November 30th, 2009
Step aside Twilight, romance writers were here first!

If you were online at all the last couple of weeks, you probably saw this image floating around. (And if you spend much time at Fark, you may have seen this version, too.)

If these were 40 year old men screaming for 17 year old girls, someone would call the police.

I shook my head along with a lot of others (did you know there’s a site for Twilight Moms? with 34K or so members?), but then I finally picked up my November 15th issue of New York Magazine and read the article the image came from.

For me, this was the takeaway line:

Twilight reinvents sex for women who might have placed it at the bottom of a to-do list.

Uh, seems I’ve heard this before? And not about stories of forbidden teen love but about romance novels? Don’t get me wrong. I saw Twilight and I totally get why the hordes of screaming girls, uh, scream. I also understand the critics who find the whole thing very stalkerish (see video below for a hilarious take on that). But the concept of being wanted and loved is so universal that I admittedly melted a bit at the looks exchanged between Edward and Bella, no matter how cheesy the dialogue and how SLOWWWWWWWWWW the pace of the whole thing. Again, from the article:

But for some women, the nostalgia the series inspires has evolved into a how-to guide to romance; TwilightMoms members go so far as to suggest that the books have strengthened their marriages.

And wonder of wonders, more than a few articles have quoted readers saying similar things about romances. I guess we don’t get the same press since we’re not on the big screen? Because our heroes don’t live and breathe and do mall appearances with mussed hair and abs rippling? It’s too bad, ya know, because potential “romance novel moms” wouldn’t have to wait a year between releases to get their fix. They could pick up a hit every time they visited the grocery store. *g* And wow, how strong would their marriages be then? How far up their to-do lists would they place sex if they knew the longing and the love were on bookstore shelves year round? The mind boggles!

10 comments to “Step aside Twilight, romance writers were here first!”

  1. Denise A. Agnew
    Comment
    1
    · November 30th, 2009 at 9:56 am · Link

    All I can say is that you’re right on. You’ve taken the words out of my mouth. :)

    Denise A. Agnew
    http://www.deniseagnew.com



    • Alison
      Comment
      1.1
      · November 30th, 2009 at 9:27 pm · Link

      Really, they should ask the experts for some quotable quotes. ;)



  2. Cindy Procter-King
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    2
    · November 30th, 2009 at 12:13 pm · Link

    I don’t understand the mom-fest thing at all!

    BTW, my tweetmeme suddenly started working.



    • Alison
      Comment
      2.1
      · November 30th, 2009 at 9:21 pm · Link

      I got rid of whichever tweet thing I was using and installed a new one today. So far, so good.



  3. Fedora
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    3
    · November 30th, 2009 at 1:06 pm · Link

    Amen, Alison.



    • Alison
      Comment
      3.1
      · November 30th, 2009 at 9:28 pm · Link

      Us romance novel moms gotta stick together!



  4. Eva
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    4
    · November 30th, 2009 at 4:22 pm · Link

    Amen! You took the words right outa my mouth!



    • Alison
      Comment
      4.1
      · November 30th, 2009 at 9:26 pm · Link

      You would think we wouldn’t have to preach this over and over again. Alas.



  5. Stephanie Julian
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    5
    · November 30th, 2009 at 8:03 pm · Link

    I have another video for you. My son’s 1 minute version. I’m told he’s spot on. I haven’t seen the film so I can’t tell you. I just know he cracks me up.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB2dOhBcs0A



    • Alison
      Comment
      5.1
      · November 30th, 2009 at 9:19 pm · Link

      OMG, Stephanie, that was hysterical! LOL! My daughter who is not a fan went to see it because a friend wanted to, and basically said the same thing, though it wasn’t that entertaining.