I can’t resist this one. My sister sent me a link to a story in The Australian about a British relationship counsellor Susan Quillam. Here’s the link : The Australian – ‘Leading medical journal criticises romance novels for promoting an unhealthy ideal for health and relationships.’
It would have been good to read Ms Quillam’s original article, but unfortunately I couldn’t find it, or access her department’s website, so I can only use The Australian’s take on her view. (I know, I know, I should do my own research…)
I’d like to think Ms Quillam has read a romance novel since the 1980’s, but on balance of evidence I suspect she hasn’t. The gist of her beef is Romance novels don’t promote safe sex or healthy ideals about orgasms. I quote – ‘The typical bodice-ripper ends with the heroine being rescued from danger by the hero, and then abandoning herself joyfully to a life of intercourse-driven orgasms and endless trouble-free pregnancies in order to cement their marital devotion.”
Hmm, none of my heroines have required rescuing nor had their shirts ripped in a moment of passion. A life of intercourse-driven orgasms? Well hell, what’s wrong with hoping for a few of those 🙂  And all those trouble free pregnancies? Any woman who’s given birth, or seen a friend go through it, surely knows that’s not going to happen!
I will read anything with a happy ending for precisely that, the uncomplicated joy and optimism the conclusion will bring. I know that doesn’t mean GW and I won’t have a lively discussion about the house finances, nor do I expect GW to take on Fabio like proportions  (for the record I’ve never been a Fabio fan…)  and start swinging from the ceiling fan. Personally I think Ms Quillam should consider the uplifting endorphins the body releases when it has a good experience.
She already recognises that romance accounts for half of all fiction bought. If she’s serious about having a greater impact than Mills and Boons on the health of her patients perhaps she could sponsor a Romance line called Safe Sexy!
I’ll leave you with her rather telling final quote.
“What we see in our consulting rooms is more likely to be informed by Mills and Boon than by the Family Planning Association,” she says.
So?
How’s you’re health?
NCIS should definitely be preferable to romance, Bron. All that death and horror should prepare you and the children for life in the real world!
So instead of being a harmless, feel good kind of genre, romance is as great a threat to the wellbeing of the human race as infant formula, and perhaps even more of a threat than McDonalds! Better get out those old copies of Anna Karenina and Mother Courage and Her Children for a bit of reality angst. Or better yet, watch Days of Our Lives, or, gosh, the evening news, for the sequel to ‘happily ever after’! Personally, I’m off to watch reruns of NCIS – no risk of false happy endings there!
Thanks for posting that, Alison.
Helene,
You can read the whole horror here… http://tinyurl.com/4xyrwls
Enjoy.
Alison
And I’d be concerned for the structural integrity of the house if he did!!
If Gw did swing from the ceiling fan, I would look for the Vodka bottle 🙂