Bonktastic Bonkbusters!: Sexing Up Late Twentieth-Century Women’s Writing
The second lecture in the five-part Bonkbusters series, curated by Jo Parsons.
The pejorative and spiteful term ‘Bonkbuster’ was derived from ‘bonk’, a British term for sex, and ‘blockbuster’, a very commercially successful book or film, and was used as a means to dismiss a popular, hugely influential, and diverse subgenre of women’s writing which emerged in the 1970s before barging its way, stilettoed and shoulder padded, into the 1980s. The Bonkbuster gave women permission to desire and demand good sex and professional success in a time that was still very much a man’s world. Its authors were revolutionary in many ways; for example, Jackie Collins, ‘Queen of Trash’, celebrity author, and alleged chronicler of Hollywood’s bad behaviour, is famous for her catchphrase and unwavering belief that ‘girls can do anything’; and Shirley Conran was still active until her death in 2024 in empowering women through her social entrepreneurship, a mission which previously involved using her novel Lace (1982) to educate teenagers about sex – an aim that was somewhat undermined by a rather unusual encounter featuring a goldfish.
The Bonkbuster is having something of a resurgence today. The Disney+ adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s Rivals (1988) landed on our screens last year with cheeky pops of champagne corks and a scene featuring an airplane toilet and membership of the mile high club. These women have repeatedly proved that sex sells, while challenging and reshaping attitudes to female sexual pleasure.
This talk will provide a saucy and fun introduction to the Bonkbuster and the ways in which it spiced up both women’s writing and their bedrooms in the late twentieth century.
Biography
Dr Joanne Ella Parsons is Senior Lecturer in English and Creative Writing at Falmouth University. She is an expert on romantic fiction and is currently writing a book on the Bonkbuster. Her books include Doomed Romances (British Library 2024) and 13 Cornish Ghost Stories (Mabecron, 2024)
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SERIES OVERVIEW
Join us as we enter the glamourous and ruthless world of the Bonkbuster, a phenomenon in mid-late 20th century popular women’s writing, which showed us that sex and excess really does sell, and taught women they could come out on top in both bedroom and boardroom.
