Now you’ll know why the sisters call me the prude of the family

I love women.

No, not in that way sillies.

I mean, I “get” women. I have two sons in there mid twenties and even though I’ve raised them since they were little pups, I still don’t understand men.
But women I understand. I think we are a fascinating, rich, diverse and an all round great gender. But, there are a few things that I don’t understand about some women. And one of the big ones is the overreaction to the half naked or naked male of the species. A few years ago a group of coworkers went to see a Chippendale show that was playing at a local club. The tickets were free as the club was a client of the company. I could have gone too, but I wasn’t all the interested; to be honest I saw male strippers years ago and I ended up leaving early and have never been tempted to go again. Plus I know it would have bothered Ron a great deal so I passed on the opportunity. If others want to go – fine – doesn’t bother me at all – it’s just not my cuppa. But the next day, many of my coworkers were almost embarrassed at being women when they saw the outrageous and – calling a spade a spade – crude way many of the women in the audience reacted. One of the coworkers had seen a Chippendale show many years ago and quite enjoyed it. But she was telling us the one she had seen the previous evening was entirely different than the one she’d seen before. There was very little talented dancing at the one she just saw and mostly the good looking “dancers” were rubbing themselves up against the members of the audience – in fact if a woman paid an extra $10 she could sit on stage and one of the dancers would do a lap dance. Apparently the line-up was very very long. And many of the women were grabbing at the men when it was their turn. When I heard this, I was real glad I didn’t go.
There is one message board I visit sometimes where a couple of the regular posters will post Friday eye candy. Now I don’t see anything wrong with that, I check it out myself. I’m a fan of eye candy – even a big fan of eye candy. That’s part of the appeal of Sawyer. But where I get slightly uncomfortable is some of the salacious comments other posters make.
So what is the point of this preamble?
I don’t like Avon covers. Everyone knows that by now. I despise them – hate them with a passion! There! I said it. And I must admit it felt rather good. There are other publishers that have bad covers too, but Avon is the worst offender IMO. There is an interesting thread going on at the Potpourri board at AAR. I posted my somewhat tongue in cheek theory and an anonymous author posted (not in direct response to me) that the reason Avon has those nasty covers is they sell better. (She says) covers with a half-naked over-ripped unbelievable with the infamous man-titties men and a nubile young things with their dresses half off will sell better than a tasteful cover where either the couple are decently covered or the cover has a leg or an arm or something else?
Smart Bitches post weekly snarks on these types of covers. Visitors, including me, laugh at them. The covers are ridiculous.
But do they really sell better? I don’t have the sales figures but if it’s true, the thought appals me. Just as much as the thought of women grabbing at male strippers bothers me.

So – I may be considered a prude – but then that’s me. My sisters have been calling me that for years - although neither one of them have read romantica :)

And yes, yes in case you’re wondering, I have bought them myself. I do own Lord of the Storm and Sky Pirate – two of the very worst offenders of the bunch! But the romance genre has come a long way since then. Isn’t it time covers caught up?
I’ve said it before and I will keep saying it - as long as Avon gets away with putting the trash on the covers/backs/backstep covers of the books they publish, the genre will never get the respect that it deserves.

‘til later