This was just annoying
Oct 10th, 2006 by Sandra
In response to the Most Annoying Romance-Related Verbiage of the Day:
To: Fred Head
Subject: Pornography v. Romance
Cc: Susan Combs
Dear Mr. Head,
Romance novels celebrate two people who overcome obstacles and engage in personal growth to build a monogamous, committed relationship, and these novels often include descriptions of physical acts. Pornography celebrates physical acts that often result in the exploitation and denigration of women.
Romance readers purchase over 50% of all mass market paperback novels, spending 1.2 billion dollars annually.
You may be interested to know that Texas is home of the Romance Writers of America, the largest, most active writers group in North America. With over 9,000 members, about 25% of whom are published, it strives to promote the romance genre and encourage writers of romance to pursue excellence in their work. You can find out more about RWA at its web site: http://www.rwanational.org/
Texas has 11 chapters of RWA alone.
Please reconsider labeling your opponent’s romance novel as pornography. I’m sure one of your staff can visit a 24 hour bookstore and pick up a truly pornographic novel for comparison. The differences should be immediately obvious to even a less discerning reader.
Respectfully,
Sandra K. Moore
Update ~ 10 October 2006
Got a reply from Ms. Coombs, who thanked me for my support. Technically, it was support of romance, not of her, but whatever. Nothing from Mr. Head.
However, a groundswell of support has risen up in the writing community, and I suspect neither Mr. Head, the DNC, nor RWA have heard the last of this one yet.
5 Responses to “This was just annoying”
I think everyone is missing the bigger picture, Susan
Combs wrote a book with sex and then Susan
Combs took a public position during debate on a sex education (ABSENCE ONLY) bill while she served as a State Representative. The point, Susan
Combs is a hypocrite.
Fred Head is clearly stating the facts.
Please debate how you can write a book of this nature and then took a public position of sex education (ABSENCE ONLY) bill. Can’t have it both ways.
Thanks for dropping by, Concerned Citizen.
I think it’s you and Mr. Head who are missing the point. Consider the following:
Ms. Susan Combs’ support of Abstinence [not ABSENCE, though that would presumably do the trick as well] is hypocritical. In 1990 she published a novel called A Perfect Match that depicted premarital sex in graphic detail. We cannot find this consistent with her current stance on effective sex education.
Perhaps you can see that your point comes across while NOT misrepresenting the romance genre as pornography and dissing the thousands of writers and millions of readers who enjoy that genre.
As it is, Mr. Head’s characterization of romance as pornography has shown a remarkable lack of subtlety and exposed his antiquarian thinking on the topic. It assumes that a woman cannot be both a spiritual and sexual being. It assumes that a woman who enjoys sex must be a slut — someone attracted to pornography.
That’s what has attracted all the ire of the romance writing and reading world — using an attack on the genre to try to score points off Ms. Combs.
I notice that all links you used for Ms. Comb’s name go to Mr. Head’s web site rather than hers. Please don’t spam my comments section with your propaganda again.
Hello Sandra,
I would like to point out to the concerned citizen that Ms. Combs wrote a book about two consenting adults in a committed relationship.
Voting on a bill that promots abstinence for children is not hypocritical, it shows responsibility to the youth of our state.
Mr. Head should do research in areas he knows nothing about before shooting off his mouth. We can only pray Mr. Head and others have learned a valuable lesson. Don’t mess with romance writers.
Respectfully,
Keelia Greer
Rock on, Sandra!
See you at the polls! And the same spammer left similar comments on my rant at the romanceunleased blog.
Jessica Trapp
Kate