Romance Novels, Filled With Passionate Love and Torrid Sex, Mislead Women Torrid sex 激烈的性愛

By BONNIE ROCHMAN When is rape considered legitimate 合法? When it's a literary gambit 小說開 場白 in the pages of romantic fiction, a best-selling genre 種類(通常音樂、電影 與書籍都可用此字代表分類) that often misleads women by portraying idealized love and sometimes dangerous sex, according to a recent article in

the Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care.美國家庭計畫 與生殖健康期刊 “I would argue that a huge number of the issues we see in our clinics and therapy rooms 臨床所見的病患案例 are influenced by romantic fiction,” writes Susan Quilliam, a popular British “agony aunt,” the U.K. version of a Dear Abby columnist and a regular contributor to the journal.(這是兩性專家 信箱專欄，美國有知名的 Dear Abby 英國有 Agony Aunt 這些女性都有自己的 報紙專欄，討論兩性問題，通常是讀者來函，專家會回答，閱讀人口非常多) It's surprising that romantic fiction still resonates so deeply 產生深切的共鳴 in cultures where women's rights are championed(這句話的意思是說，在美 國這個女權至上的國家，竟然言情小說還賣得這麼好實在令人感到訝異，因為 這些小說中的女主角都是可憐兮兮等待男人垂憐、並且以被男性佔有為生命己 任), notes Quilliam, but in some developed nations, romantic novels comprise nearly half of all fiction sold. Romantic fiction accounts for more than $1 billion annually in U.S. sales; Quilliam says Harlequin — the brand name synonymous with 跟…畫上等號 romance novels(美國的出版商 Harlequin 儼 然已經成為言情小說的代名詞，出版這些小說為這家出版商帶來非常高的利 潤) — reportedly sells more than four books each second. In the course of writing her opinion piece, Quilliam, a sexual-health educator 兩性健康教育者, analyzed previous research on romantic novels and scrutinized 檢視 a few herself. “I realized they are not helpful,” she says. “Often the woman is seen as the weaker subject who does all the giving and bows to what the man says.”在言情小說中，女主角通常都被描繪成屈服於 男人淫威之下的弱者，心甘情願讓男人予取予求 Sometimes a character is almost raped and thinks it's wonderful that a man will “ 'take' her,” Quilliam adds.有時書中女主角被男主角霸王硬上弓，事後還會心生甜蜜感。 These books may be far from a throwaway beach read(美國人度假會買些好 消化的閒書來看，多半是看完即丟的小說，沒有什麼真正的文學價值，這邊指這 種言情小說，可能還無法與類似的度假小說劃上等號). Quilliam makes the case that literary descriptions of nonconsensual sex and hapless women who are sexually unsatisfied until a man “awakens” them are demeaning 有損人格。 (專家指出，類似的言情小說多有一個通病，就是裡面的女主角經常被男主角硬 上，她們只能軟弱無招加之力的屈服，這類近乎強暴式的性愛，竟然還能喚起女 性內在的性渴望，實在是兩性關係中，最離譜的誤導。)

From a practical perspective, romantic fiction has an unhealthy tendency to gloss over contraception 更糟糕的是，言情小說裡面的性愛描繪，經常絕口不提 避孕方式. Burly 魁梧的肌肉男 men on horseback 騎著馬 rarely use condoms in this sort of literature, and that sends an unsafe message. Romance readers who took part in a recent survey responded negatively to condom use, Quilliam says; it's hardly a coincidence that just 1 in 10 romantic-fiction titles in the survey even mentioned condom use.這一段就是在撻伐這些小說倡導危 險性行為，因為隻字不提保險套的使用。 But promoting unhealthy sex isn't the only knock against the genre 不是唯一 令人詬病之處. Anyone who's ever flipped through 翻閱 the pages of a romantic-fiction novel, its cover adorned with a man's thickly muscled torso 全身肌肉的壯男 holding up a hapless-looking flaxen-haired beauty 懷裡抱 著的是一個亞麻色頭髮看起來柔弱無力的女人, knows that the genre isn't always dedicated to presenting life as we know it.這與現實世界的男歡女愛差 十萬八千里

Multiple orgasms 多重性高潮 and effortless pregnancies 不費吹灰之力就能 懷孕 are not necessarily the stuff of reality, and portraying them as such does women a disservice(英文的 to do …a disservice 就是幫倒忙的意思). “I'm not arguing that all romantic fiction is misguided, wrong or evil — to do so

would be to negate 否決掉 my teenage self as well as the many millions of readers who innocently enjoy romances,” Quilliam writes. And to be fair, her research turned up at least one positive aspect of romance novels: many women say reading the books encourages them to be more sexually adventurous with their partner.說來說去，專家指認同類似小說對女 性唯一的幫助，那就是鼓勵女性在性方面變得比較勇於嘗鮮與冒險(不那麼矜持 放不開) That said, writes Quilliam, who fields 當動詞這邊指的是閱讀與回覆(處理) more than 25,000 letters a year requesting relationship advice, “sometimes the kindest and wisest thing we can do for our clients is to encourage them to put down the books — and pick up reality.”這句話有對仗，注意 put down and pick up,專家要女性放下書本(言情小說)重拾現實，才不會活在不切實際的幻想 當中。