Romance Novels-Can Have a Strange Affect

People seem to enjoy looking into other’s lives. It seems that the reading of romance novels and television programming has become more reality based than fiction. There are the reality series, the game shows that have become popular, and the news magazine programs. It is entertaining to watch another person win large amounts of money, or watching relationships develop over the course of a reality series. It is also entertaining to get more in depth details on news stories. Each of these programs seems to keep us thinking how we would handle ourselves in a similar situation. For me there are times when I shake my head in amazement at the predicaments people find themselves in.

A recent news magazine program that caused me to shake my head involved the war, a husband and wife and romance novels. It was a strange story. The editing was not the best because it seemed disjointed and the finally message was not clear. The story involved a young husband and father that was sent to Iraq. When he returned home he was no longer the same person. He was distant from his wife and children and he did not want to talk about what was bothering him. At first I thought the program was going to focus on post traumatic stress disorder, and how this disorder affects soldiers. Instead the program stressed how the wife had been reading romance novels while her husband was in Iraq and that she now had unrealistic expectations of her husband. The couple had been involved in counseling and the therapist was on the program talking about the evils of reading romance novels. I found this to be a very interesting and bizarre twist to the story.

There are many couples that have a difficult time adjusting to being separated and reunited when one of them is involved with the armed forces. The soldier is dealing with being in a dangerous and violent situation in a culture and environment that is foreign and the spouse is adjusting to less income, single parenting and worry for the loved one. I thought the news program would validate how difficult this is by profiling how this had affected this couple, but instead they went the route of talking about how romance novels can cause a person to be disillusioned in their marriage. When I started watching the program I was praising the television station for addressing the issue of what war does to families; but by then end of the programming I was vowing never to watch that show again. I cannot believe that they would put the blame of a struggling relationship onto reading romance novels; and disregard the real problem of post traumatic stress disorder.