Question about what female character would feel . . .

Maybe I should've mentioned that the world I'm writing isn't exactly the world we live in, so non-gloved medical practice is okay. Sorry, should've mentioned it before.

 

Wow [MENTION=53143]GingerCoffee[/MENTION] I guess there's a whole world of non-gloved medical practices Quite a surprise to me, as I thought I would have encountered it somewhere over the years. But I suppose standards vary.

Aw, I apologise [MENTION=39851]E. C. Scrubb[/MENTION], when I read

I assumed you are asking whether in real life any of this would be viable. Didn't realise you were asking whether it would be viable in fiction. My mistake

 

LOL, not a problem, your responses did help me mold the way I was looking at the issue, and that is what I was looking for beyond anything else. Thanks for doing so.

 

My view is that if there's any other scene that you can substitute to fulfill this purpose, it would probably be best to let this scene go. It's just so very, very far from feeling sexual - exchanging a smile with a guy on the subway would feel more sexual to me, even if both girl and guy are individually wrapped in three layers of winter weather gear - that I think that it would distract and confuse the reader, rather than communicating the information that you're trying to communicate.

 

At the risk of already being disliked on a forum I'm still new to, I'm going to give my two cents. The scene you've described sounds to me like it's going to have the opposite effect of what you want it to have. Since it's merely a description of the scene, it might give off a completely different vibe once you write it and put it in the context of the story. But the description is giving me the opposite feeling. As someone else mentioned, people often turn of sexual thoughts in medical situations. If the character were so extremely faithful to her boyfriend, I would think she, even more than the average person, wouldn't feel anything of a sexual nature. Clearly she does though. She pushes it out of her mind because she IS faithful, I understand that, but, to me, it would make more sense if she didn't feel anything at all. The fact that she is feeling something sexual with another person in a what you describe as a non-sexual situation is the problem. And it seems as though she's more worried about the situation and her faithfulness than the average person would be. I imagine she would have more of a, "Well this is awkward. Why is this turning me on? I must just be nervous because my mind isn't turned on at all," kind of attitude. I also understand that everyone is different and sometimes people get turned on when they don't mean to, etc., but I think you'd be better off putting her in a situation that IS sexual and having her either be completely oblivious to any sexual tension (because she is just so faithful to her boyfriend she doesn't even see other men as individual sexual beings but rather just a group of people who are of no interest to her) or having her be uncomfortable. Of course, it also depends on the traits of the character.

 

No no no, we welcome critiques. It's mostly strong opinions about gods, politics and grammar rules that earn people enemies.

Your comments made sense.

 

Thank you! Just trying to offer help, but I usually stay low key when I'm new just in case. I tend to keep my opinions about gods and politics to myself, and I know better than to argue grammar with fellow writers

 

Not at all, that's why I posted this here. The more responses I get, the more patterns I can see in the responses and that means the more I can distinguish what is unique vs. a common concern. So you're answering helps out tremendously. Thank you.

Others have said about the same thing and it's given me pause in the way I've handled that scene. I haven't taken it out, yet, but I am much, much more open to doing it now.

I'm split on this, part of me thinks that is a great way to handle what I want to do with the scene. Another part of me however, realizes that she already knows it's just a part of her biological makeup (Did I fail to mention that she's not fully human?) I think what I'm going for, and you've helped me express it better here, is something along the lines of, "Oh, great, and there's that part of my heritage showing up. I really wish it was my boyfriend cause these sensations" type of thing.

There's some other elements I haven't mentioned here that would make this pretty hard to do. Good ideas, however.

 

Sounds like a very normal reaction - if you're attracted to the doctor and he's probing your inner thigh, I'd say anyone would get turned on, esp given the tension (eg. you can't do anything about it).

For someone who's very tactile, if anything, you'd be tickled to death hahahaha I'm actually not joking though. I remember the first time I was ever touched by a guy - he was just stroking my skin, my back, my waist, sides - nothing sexual in the touch at all - and good grief I had to fight to stay still. Not because I was turned on, I wasn't. I was just extremely ticklish and every slight brush of his skin on mine made me jump.

So, your character might feel ticklish and struggle to keep still. This could make for a rather amusing and embarrassing scene. Just imagine

 

I doubt that the women would be aroused but depending on her personality she may well get nervous butterflies in her stomach -though if she did, it would probably be because she feels uncomfortable rather than turned on. This would most likely be if she is young, inexperienced or just has a nervous personality
Good luck figuring out your scene!

 

This makes sense, but then one would have to convey clearly (elsewhere is fine) what makes this happen and what doesn't. I would think this character was in control of the trait rather than the other way around. It shouldn't be happening if say, the cat rubs against her leg, or would it?

From my female point of view, I want to empathize with sexual attraction/stimulation that I read. Unless the intent is to gross the reader out, the scene probably needs more tweaking than just explaining the response to the reader. The doctor needs to be attractive, or at least his/her touch should be.