Mike has found a new reason to be ticked at romance novels.  Actually, Mike and Hayley, who I assume is Mrs. Mike, appear to be in a rather accusatory mood regarding fairy tales, chick lit, chick flicks, romance novels and female porn.  Apparently, they view these as all the same thing, or one leads to another…or something. 

They define "female pornography" for us in Boundless Webzine, described as "A Website Of Focus On The Family":

[F]emale pornography has for decades been an accepted pastime, sliding under the radar of the religious right and instead being promoted as an acceptable distraction from the worries of life. But what exactly is female porn? Is there a definition for this newly discovered blight on society? For the answer to this question, we need look no further than the honorable Mr. Webster and his infamous dictionary of words.

pornography – 3: the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional reaction

Catch that? Emotional. We contend that the job of the chick flick, romance novel, and love song is to arouse a quick, intense emotional reaction.

Then, after using the term "Female Pornocopia" in a sentence - yeah, they did - they say the problem is when a woman who has been pumped full of unrealistic expectations starting with the fairy tales of her innocent youth then later sees a chick flicks or finishes a romance/chick lit novel.  See, after all that exposure to cool perfect guys, she has to return to the deadbeat loser she’s married to and he can’t possibly be expected to live up to her expectations. 

They end - right before the plug for their new book Marriable - with this:

If the number of romance novels and chick flicks you consume in a month exceeds the number of dates on your social calendar, you may be getting out of balance.

Hmmm.  Or….movies and books are forms of entertainment and not the evil spawns of Satan.

Somebody read the book and tell me the ending. 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 20th, 2005 at 4:03 am and is filed under About Books, About Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.