voyeurism – Emmanuelle de Maupassant

It’s great to welcome back Kay Jaybee, chatting about her newly re-released physiological erotic ménage, novel, The Voyeur.

Over to Kay, sharing her insight on why voyeurism is so popular.

“Why are so many of us turned on simply by watching other people taking sexual pleasure ,while we remain beyond the scope of their caress? Why do we enjoy reading and writing about people watching other people having sex?

The concept of ‘What the Butler Saw’ was hugely popular in Victorian Britain: a series of salacious tales and images based on male servants spying through keyholes, in hope of catching members of the family or staff having sex. This saucy imagery was at its most popular when the ‘butler’ caught a romp taking place between people of different classes; the lord and the maid, or the lady and the stable boy. In other words, the more illicit the liaison, the sexier it was to watch.

The observation of something that feels deliciously wrong, or that you’re not supposed to be seeing, lies at the heart of voyeurism. Of course, our concept of ‘wrong’ has changed through the ages, alongside our personal limits.

For many, voyeurism is about enjoying something we may fear, or be physically unable to do. We savour the experience second hand. In the privacy of our imagination, we may have complex sexual fantasies. They may feel incredible when acted out in our minds, but how many of us would want to experience those dreams in real life? If we were given the chance to watch a fantasy acted out, would we walk away, or choose to be an aroused fly on the wall?

Often, Voyeurism is also wrapped up with power. Ordering someone (or a group of people) to do what you tell them to do is a powerful aphrodisiac. Meanwhile, being the person commanded to carry out orders can be a huge turn on, if you relish more submissive sex. The dominant/submissive dynamic uses voyeurism frequently, with a Dom ordering his or her Sub to perform acts of sexual stimulation/submission for their visual fulfilment. If there’s compliance on all sides, this can be a succulent activity in which to engage, as well as observe or – for me – to write about.”

Wealthy business man and committed voyeur Mark Parker has thirteen fantasies he’s intent on turning into reality. Travelling between his London flat, his plush Oxfordshire mansion, and Discreet, his favourite S&M club, Mark realises his imaginatively dark desires, helped by two loyal members of his staff: personal assistant Anya Grant, and housekeeper Clara Hooper.

Upon the backs of his willing slaves, Mark has written out his fantasy list in thick red pen. Only Fantasy 12 awaits the tick of completion against their flesh before Mark’s ultimate fantasy – Fantasy 13 – can take place. Have the girls performed well enough to succeed in the final challenge? And what hold does Bridge’s Gentleman’s Club have over Mark? A place in which Anya once worked and was relieved to escape from. Mark’s girls must face some of the fantasies they thought they’d left behind, while Mark watches.

Despite their slave status, Anya and Clara are intelligent professional women who’ve chosen employment with Mark Parker – the ultimate voyeur. In their six months of working for Mark, he’s barely touched them, but boy has he watched them in action!

Mark Parker is driven by the sexual rush of power and control. He records each new sexual fantasy in his notebook, until it can be acted out by his willing submissives. However, there’s more to my novel that just a sexy list! As ‘The Voyeur’progresses, we learn that Anya was sworn to secrecy by Mark regarding his acquisition of her as his employee. For Fantasy 13 (the toughest challenge on Mark’s list) Clara must learn how Anya became Mark’s PA, and the secret of her previous job at the antiquated Bridge’s Gentleman’s Club.

If you’d like to discover how Clara became Mark’s second slave, and see how the girls cope with Mark’s extreme list of fantasies, you can buy The Voyeur from all good retailers, including…

Amazon UK
Amazon US
Amazon AU
Amazon CA

Barnes & Noble
iBooks UK
iBooks US
Kobo

GooglePlay

More about Kay

Kay Jaybee was named Best Erotica Writer of 2015 by the ETO

Kay received an honouree mention at the NLA Awards 2015 for excellence in BDSM writing.

Kay Jaybee has over 180 erotica publications including, A Kink a Day- Book One (KJBooks, 2018), The Voyeur (Sinful Press, 2018), Knowing Her Place-Book 3: The Perfect Submissive Trilogy, (KJBooks, 2018), The Retreat- Book2: The Perfect Submissive Trilogy(KJBooks, 2018), Making Him Wait (Sinful Press, 2018), The Fifth Floor- Book1; The Perfect Submissive Trilogy (KJBooks, 2017), Wednesday on Thursday, (KDP, 2017), The Collector (KDP, 2016), A Sticky Situation (Xcite, 2013), Digging Deep, (Xcite 2013), Take Control, (1001 NightsPress, 2014), and Not Her Type (1001 NightsPress), 2013.

Details of all her short stories and other publications can be found at www.kayjaybee.me.uk

You can follow Kay on –

Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads and The Brit Babes Site

Kay also writes contemporary romance and children’s picture books as Jenny Kane www.jennykane.co.uk and historical fiction as Jennifer Ash www.jenniferash.co.uk

The exhibitionist in us wants others to disapprove, as well as to admire, for it is in this that we find the tantalising ‘edge’.

Wilmington, North Carolina, 1950 by Elliot Erwitt — Photograph by Elliot Erwitt (1950)

Here is the line in the sand, and here we are, stepping over it.
Here is my body; here is my lust.
See it in my fingers and in my eyes, and in my quickening breath.
Look away if you don’t like what you see…
Except that I know you won’t.

Peep Show: Tales of Voyeurs and Exhibitionists, edited by the Queen of Erotica, Rachel Kramer Bussel, is a gem of an anthology: each story perfect in its own right, original and well-crafted, surveying the paired delights of voyeurism and exhibitionism.

‘Clean and Pretty’, by Donna George Storey, is a sensual masterpiece, displaying the very paradox at the heart of the collection: that the essence of our desire to be watched, to ignite the flame of arousal in others, is based not just on the notion of seeking admiration but also on a yearning to defy boundaries, to defy the watcher’s approval, to defy commonly-held canons of ‘decency’.

Every act of exhibitionism is a performance, as in Jennifer Peters’ gloriously bold ‘People in Glass Hotels’, and in Lolita Lopez’s ‘Indecent’.

Of course, the coin’s reverse is all the more potent when illicit. Forbidden pleasures are, inevitably, the sweetest, as we see in Elizabeth Coldwell’s tantalising ‘Audience Participation’, and in Nobilis Reed’s cleverly rendered and multi-threaded ‘Glass’: both extolling the joy of watching, uninvited.

Rachel KB’s own contribution to this treasure trove, ‘I’ve Only Got Eyes For You’, and Angela Caperton’s ‘Calendar Girl’ end the collection on a note lavender-sweet and dumpling-soft, showing that exhibitionism is not confined to the shadow-world. Every one of us can enjoy the act of display, and there are so many ways in which to do so, to the enrichment of our self-esteem, while feeding a secret desire to shock.

Perhaps the jewel in the crown is L.A. Mistral’s exploration of the relationship between the knowing performer, and the open watcher, writing in ‘The Theory of Orchids’: ‘The more we cherish something with our eyes, the more it flourishes. Our attention changes both who we are and what we look at. Our watching changes everything.’

Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Maniquí tapado (Mannequin covered), 1931 — Photograph by Manuel Alvarez Bravo (1931)

We read for entertainment, but also to know ourselves better, to find an echo within the pages, and to witness parallel universes. Knowledge of each ‘other life’ opens a door within our own.

Mannequins, E1 by John Claridge (1968) — Photograph by John Claridge (1968)

Reading, of course, is an act of voyeurism in itself, and this anthology, by its very nature, encourages us to embrace the process.

Read, and watch, and enjoy.

(For more voyeuristic delights, you may like to visit my Author Page on Amazon to see where my pen has been tickling…)

Tag: voyeurism

Kay Jaybee : Why do we like to peep?