An Old Rant

I don't have a blog.  I've thought about getting one, but just haven't yet. (ooops... scratch that... I've got one now)  BUT, I felt moved to rant on the Romance Unleashed Blog the other day because of some idiotic comments being slung around by a current political candidate.  This is a copy of the post.

I’m going to warn you right now that this post is going to be a rant. I opened my inbox today to see that Democratic candidate Fred Head (WTF was his mama thinking when she named him that? ) is dissing romance novels and dogging his opponent who wrote one 15 years ago.

This is off his website:

Susan Combs claims to be a person of high moral standards. Her record of writing, having published and selling a pornographic book clearly shows that Susan Combs is a two faced, hypocrite who was obviously more concerned with her literary career and seeing her name in print than the morals of the young People of Texas who are exposed to her 222 page book, A Perfect Match, which has her name at the top of every other page - - - a clear testament to Susan Combs’ insatiable ego and desire to see her name in print.

FIRST: romance books are NOT pornography. Romance books promote family, fidelity, marriage,monogamous relationships and love. 

SECOND: does the man never read? Most books have the author’s name at the top. It’s not the AUTHOR’s choice–we don’t have any control over that at all.

THIRD (and my real rant): I think the reason Fred Head crawled up my craw was because this is a snapshot of my typical life (taken yesterday):

This is not so much about Head but about some of the comments being slung around that Combs is a hypocrite because she makes a stand for family values, goes to church AND wrote a book 15 years ago that contains sex scenes.

I don’t know if Combs is a hypocrite or not…heck, I’d never heard her name until it came up on the writer’s loops… but EXCUSE ME–WHEN did the non-church-goers get the monopoly on sex?

This whole issue just hacks me off. Why are we so separated from our bodies that we can’t be both moral and sexual at the same time?

God gave us these bodies. Gave them to us for us to enjoy. He invented sex for crying out loud. He made our bodies fit together the way they do. He created our desires. The whole Song of Solomon is one yummy image after the next relating spirituality and sex. I’m married. I’m monogamous. I quit my full time (lucrative) career to stay home and raise a child. I volunteer at school. I make homemade soup. I garden. I pray. I meditate. AND I have sex. Knock your socks off sex. Having family values and having sex are NOT mutually exclusive. In fact, I’d say if more married couples had hot sex with each other, there would be a lot MORE happy homes. Likely the divorce rate would be lower.

Are we still in Jr high where if you do it you’re a slut and if you don’t then you’re a prude? Or are we still back in the middle ages where a woman could be a Madonna or a whore and nothing in between?

This whole attitude that women can’t be BOTH sweet, moral, good people AND able to have naughty, raunchy desires just SMACKS of old-fashion double-standard sexism to me.

When people start saying that using the God given talent to write books that promote committed relationships and happy-ever-after endings is immoral my black thong panties twist into a freakin’ knot.

Ya think this might be a sore spot with me?

For the record, I don’t have an issue with people choosing to write erotica (romance or not) or with how adults choose to live their lives, what religion they practice or don’t, or who they have or don’t have sex with. I’m just sick of this all or nothing attitude. Sick of the attitude that if we admit to having, thinking or writing about sex it MUST mean that we can’t at the same time admit to having a prayer life or having a relationship with God. Going to church and believing in prayer doesn’t mean giving up thinking about or having normal, healthy desires. GEEZ!

I don’t see this as a Romance writer’s issue. I see it as a WOMEN’s issue. I just wonder if a man had written a mystery that happened to have sex in it, if we’d see the same accusations about writing porno. It irritates me that when women write relationship books that happen to have relationship sex, it’s dragged through the dirt. Seems like the whole whore/Madonna thing is reserved for women.

Well. Enough for now. Told you I was in a rant.

Feel free to add your comments to the Romance Unleashed Blog at: http://romanceunleashed.com/blog/?p=471#comments