Exactly how steamy is this story?
R
We couldn't put it better than The Corporation: each racy scene is "an honest, consensual expression in which a girl might take an active role when she feels good and ready and not one minute before." (15.61)
Except The Corporation was condemning sex being portrayed that way. Oh, the irony.
There are make-out scenes in this book, plus sex and near-sex scenes, and they aren't moralistic. The girls make active decisions, and no one is punished. The sex scenes aren't very explicit—there isn't a lot of description—but in each case, we read about the decision to keep going: "She wanted him. She wanted this. It was her choice." (22.249) Way to emphasize that consent, Bray. Stick it to The Corporation.
If this were a movie, there'd be no question that it would be rated R. But if Beauty Queens were a movie, you wouldn't read any of the stuff going on in the Teen Dreams' heads—the thoughts that show that they are making active choices. And ironically, those thoughts are what The Corporation sees as dangerous—not the sex itself. Kinda makes you think about what you get to see in the movies, huh?