Why Shame and Reading Don't Belong In The Same Sentence

I thought loooong and hard (no pun intended...or maybe it is, read it how you want to) about this post. A few weeks ago the buzz about the series Fifty Shades of Grey started. I heard a lot of opinions about it, some good, some bad, some interesting, some extremely bothersome. Some amused me, some pissed me off so much I can't even talk about them without getting mad. I haven't read the book, so I can't really comment on whether it's good or bad or well written or poorly written. But I can comment on a few other things

If before the phrase "porn for women" bothered me a little, "mommy porn" is insulting to me. Yes, I'm talking about romance books and erotic romance books. Yes, I read those books. Do I hide them in my e-reader? No. If someone I know asks me what I'm reading, I show them the screen of my e-reader or I tell them. If they start laughing or making fun of me or looking down at me, it's their problem.

You know, this entire debate could be about fantasy novels or mystery novels or thrillers or horror stories. Just because I don't read something or I didn't enjoy a certain book, doesn't mean that the book was bad or that the people who enjoyed it should be ashamed for enjoying it. It just means I didn't like it. That's all.

I'll say it again. Yes, I read romance novels, mystery novels, horror stories, young adult, chick lit and anything I find enjoyable. And I'm not ashamed of it. And no one should be ashamed of what they read. Do you like what you read? If yes, then good for you. Be happy that for a few hours you can escape the jungle that is the "real" world and enter a magical world, where you can enter and leave whenever you want, a world that can help you relax, dream, fantasize and that can actually teach you something useful.

So why is the world so much against romance novels? Could it be because *GASP* there are sex scenes in them? Guess what, sex is everywhere, whether you like it or not. It's in our basic nature. Or could it be because those novels have some good sex scenes? Why, I didn't know we're back to "women shouldn't enjoy sex" era. You know, it's sad. If a man says he's watching movies with a lot of explicit sex scenes, he's good to go. If a woman reads romance, she gets crap thrown her way.

Reading is something that you either enjoy or you don't. I think no one should feel bad for reading something that others don't like. Or for not liking something others did. Why hide your reading material? I don't think romance novels or erotic romance novels are about sex.They're about the relationships themselves. Just as mystery novels aren't about murderers or a guide book on how to kill, they're about the suspense or the action or the artifact (like in The Da Vinci Code). Don't be ashamed about what you read. The people judging you by your choices in reading material should be ashamed.