Hey everyone. Um, I think we need to talk about something.

A popular writer on Instagram, Elisabeth Wheatley, recently announced that she’d rewritten several of her popular novels, taking out the spicy scenes. These scenes are now ‘fade to black’. Here’s a link to her detailed post about this decision. She says she’s doing this because she’s uncomfortable with oversexualization in our society, especially since the birth of her daughter. I want to highly recommend that you go read her own words on the situation before you start getting opinions.

Because my God, people have opinions. People are losing their damned minds in her comment section. They’re getting rid of her books. They’re roasting her on Threads. Let’s not do that. Instead, let’s have an actual discussion about this situation. Here’s what I think.

Now, I do need to start with some disclaimers. First off, my opinions are my own and don’t represent the opinions of any organizations I belong to.

Second, I haven’t actually read Wheatley’s books. I don’t like romance; we’ve established this. Spicy or not, I want dragons, ghosts, and sci-fi fun. Not meet-cutes and accidental love in arranged marriages. I am 100% following her for Book Goblin content. I love that character.

Third, I have only ever written one spicy scene in any of my books. And that one was meant to physically upset my male readers with the mental image of having someone’s tender man bits suddenly surrounded by sharp, sharp crystals. (Sorry, guys. To my male readers, did it work? Was that scene in Nova as upsetting as I wanted it to be? Let me know in the comments.)

Fourth, I am myself a Christian Witch. So I love Jesus, and take ‘As it harm ye none, do what thou wilt’ to heart. I have no moral issues with sex scenes or adult consentual porn in general. If everyone’s grown and having a good time, it’s alright by me.

All that being said, I am going to come to Wheatley’s defense here. Unless she posted somewhere and I missed it, she’s not endorsing other writers taking the spice out of their books. She’s not shaming other authors. She’s certainly not shaming readers who like spice. She is saying that she’s uncomfortable writing it, and her morality is pointing her in another direction.

This is something I honestly wish more people would practice. We all have our own moral compasses. For instance, I recently stopped eating beef. I don’t eat lamb or octopus either. Cows and sheep are too innocent and trusting. And octopuses are a bit too smart for me to feel comfortable eating them.

I am not saying you should stop eating beef. I’m not going to rail against the sins of Burger King or throw red paint on a McDonald’s CEO. I made a personal decision. Wheatley also made a personal decision.

However, I’m also going to come to the defense of some of the people criticising her. Right now there’s a push towards conservatism in our society. And that really scares me. Censorship scares me. I don’t like the thought of an artist censoring themselves because they’re afraid someone is going to disapprove. It feels gross. I’m worried that if we start down that path, the list of things we can’t write about is going to get longer and longer. Which means the list of things we can’t read about will get longer and longer.

I hate the puritanical restrictions on women especially. They say that we should hide ourselves, cover ourselves up. They say that we’re not allowed to feel sexy or enjoy sex and our bodies on our own terms. They view sex as something we endure, that we give to our husbands, rather than something that should be enjoyed by everyone involved. They compare us to chewed gum, licked cupcakes, linty duct tape.

Viewed through this lens, alongside the tradwife movement, I understand why people are very concerned about a well-known author removing sex scenes from her books.

In the end, though, I think the people who are angry aren’t really angry at Wheatley. I think they’re angry and scared at overall changes and bad actors within the community and the world at large. I don’t think that it’s about Wheatley’s choice specifically. And in fact, I think that she handled this situation very well.

First of all, she’s made it clear that if you want the spicy original versions, they’re still available. And if you bought the spicy version of the ebook and want the fade-to-black version, she’s apparently sending those out for free; you just have to email her. She’s not doing this to force you to buy the same book twice. She’s giving options. As I mentioned above, she’s not forcing her morality on other people.

I honestly love that she came out on Instagram and posted about this. She started out giving very clear information for her readers to either have the spicy version or the fade-to-black version of her books. She has not, at least as far as I’ve seen, responded to any of the hateful comments people have been leaving her. She said her piece, and left it at that. Good for her.

In the end, I think everyone’s getting a little too worked up. We shouldn’t be dogpiling on a woman just trying to live by her own moral compass. There are plenty of people out there who want to censor books. Who want to tell us what we can and cannot read, wear, and do. Let’s save our anger for them. They actually deserve it.

And if Elisabeth Wheatley sees this, I’m with you, Book Goblin. We don’t write the same genre. But we’re both just out here trying to tell our stories and live our lives. For Bookhalla, sister. For Bookhalla.

As always, I want to know what you think. Leave your (polite) thoughts below.

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