly made from random bits in my subconscious mind. And sometimes it’s a combination of both.

I am quite sure the seed of Through Glass a Stranger came from my experience in a New York high rise hotel years ago. My window looked directly into the offices in the building across the street, and I realized anyone could be doing anything over there, on full, open display, and I would be seeing them.

The what if… root of TGAS started right then, but the story itself only began when an image would not leave me alone. My mind had conjured a moment, a woman observing her neighbor…er, pleasuring himself in his building across the courtyard. Statistically (as determined by self-reporting psychological surveys), women voyeurs are much rarer than men, and I think that’s part of what made the idea sticky. Who was this woman, and was she a voyeur or wasn’t she? Was she just seeing like I would have from that hotel room, or was she watching with intent?

As I delved into Liliya and Anthony’s voyeur/exhibitionist relationship, both in search of the deepest understanding of each of them I could manage, and to make certain the acts on the page were consensual, I thought a lot about the line between observer and voyeur, and the connection to enjoying erotic content in media. The proper definition of voyeurism is a sexual interest in watching—usually in secret and without the observed person knowing—the intimate behavior of others. But what about the prevalence of people who read or watch erotic entertainment, sometimes illicitly? Are we readers of erotic stories and watchers of porn also voyeurs, or are we simply observers, content consumers?

As merely consumers of erotic content, we might not fit the clinical definition of a voyeur, but I like to think we are more than just observers, at least if the story is done well. After all, from the writer’s perspective, the hope for my erotic stories is to induce some measure of sexual stimulation in the reading of them.

So, come. Let me invite you to be a ‘voyeur’, if only for the length of a story. Don’t feel uneasy peeking through the window. As long as Safe, Sane and Consensual applies, all’s fair in reading, writing, sex, and love, yes?

Renee Dominick lives and works in the Seattle suburbs, a place perfectly suited to her love of all things nature, and for writing atmospheric and steamy erotic romance like her debut novella duology titles, HOLD ME HARDER and DON’T HOLD BACK. When she’s not melded to her laptop, she’s probably reading, watching off-beat movies, or poking around in her garden (assisted by her two terriers), after which her husband can be counted on for a glass of chardonnay and a back rub.

Visit her at ReneeDominick.com and find her on Twitter.

Read Through Glass a Stranger and seven other stories in kINKED

Out of Print