Poppy Lee is a writer with a vengeance. She writes stories for nasty gremlins who want better filth. She would like you to read more books. Starting with hers. She lives on the Great Lakes with several demons and a cat, untamed and unrepentant.
Melter of limbs, lover of men and women alike. Mediterranean by heritage, American by family, writer by profession. First published in the late 2000s... indiscriminate heretic ever since.
Poppy Lee "the smut gremlin" is a pen name I created to share erotic fiction informed by feminist theory.
Like many people, I was exposed to pornography at a young age. I was disturbed by it, but never thought about it critically. Around 2019, while doing work to reckon with myself, I stopped repressing that disgust.
That disgust led me down a rabbit hole studying feminism. I found communities like r/PornIsMisogyny and connected with other women grappling with similar questions about sexuality under patriarchy. We wanted to enjoy sexual content and believed it was possible to create ethically, but we kept running into the same problem: even drawn and written erotica were saturated with misogyny.
These stories are my praxis. I challenge everything from liberal body commodification to conservative gender roles. We deserve better, so I decided to make it myself.
To feed hunger without poisoning the well.
We have been conditioned, through the entire apparatus of male supremacy, to eroticize our own subordination and passivity. Andrea Dworkin and Catharine A. MacKinnon argue that pornography is propaganda to this end: it doesn't only reflect male supremacy, it actively constructs it. While I agree with their analysis of harm, Dworkin in particular collapses all erotic content into pornography. I disagree. Writers like bell hooks, Audre Lorde, and Gloria Steinem argue that liberatory eroticism is possible. This is what I believe too.
My work is to distinguish what's inherently oppressive from what can be salvaged.
In practice, I write all kinds of women — meek, angry, complicated, offensive — because that's what women are. What matters isn't any individual trait, but what the story celebrates.
My stories are about liberation. I'm not a choice feminist. I don't believe performative sexuality, 'sex work', or sadomasochism are empowering just because a woman consents to them. All kinks need critical examination. There is no ethical fetish, as fetishization requires dehumanization.
This extends to how we think about depiction itself. I don't believe in Angela Carter's "moral pornographer," the idea that you can depict eroticized domination as critique.
The most effective way I've found to critique these tropes is to rewrite them directly. All my stories are parodies: of fujoshi fanfiction and its rigid gender roles, of dark romance and its glorification of abuse. I take the bones of familiar stories, strip out the misogyny, and rebuild.
I do believe some things can be reframed, though. I dissect BDSM: tying up a lover can be play, but sadomasochism is abuse rebranded as kink. The same critical lens applies to language. The language of sex has been poisoned by puritanism; we call sex 'dirty' and 'filthy' like it's shameful, when it's also literally messy. If no one is covered in sweat or cum, I'm not sure you're doing it right! A man coming on a woman's face has been weaponized as degradation, but strip away that framing and it's just mess and vulnerability, the same as when his face is covered in her cum after he goes down on her.
This work requires constant critical analysis and internal reflection. I'm not arguing the result is perfect, only that it's better. I often rework stories many times over several years based on critiques I receive or new theory I read.
My greatest hope is that in fifty years, what I write now is considered outdated. Because that would mean we're getting somewhere.
Because there's a crucial difference between depicting something and making it sexually arousing. My stories include violence, trauma, slurs, and patriarchy, but they don't eroticize abuse or oppression for pleasure.
When you get aroused by something, you're reinforcing neural pathways that associate it with pleasure. The human brain doesn't distinguish between "real" and "fantasy" arousal. It's the same mechanism as addiction: we train ourselves to crave what we've taught ourselves to enjoy. Masturbation to these scenarios IS the conditioning.
This isn't moral panic. Extensive research shows that repeated exposure to certain types of erotic material influences beliefs, expectations, and behaviors.* If you read smut about petplay, you're teaching yourself to find dehumanization pleasurable. If you masturbate to rape fantasies, you're rewiring your brain to associate violation with arousal.
Modern centrist liberal feminism argues that any choice freely made by a woman is feminist by definition, as if individual choices exist outside systems of power. But the popularity of dark romance should raise questions: why do millions of women find the same harmful patterns compelling? What taught us this? These books normalize abuse as love. We can't dismantle systems we're masturbating to.
That's why I write what I do. To offer alternatives that are erotic and exciting but don't condition us to accept our own subordination.
Brown, Jane D., and Kelly L. L'Engle. "X-Rated: Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors Associated with U.S. Early Adolescents' Exposure to Sexually Explicit Media." Communication Research 36, no. 1 (2009): 129-151.
Frith, Hannah, and Celia Kitzinger. "Reformulating Sexual Script Theory: Developing a Discursive Psychology of Sexual Negotiation." Theory & Psychology 11, no. 2 (2001): 209-232.
Klucken, T., S. Wehrum-Osinsky, J. Schweckendiek, O. Kruse, and R. Stark. "Altered Appetitive Conditioning and Neural Connectivity in Subjects with Compulsive Sexual Behavior." The Journal of Sexual Medicine 13, no. 4 (2016): 627-636.
Masters, Natalie T., Erin Casey, Elizabeth A. Wells, and Diane M. Morrison. "Sexual Scripts Among Young Heterosexually Active Men and Women: Continuity and Change." The Journal of Sex Research 50, no. 5 (2013): 409-420.
Peter, Jochen, and Patti M. Valkenburg. "Processes Underlying the Effects of Adolescents' Use of Sexually Explicit Internet Material: The Role of Perceived Realism." Communication Research 37, no. 3 (2010): 375-399.
Pfaus, James G. "Pathways of Sexual Desire." The Journal of Sexual Medicine 6, no. 6 (2009): 1506-1533.
Pitchers, K. K., M. E. Balfour, M. N. Lehman, R. L. Richtand, L. M. Yu, and L. M. Coolen. "Neuroplasticity in the Mesolimbic System Induced by Natural Reward and Subsequent Reward Abstinence." Biological Psychiatry 67, no. 9 (2010): 872-879.
Wright, Paul J. "Mass Media Effects on Youth Sexual Behavior: Assessing the Claim for Causality." Annals of the International Communication Association 35, no. 1 (2011): 343-386.
Wright, Paul J., Robert S. Tokunaga, and Ashley Kraus. "A Meta-Analysis of Pornography Consumption and Actual Acts of Sexual Aggression in General Population Studies." Journal of Communication 66, no. 1 (2016): 183-205.
Uh well, to get off, hopefully. I write across contemporary, historical, and fantasy settings. Some stories are tender and romantic, others are filthy and intense.
I have free stories available if you want to sample my work before buying anything, just check the Read tab and use the filters to find what appeals to you. I hope you find something you like!
