Do’s and Don’ts for Detective Writers Dealing With Sex

By The Editors of Spicy Detective Magazine

“I could see the sudden surge of her gorgeous watchacallems under her fawn frock. I commenced shaking her until her thingumbobs jiggled like mounds of aspic in an earthquakes.”
— Dan Turner in “Death’s Passport” (December 1940, Spicy Detective)

The following requirements were laid down by the editors of Spicy Detective back in the thirties:

• In describing breasts of a female character, avoid anatomical descriptions. 
  
• If it is necessary to have the girl give herself to a man, or be taken from him, do not go too carefully into details…
  
• Whenever possible, avoid complete nudity of the female characters. You can have a girl; strip to her underwear or transparent negligee or gown, or the thin torn shred of her garments, but while the girl is alive and in contact with a man, we do not want complete nudity.
  
• A nude female corpse is allowable, of course.
  
• Also a girl undressing in the privacy of her own room, but when men are in the action try to keep at least a shred of something on the girls.
  
• Do not have men in underwear in scenes with women, and no nude men at all.

The editors concluded by reminding readers that “The idea is to have a very strong sex element in these stories without anything that might be interpreted as being obscene or vulgar.”

Respectfully submitted by Kevin BurtonSmith. From Snobbery With Violence (1971; Eyre and Spottiswoode) by Colin Watson.