The Wilting Virgin

So you thought that the average Bengali girl was as far removed from the world of porn as your average boudi from a dildo (household vegetables excluded) BUT therein lies the shocker- most, nay all female of the species have come in contact with the world’s largest industry of soft porn- the generic romance novel. A few raised eyebrows? After all, even our mothers read those dog eared Victoria Holts now stacked innocently in a dusty corner of the bookshelf- or not so innocently if they have been er handled by the hands of the next generation. With ever so subtle names like The Legend of the Seventh Virgin, The Shivering Sands, Mask of the Enchantress, The Demon Lover, The Devil on Horseback etc Ms. Holt (which, by the way, is a pseudonym-one of many assumed by the lady in question…one wonders why) continues to pander to that apparently collective fantasy of all women- to be passionately ravished by a dangerously virile and wickedly calculating rascal (a quick check to see if my undergarment is not spontaneously combusting- my feminist blood is on the boil) .

I quote from The Devil on Horseback -

“ ‘When we transgress’, he went on, ‘we must pay for our sins. This is the payment l ask.’ He took my face in his hands and kissed me on the lips- not once but many times.

I was horrified. I had never been kissed in such a way before. I wrenched myself free and ran…”

Then of course, the heroine (always a beautiful virgin who has to be semi-raped before she unleashes the ‘real woman’ inside her) falls in love with this megalomaniac and goes on to morally uplift him while being ravenously ravished by him along the way. The story is always the same. The variables include the setting , the colour of the (causian)heroine’s hair and eyes and perhaps the colour of the roguish hero’s skin (no, not that skin) . The point is, inspite of being regressive and thoroughly unrealistic, Ms. Holt’s books have sold more than 50 million copies worldwide and even more surprising is that these books are written by a woman for women and lapped up by ostensibly self respecting and (mostly) intelligent women. Why then this inexplicable attraction to this genre of stereotypes? Is it because women have been suppressed for so long by a patriarchal society that even their idea of happiness is integrated into this interplay of stereotypes? What is so attractive about these cheap paperbacks ?

I know. It’s sex. SEX. This is the socially accepted way of doing it and reading about it.

So the sales are always er peaking and the books form that bridge between mothers and daughters through the generations.

Read critically (ahem) the books embody (sufficiently mainstream) female fantasies – the scenarios are endless- the old hay in the stable routine, the haunted chamber, the ancient library …AND these novels embody the most debated area of female sexuality – submission.

That brings up a whole new hornet’s nest… which can wait because l have to go eat chicken. More is promised if I’m encouraged…