Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

In a very tongue-in-cheek account of the recent news articles, and I admit I giggled at the idea that “every hoo-ha is worth looking into,” DCist asks if the ad in question made you “angrier than that time daddy took away your beloved wild horse and half your inheritance because you made off with his darkly handsome sworn enemy?”

Snort.

The comment appearing as of this writing asks why we should “walk on eggshells to avoid offending stupid people?” Then, the same person calls us romance readers “illiterate.”

A different kind of snort.

We here at SBTB poke fun at romance. I mean, have you SEEN the cover snark? But we do it because we love it unashamedly, and read our romance with glee and pride. We know we’re not dumb.

But the comment? Pfft. Right up over that one’s head. Perhaps the issue isn’t so much one of intelligence vs. stupidity. It might be more as to whether people are secure about their intelligence in the first place. 

I was really enjoying my morning glee, and along came a heaping cup of what-the-fuck to make me glare and seethe. Although we mentioned this issue in passing back in August, the reminder made me growl enough to rant about it.

Seems a man named Fred Head is running for State Comptroller in the state of Texas. His website accuses his Republican opponent, Susan Combs, currently the state agriculture commissioner, is a writer of pornography.

Guess what she wrote? You get one guess. Seriously.

Oh, the joy of reading romance. I had no idea it was so powerful. It makes me stupid AND it makes me a prurient partaker of pornography. Perhaps I should feel guilty about enjoying the genre so much, but somehow, I feel sexually empowered, confident, and more intelligent.

Head’s website is kind enough to offer “extraxts” (sic) should you wish to examine how Combs’ “pornographic book”
disputes her claim of being a “person of high moral standards” and is a “two faced hyprocrite who was obviously more concerned with her literary career and seeing her name in print than the morals of the young People of Texas.”

My personal jaw-dropping favorite part of this nonsense is where he accuses her of having an “insatiable ego” because her name appears at the top of every other page.

I have to wonder if this man has ever read a book.

I shouldn’t be shocked or surprised about this kind of absolute crap, and should just shake my head (or pound it on the nearest hard surface) when Head “challenges Susan Combs to fully explain to the People of Texas why she wrote a pornographic book, apologize to the People and withdraw from the race for Comptroller of Public Accounts.”

Combs’ responses, detailed in the press coverage regarding Head’s accusations dismiss the attempts to malign her as “irrelevant and ill-advised.” I’d say. Her attempts to turn the discussion back to state issues is also pointed.

As one wise person I spoke with said, “If that’s all he’s got, he doesn’t have much.”

Perhaps it’s time for me to develop, with my outstanding knowledge of the intricacies of chemistry, a Smart Bitch Valium, which will render me impervious to continued insults and snide remarks as to my choice of reading materials.

Or, just stick my nose in a romance novel, where I belong. 

I was contacted by a reporter from the Washington Post doing a business story on response to the Metro ads from the Greater Washington Initiative.

Anyway, after a brief phone conversation, wherein I tried desperately not to sound like a complete tool, he mentioned that the story was going to be run a few days ago, but, oops, the ad itself was going to be placed opposite the story discussing its content. So they’ve moved the story back and the reporter called to get my take.

My take? I’m a lousy phone interview, to be honest.

He was kind enough to say the article ended up a lot shorter than he thought, so I’m not in it - but take a look at the article.

My favorite part: the Executive Director of the Washington Initiative saying, “the ad was meant to show a contrast: ‘I think most people are smart enough to see the humor in this.’” Wait, so now we’re stupid for being offended?!?

J. Savoy, winner of our Amateur Division cover design contest, has been hired by Liquid Silver Books - and her first professional cover is out now!

Thanks to April Martinez, of Liquid Silver and winner of the Professional Division, for giving me the heads up - and congrats to J. Savoy!! 

The Bitchery inbox, it is a busy place. Candy and I received an email asking us to give our readers a heads up regarding the campaign of Theresa Spry, who is running as a Democrat against incumbent state Senator Bill Napoli.

Remember Bill Napoli? Yeah, the “rape is real only if it’s hella rape” dude.

Ms. Spry is a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation and has an absolute monster list of qualifications and experience that would make her an excellent addition to the state senate of South Dakota. Plus there’s that issue of Bill Napoli’s description of who might be “entitled” to an abortion:

There is one more reason this race is so very important. My opponent, incumbent Senator Bill Napoli, is a leader of the extremist faction of the legislature that this year gave us HB 1215. The controversial abortion bill that is so extreme that thousands of people strongly opposed it. You may recall Senator Napoli’s defense of that bill on National Television. When asked why there were no exceptions for rape, incest or to save the life of the mother, Senator Napoli invented one. He said: “a real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl is a virgin. She is religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it and is impregnated. I mean that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying the child could very well threaten her life”

In this case, Senator Napoli “reasoned” that the woman would be entitled to obtain an abortion. Apparently he has never actually read the bill. No one else who has read it can find this exception.

My Campaign has before it the task of informing thoughtful men and women in this district about Mr. Napoli’s extremist views, of which this dreadful misogyny is but one example. To make it very clear that he simply does NOT represent the voters of
District 35. 

Candy and I, despite not being anywhere close to South Dakota, want to make every effort to help Ms. Spry in her efforts to unseat Bill Napoli. I’ve created a fundraising site through ActBlue: Smart Bitches for Theresa Spry. Creating this site will enable Ms. Spry’s campaign to know that donations are coming through our site, and will enable us to know how much we’ve raised. Political donations are capped in South Dakota at $250.00US, so that means any amount is helpful.

Please note: due to regulations surrounding political donations, your donation will be logged under your legal name and will be public record at various sites.

There’s been some commentary recently as to whether this is a political site or a romance novel site. I want to be clear: this is a specific example of an issue we both feel strongly about, and our response to Napoli, by whose actions we were horrified. We’re not turning into Smart Bitches-Daily Kos, and we fully recognize that readers who come to our site for news and dish on romance novels come from all positions on the political spectrum. We respect your views, and we respect even more our collective ability to disagree and discuss our positions with respect and candor - something that has been sorely lacking in most online and televised political debate.

We are not demanding that you donate; if this isn’t an issue that speaks to you, we completely understand. But we wanted to make it as easy and collaborative an effort as possible, hence our campaign site at ActBlue.

(And here Candy pipes up like a smart-ass to say: C’mon. You know you want to help do your part in napoling Napoli.)