From TIME - 情色小說誤導女性。每周一文本周加贈Thanatophile這個單字。This week, learn how romance and erotic novels mislead women.

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本周的專文是TIME時代雜誌的文章，探討美國廣大女性讀者喜歡的床頭寶，也就是浪漫愛情小說- Romance novels。這種充斥著情色描繪的色情文學 - Erotic literature，在美國向來擁有一定的市場，讀者多為女性。這類的小說，根據專家表示，看多了其實不好，因為文中誇大的據情與描述，很容易誤導女性對於愛與性的觀念。

這類型的小說，內容不但極盡物化女性為能事，而且時代背景都要設定在什麼十九世紀的美國或是英國莊園，男人要有著種馬一般壯碩的體格，最好是個奴隸或是長工之類的(烏黑的長捲髮、龜殼腹肌與人魚線都不能少)，教練去亞馬遜網站上瀏覽了一些類似的書籍，發現封面繪圖都一樣，男主角都是衣不蔽體(不然就是衣服都很鬆，鬆到快要掉下來了。小說封面的女性表情都像是嗑了藥似的神情恍惚。

試讀了一章節，發現真的就是18禁的內容。雖說任何英文小說都能讓我們學習英語，但是這種近乎色情小說erotic literature的內容，確實沒啥營養可言。不但沒營養，還容易讓人誤以為世界上所有的男歡女愛都是書中描繪的那些景況。想想還是多推薦優良作家比較好。而且這類型的作品，充斥著偷情與不倫，讓我想到之前課堂上教過的那個字- thanatophile......這個字是因應暮光之城這類系列小說而夯起來的單字，是指年輕少女對激烈性愛後死亡那種莫名的終極憧憬。

請大家閱讀這篇報導，言情小說多看無益，但是下面這篇文章，是時代雜誌TIME的專文，裡面有很多不錯的單字可以學起來喔。

 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。