I know sex scene vocabulary is very much a case of ymmv...

[ratcreature]

...but why would anyone pick "spongy" to describe a penis in a sex scene? It's such an unpleasant sounding word. I associate it with mushrooms or maybe moss, not anything arousing. Granted I appreciate penises in sex scenes mostly for their narrative function, rather than their physical details, spongy or otherwise, so...

Poll #24628

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 35

View Respondents

Spongy penises?

View Answers

Yes!
0 (0.0%)

No!
29 (82.9%)

I'm feeling neutral towards this description.
6 (17.1%)

Comments

[krait]

Well, I did say it would depend on the character! But it's pretty neutral to me (there's actually a discussion about this exact word going on in a comm I follow, too! Coincidence?) and I'm sure some characters would find it neutral, too. I could certainly see a geeky virgin, or a Vulcan, or an English major, for example, noting the spongy texture in those words and finding it excitingly sexy/new/alien/evocative.

"Girthy" is one of those Nifty.org sorts of words, for the most part. :D I rarely encounter it in fanfic, but if I did I would probably just guess that the author has read some original web erotica and move on without a fuss.

[ratcreature]

Well, like I said, I get that sex words are very much ymmv-- you do seem to be somewhat in the minority though in the non-representative sample of my poll.

And at least for me a sex scene being in character is necessary but not sufficient to enjoy it. Like wildly OOC internal monologue would throw me, even if I found the description hot (though depending on how much it pushes my id buttons I might appreciate as pure porn without context), but a character's descriptions could also be totally IC yet if I find their vocabulary very off-putting (whether weird, or gross, or even ridiculously flowery and coy for that matter) I'm going to kind cringe and skim. A single "spongy" won't get me to be totally squicked out of a scene, but it's a kind of strike against it.

FWIW, the character here was a hockey goalie, not particularly geeky but had been an English major some time ago in college, and not a virgin, but a bisexual new to m/m sex, but my problem wasn't characterization, but that for me it's an unattractive word that's associated with unpleasant textures, and somebody contemplating sponginess put a wet blanket all over a scene that was otherwise quite nice, with some mild D/s vibes and obedience and praise kink stuff I enjoyed before that intruded.

[krait]

It does seem to be a minority faction, both on your poll and at the other discussion. Maybe it helps that I think of sponge cake more than the weird sea animal? :D

I'm sure I have run into IC-yet-cringey vocabulary, but aside from the notorious "weeping cock" I can't think of any - not from fanfic, anyway. I suspect my occasional dive into Nifty and Literotica have recalibrated my Awful Sex Words Detector to be a bit more lenient, given the kinds of egregious OTT vocabulary that's popular there!