Take The Paris Review and smash it over the head with a copy of Tropic of Cancer. Boom! You have Cliterati, a British text-based porn Website for women. A tempestuous blend of intellectual erotica and Penthouse Forum, the Website's content is sexy but never insipid, reading like a Danielle Steele novel if edited by David Remnick of The New Yorker.
"People said that the Internet was full of porn, but after seven years in the Internet industry, I couldn't find anything that hit the spot," says Emily Dubberley, Cliterati's founding director.
The idea for the Website, which went online Aug. 31, 2001, came from Dubberley's "rather ambitious aspiration" to get the word "cliterati" into the Oxford English Dictionary as a positive alternative to "slut." "Now 'slut' can be used as a compliment - 'I love that you're a filthy slut,' for example," Dubberley wrote in an online post. "But it's still tainted by negative connotations. 'Cliterati,' on the other hand, still has a chance to mean something positive."
Setting the stage for a future in literate smut, Dubberley, who studied Social Psychology and English in college, used her final project to examine whether or not women want their sexual fantasies to come true.
"When I graduated, I went into marketing and journalism, and when I had editorial day jobs, a lot of what I did involved the Internet," says Dubberley. "I was writing copy from 1996 on, and got more into the marketing and coding side of things [later]. Cliterati combined the things I enjoy doing with a lot of the skills I learned over the years."
Dubberley spent time talking to numerous women, all of whom seemed equally dismayed about the state of female-oriented sex on the Web. "So, we decided to create a site that offered free masturbation material for women," she says. "The site was my idea, but I gathered together a group of other female journalists who helped shape the [content]. A fantasy site wouldn't work, in my opinion, if it only reflected one person's taste; so at launch, six of us wrote the initial 100 stories."
Dubberley says it was a "deliberate decision" to allow anyone to contribute stories. "Even with six of us, we didn't think we could reflect the full spectrum of women's fantasies," says Dubberley. "However, we also didn't want there to be anything underage or non-consensual on the site, which is why we decided to moderate all contributions."
She adds, "When we tested the concept with other women, loads of them reported that bad punctuation could get in the way of getting off on a story, so we wanted to make sure that the stories were as grammatically correct as possible."
While the content's hot, the site doesn't provide photos or other illustrations. "There aren't any pictures because it's legally tricky to show an erect penis in the U.K. - and we don't see the point of showing soft ones," Dubberley remarks with a hint of jest.
Also, because the site is designed to appeal to women of potentially any sexual orientation, Dubberley says it would be difficult to choose which pictures to post. "For example, if we showed pictures of women for the lesbian audience, some of the straight audience might think it exploitative. It was a minefield we didn't think was worth getting into. After all, there are lots of sites out there that provide pictures if people want to see them."
In the end, Dubberley says the aim is "to provide material that helps women get off."
The site offers sexual fantasies in six areas: straight, lesbian, and bi; group; sub/Dom; taboo; and "By Men," which was added after a poll showed that visitors wanted to read fantasies written by men.
In addition to stories, there're reviews of books, sex toys, and films; interviews with "sexual pioneers"; sex news; features on everything from "How to Get What You Want in Bed" to issues like female circumcision; a "sex hell" section for those embarrassing moments; and a store.
The word and the Website are still developing; blending nicely as they establish cultural significance and produce well-written sexual prose, respectively.
Dubberley's germinant goal, to generate semantic respect for a sex-positive word, has grown into something more concrete than inclusion in a dictionary. Mixing the abbreviation for clitoris with terminology like glitterati (celebrities) and literati (an elitist band of respected and not-so-respected novelists, journalists, etc. [see George Plimpton]), Cliterati.com is sexy, it's cultured and it has enough razzle-dazzle to make it pop culture-cool.
Where a tiny inference in cliterati can be traced to the 'I am woman hear me roar'-inspired refrain of "Girl Power" (thank you, Spice Girls), Dubberley's hope of a deep, social context for 'cliterati' is genuine.
"We're trying to help women feel better about sex," says Dubberley. "So many women feel abnormal or uncomfortable about sex. They feel bad about fantasizing about certain things: commonly lesbian sex and sub/Dom scenarios. We want to help all women feel good about whatever choice they make, as long as it doesn't involve anyone getting [non-consensually] hurt."
She adds, "There's still a stigma associated with female masturbation [not to mention sexual rights and power]; when we launched, we got hate mail [suggesting we were] male or sluts because 'No normal women would set up a porn site.'"
Dubberley sardonically goes on, "Big news... women masturbate too, and it's fun."
She points out the campaigning element where they give free advertising to sexual health charities and run news stories supporting sex-positive campaigns.
"While we'd love Cliterati to become the word for a sexually empowered woman - and virgins can be as sexually empowered as people who are sexually active - it's more important that it happens as a part of a societal change," says Dubberley. "But we'd love it if Cliterati could help and was in any way attributed to that change."
To go a long with the new social movement, Dubberley put together "Ten - Or So - Commandments," if you will, as a mission statement of just who a "Cliterati Woman" is. A sampling from her post: "Members of 'The Cliterati' are feisty women who love sex and aren't afraid to admit it.... " "They always practice safe sex, to protect themselves and their partners.... " "Cliterati girls know the difference between fucking and making love.... " "Cliterati girls aren't afraid of making the first move, but know how to flirt when they feel like being seduced.... " "And they know what they like, because they've been masturbating regularly for years."
It's definitely a lot sexier than all of those Thou Shalt Nots.
The venture was set up on what Dubberley explains as "an incredibly minimal budget." There were also partnership deals put together over everything from site design to hosting.
"The marketing plan was based entirely on link exchanges, PR and partnerships," says Dubberley. "We weren't expecting the press to seize onto it as much as they did - that came as a pleasant surprise."
For sure, because after viewing a beta version of the site, TheRegister.co.uk ran a story two weeks before the site launch. The floodgates were opened: Dubberley says that in no time, "The phone was ringing off the hook from journalists wanting to come to our launch party." She says they had not planned for much more than a simple pub gathering for "mates," but in the two weeks following the newspaper story, they put together an event in a club with a DJ, free cocktails, and press packs.
"That party is still the single biggest expenditure we've made," says Dubberley. "It cost under �200 for 150 press members."
From that point forward, the staff decided that Cliterati.com was to be a business, rather than just fun. "After about eight months, I secured enough freelance work to be able to dedicate half my week to Cliterati, and it's grown from there," says Dubberley. "We're now attracting half-a-million page impressions per month, and still growing."
There is a wealth of first-rate content on the site, contributed by both freelance and staff writers.
"We'll write anything between five and 30 stories each month, and the rest are contributed by site users," Dubberley reveals. "We can't afford to pay contributors yet, but we don't charge for access to the content, either. If we think someone is particularly talented, we will mail them to let them know and give them details of the main erotic imprint in the U.K."
Thus far, Dubberley says they have helped one person get a literary agent at Curtis Brown (a well-respected agency in the U.K.), which resulted in the writer getting a column in a newspaper and a book deal.
Dubberley says the Cliterati readership is close to 75 percent U.K.-based, with the majority of the remainder U.S.-based.
"Although we have served about 200 pages to the Vatican City," quips the charmer.
Dubberley is excited about the prospects of promoting the Website to American audiences, hoping to catch on with a new segment of girls and women (and guys too, for that matter).
"It's a case of one thing at a time, but we've already linked up with The Femmerotic Network in the U.S., and are keen to explore other opportunities," she says. "Our first priority was getting the site known in the U.K.; but the U.S. is the next obvious place to go."
What with the rise of "laddie mags" (e.g. FHM, Maxim), one might say Cliterati.com is the female number - albeit one based solely on the Web and with no visuals.
Dubberley doesn't see it just so.
"Although the site does have a sense of humor (because sex isn't just a big serious thing, it is funny at times), that could be seen as 'laddie'; but we try to reflect what women want. If we're unsure on an issue, we'll run a poll on it or ask a question in the newsletter to see what people want."
As for the future, Dubberley mentions a content syndication deal in the works, but couldn't elaborate. "It should be pretty exciting when it takes off," she says.
At press time, Cliterati was also providing audio material for an event in Britain (run by rudegirls.com). "It's an obvious area for expansion, be it radio, phone lines or even story tapes," says Dubberley.
As the Cliterati brand becomes more popular, there are plans to grow the marketing campaign, specifically merchandise. "We've got the Cliterati T-shirt," says Dubberley, "but we'd like to expand into lingerie and sex toys at some point."
She adds, "And we're always looking for new partnerships, so if anyone in the U.S. is looking to get involved with a women's sex site, we're very happy to talk to them."
It's a movement and a sexy Webzine all at once. And if you're still curious what being a "Cliterati Women" is about, here are a few final thoughts from Dubberley on the subject:
"Cliterati gals might sleep with loads of people. They might be virgins. They might be married and monogamous. They can be straight, lesbian, bi or whatever. But they know who they are, they love their sexual sides, and they don't give a damn who knows."
She adds, "Surely a word that means all this would be a good addition to the dictionary?"
