Romance Novels Seduce Women Into Unsafe Sex, Says British Journal

Romance Novels Seduce Women Into Unsafe Sex, Says British Journal.  I have read a few Nora Roberts futuristic cop dramas that are fairly interesting, but are typically ruined by the author's penchant for graphic,  sleezy sex scenes; and several of her "romance" novels picked up at airports while traveling on planes.  Without refining too much, I have to say that the latter are ridiculous.  Every one has the same three heroines, the same three heroes, minor changes in plot lines, and the only significant changes are in the names, geography and crises.  My impression is that the author's contempt for women is inescapable, albeit barely concealed in the way she treats her characters. Surveying the reviews on several online bookseller sites leads one to believe that the readers of these novels are utterly seduced by the books.  Here is an opinion posted in the British Journal that details
it in greater depth.

 "Damn me to hell or take me to heaven, but for God's sake, do it now," writes romance author Nora Roberts with breathless sexual overtones in her 2008 novel, "Taming Natasha and Luring a Lady.  In the book, heroine Sydney Hayward inherits a family business and falls in love with a dark-haired stranger who arrives on her doorstep, but first she must confront a "disaster in her past."

"Roberts, who has written 209 books and was the first author to be inducted into the Romance Writers Hall of Fame, is a master of the genre, one that racks up about $1.36 billion in annual sales, according to industry statistics.

Romance novels have long been the object of derision, but Roberts has recently given the genre academic gravitas. She donated $100,000 to McDaniel College in Maryland, located near her hometown in Keedysville, to offer a minor in romance literature and a creative writing course.

But now Roberts and other writers who offer sensuous characters and steamy dialogue are under fire by health professionals who say these novels can influence women to make bad relationship choices and seduce them into risky sex and infidelity."

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/romance-writers-seduce-women-unsafe-sex-infidelity-british/story?id=14078762

"An essay in Britain's Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care says that romance novels portray an idealized vision of love and sex -- and some women may not be able to distinguish fact from fantasy.

"Women and men need to be less driven by emotion and making sensible life choices," said Quilliam, a respected health professional who updated the classic guide, "Joy of Sex."

"Romance novels are great fun -- I used to read them myself -- but society's value of romantic novels needs to be taken into account when we, as health professionals, look at our patients and the decisions they make about their sex and love lives," she said.

In her work with young women, Quilliam said she encounters women who get "swept away by emotion...One of the things that happens is they enter into a dysfunctional romantic relationship and the emotions can be very strong. And they think if it's strong, it's true love." 


Romance Novels Seduce Women Into Unsafe Sex, Says British Journal.  Read more of this article at the link below. 


 http://abcnews.go.com/Health/romance-writers-seduce-women-unsafe-sex-infidelity-british/story?id=14078762