Quickie 16 | Know Your Tropes, Too

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SHOW NOTES
In this episode of The Turn On, Erica and Kenrya revisit common romance tropes and talk about tropes they'd like to see.
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TRANSCRIPT
Kenrya: Come here. Get off.

Kenrya: Hey y'all. We figure it's a good time to revisit—are you ready?

Erica: Know Your Tropes with Kenrya and Erica. I cannot fucking remember the melodies.

Kenrya: It was that part. But this time I'm going to put a little bit of a spin on it. Instead of talking about tropes that are prevalent that everybody sees all the time, we want to talk about shit that we would like to see become tropes. Yeah. I'll start. One trope that I would really love to see, and it's interesting because we kind of talk about this when we talk about the kind of books that we like, how we like gentle books where people don't do dumb shit, they just have conversations among adults.

Erica: Nigga, what's wrong with you?

Kenrya: Here's what I'm feeling. I want a therapy trope. I want books where folks have already done some work and are healthy and they're dating while they're healthy, and so when shit comes up, when they feel jealous because this nigga's ex just texted, they can be like, hey, this makes me feel this way and I don't like this shit and here's what I would like to do. Then their partner is able to have an honest conversation with them about what the fuck is going on. It doesn't mean that there's no drama or that there are no things that happen, that people act like adults and have conversations and are healthy and model what healthy relationships look like. You looking at me like that sound boring as hell.

Erica: Yeah, I mean I like trash.

Kenrya: I don't, you know I don't.

Erica: Like trash TV. This is the same person that like a good novella because they cut out the bullshit. But yeah, I definitely ... I don't know how-

Kenrya: Things still happen. Things still happen, but you resolve it rather than ... I was just reading a book that we were considering for the show and had to cut out because there's rape. Yeah.

Erica: Trigger warning.

Kenrya: Sorry about that. But at some point this chick is with her new boo and his ex comes into the place where he works, and he's like, this is my new boo, we not fucking no more. She slashes his tires and keys his truck and all of this shit.

Erica: Oh, good and toxic.

Kenrya: Things like that can still happen in these books, but then you actually have a real good conversation about it rather than keying a nigga's car and slashing his tires.

Erica: Okay. You just cut out all the juicy stuff, but all right.

Kenrya: But the stuff still happens, you just deal with it better.

Erica: You just deal with it. Okay. All right. You know what? The trope, I don't even know if it's a trope, but one of the tropes I'd like to see is better use of condoms.

Kenrya: Safe sex in general.

Erica: I think we've done a good job of finding good, safe sex. I will be honest, dental dams ...

Kenrya: Yeah, I've never done that or any ... I just don't do oral until ...

Erica: Oral with a condom.

Kenrya: That's not true. I actually have done oral with a condom before, because we were still trying to get test results back. It's not great, and flavored condoms are usually small, so you can't even get the full situation.

Erica: Yeah, no. But I do think that in media, in books and film, when we start to normalize these things then it makes it easier to happen in real life. Yeah, I'd like to see more condom something, like maybe there's always a gag about a condom that always gets ... Oh ho ho, putting the condom on my dick, or something like that.

Kenrya: You gotta of make that face too.

Erica: Just something. Oh ho ho. Yeah, sorry. Y'all can’t see. But yeah, so something along those lines of just ... I'm thinking from a way of how do we normalize these things to make them healthy for people?

Kenrya: I wonder what other safer sex practices are there that you can do realistically?

Erica: STD conversations.

Kenrya: Which is a very ... Somebody would just tweeted literally yesterday, they was like, y'all niggas out here fucking raw without requiring an STI check?

Erica: I watched 90 Day Fiancé: Before The 90 Days, and.

Kenrya: I saw that episode because my partner also likes trash. Well he doesn't love that show but catches it enough that he was able to fill me in and we watched that episode last week.

Erica: Yeah. Mind you, this man looks like the Mucinex booger, but we're not ... I do not like making fun of people's ... talking about people's looks only because you can't help it. But if he was in a lineup, you would say he resembled a Mucinex booger, and he was like, hey girl, take an STD test. Okay, I get it. But then she's like, well you do it too. He was like, well I don't want to take one in your nasty country. He didn't say that, but it was along those lines of, well I don't want to take one here. I'll take one when I go back to the states. I think the fuck not. You comfortable with me getting poked over here, you're going to get over here or ain't nobody poking nothing.

Kenrya: She was said. I saw she left him like sitting at the cafe for like three hours before she showed up. I was like, okay.

Erica: Yes girl, yes girl, I'm all for it. I'm all for these queens. Oh you got to see last week's episode. It was hilarious. I digress.

Kenrya: Is that the one with the mouse, the rat? She was like, a mouse I think. I was like, bitch, that look like a full grown rat.

Erica: And the rat was sick.

Kenrya: It was just laying there. I was like ...

Erica: Because ain't no healthy rat laying there like that. That rat was like, just give me just a little bit of water please. But anyway, Americans behaving like Americans.

Kenrya: Yeah, no that's real, and I think we've talked about this, about how I keep my shit on my phone and require it.

Erica: Yeah, I keep mine on my phone, and it's always ... It feels better for me ... It's easier to have that STD conversation when you're with someone that's like, oh yeah, I keep my shit on my phone too. I feel like if there's more healthier practices about that, then it's not as awkward or difficult to be like, oh well let me run to my doctor, that kind of thing. You got any other tropes you want to see?

Kenrya: I do, although I'm not sure how much of it is a trope or just being nasty, but you know how there's some porn that has stories and then there's some porn where it is opens on somebody's ass cheeks bust open?

Erica: Bussin it open.

Kenrya: I, as someone who reads erotica constantly because I'm always looking for something for the show, would love it if I didn't have to always search for the sex scene, if there was a trope where that shit just open on sex. Yeah and here's the thing, every chapter ...

Erica: I think the difficulty is, we started this show thinking we'd just find a bunch of "Brown Sugars," and we haven't.

Kenrya: Well we've had to expand, right?

Erica: Yeah, we've found ourselves looking at more romance novels that have really great sex scenes in them, and I think it's difficult finding ... I don't want to say this to downplay or speak ill of erotica that we've read, but I've found it difficult to find good erotica. There are books with somebody busting it open on every page, but the story is really weak.

Kenrya: Yeah. I want something that has a good mix of that, that has more sex per page, or per or 10 pages. Yeah. Yes, hot sex, eh. Yeah, shit, there's movies like that. They have NC-17 ratings. I'm fine with that.

Erica: Yeah, I'm fine with an NC-17 book. Yeah, so we want more ... I don't need a real story. I want somebody fucking real good.

Kenrya: I'd be okay with that. That's not problematic, because sometimes that's what those are.

Erica: Sometimes it is.

Kenrya: And obviously that features Black bodies being Black as fuck.

Erica: We will continue to look for them. If y'all have any suggestions, please, let a bitch know. All right, well, that's the ...

Kenrya: This has been Know Your Tropes with Kenrya and Erica.

Erica: And want more from then.

Kenrya: Yes, and want more from them. Do the thing again?

Erica: Da da da! Thanks. Bye.

Kenrya: With Kenrya and Erica, two hoes.

Erica: Two hoes, making a clap.

Kenrya: Not even close. Not even.

Kenrya: This episode was produced by us, Kenrya and Erica, and edited by B'Lystic. The theme music is from Brazy. We want to hear from y'all, send your book recommendations and all the burning sex and related questions that you want us to answer to [email protected]. And please subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast app. Follow us on Twitter @TheTurnOnPod and Instagram @TheTurnOnPodcast, and find links to books, transcripts, guest info, and other fun stuff at TheTurnOnPodcast.com. And remember The Turn On podcast is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. You can find more podcasts that you'll love at Frolic.media/podcast. Thanks for joining us and we'll see you soon. Bye.