Bait/Rebait: There's Nothing Dirty about a Good Clean Romance

Abstract

teenagers, who live in a subculture of their own, these are the important questions. But in school we act as if such questions don't exist. put students in the strange position of learning all about what adults think is important, science, math, and history, nothing about what kids think is important, love and personal relationships. ignore the subject even in a time when therapists are deluged by adults who haven't learned enough about love. The result is that teenagers experience sexual and emotional attractions with little or no guidance on what it will mean to them. This adds to teenagers' feelings of insecurity, confusion about identity, and alienation during an already insecure period of life. They end up thinking that there is something wrong with them. excuse ourselves by saying that the romances aren't good literature or that they increase the problem by attracting attention to it. But in a culture that constantly advertises love and sex, these serious, if simple, little novels can hardly be held responsible for what is a culture-wide preoccupation. Besides, don't you remember what it feels like to get butterflies when that certain person says Hi, asks if you're going to the game, or offers you a ride home? You spend the next twelve hours dancing through the day, unreasonably happy, in love with life, and ready for anything. This is not to sa romances don't deserve some bad press, but then romantic love itself hasn't exactly swept psychologists off their feet. Albert Ellis says that many of his patients lose their ability to enjoy sex because their romantic love expectations are so high. Anatole France covered this long ago when he said, We raise our girls in convents, then marry them off to pirates. Today's girls are out of the convent physically, but I think they're still receiving powerful psychological messages. The tighter you wear your jeans the more innocent you have to look? Some romantic literature still idolizes the old traditional