Everyone knows I love ABC. Though Jason Mesnick gave me pause about my Bachlelor obsession, I'm still watching The Bachelorette this spring. I've ended my feud with Dancing with the Stars. Team Melissa! Every day there isn't a new Brothers & Sisters episode in my ABC Episode Player, I mope. Not to mention the new kid on the block, Castle. Don't cancel, ABC. I BEG YOU!
You may not know that I also follow The View. I love the ladies' "Hot Topics" more than their celebrity guests. No joke! I watch The View not only because it's the biggest news from an all-women perspective. Instead of the biases you get by watching any big news networks, there's someone for every political view on The View. Joy, the Liberal, Elizabeth, the Conservative and the others hold their own in between. The range is wonderful.
Later this week I was fortunate enough to tune in in time to hear Whoopi discuss something that set everyone at the View table off their rocker. A survey done by Oxygen TV states that 25% of women between the ages of 18 and 34 would rather win America's Next Top Model than the Nobel Prize. Even worse, 22% of 18 to 24 year old women who consider themselves attractive would rather lose their ability to read than their figure. All I can really think to say about this is "Holy crap on toast!" I thought women were beyond this, especially after this last election year. It appalls me, and a lot of other women I'm sure, that after how far we've come in the last several years and the current state of our world that 22-25% of us are still this shallow.
Of course, as with so many other things, these numbers made me think of the romance genre. Not only of the incredible women I've met through RWA and Gulf Coast Romance Writers but of our heroines. Women have not only advanced through politics and the work force, but romance heroines have taken several leaps from the days of the "bodice ripper." From inspirational to paranormal, no more will you see legions of Too-Stupid-To-Live's. Judging by sales, I'd say readers approve. In every romance I've picked up since that first Nora nearly a decade ago, I've encountered realistic, intelligent women who would scoff at this survey, too. I will admit, though physical flaws are now more widely accepted in the genre than decades prior, heroines are still more likely to look like the Daphne's as opposed to the Velma's. Yet I daresay none of them would kick their brains to the curve even if it meant fitting into those size 2 jeans.
Ladies, sound off! What do you think of these new numbers. Do they relate at all to romantic fiction?
