Fifty shades of Red

This past week I was taking advantage of my parents Costco card to stock up on some much needed supplies for my apartment.  While in the books section, I watched as my mom sneakily picked up a book and hid it under her purse and coat in the cart.  I, being curious as to what kind of book would make my mom so embarrassed to have out in the open, immediately went over and confronted her about it. Not completely to my surprise, it was “50 Shades of Grey.”  Which if you haven’t heard of the book, is what I like to think of as the adult female erotic version of Twilight, as a large percent of the adult female population is slightly obsessed with it.  I politely laughed at my mom and told her that there was no reason she should be ashamed for picking out that book.  She still was a little red though when she put it back in the cart, keeping it slightly hidden as to not fully show the cover label to anyone who was walking by.  I was very amused by this but then began wondering why all of the embarrassment. After all, we were both mature women, and I’m pretty sure 50+% of the female population were talking about or reading this book already.

I came to the conclusion that sex is still a bit of a taboo topic.  I can understand how “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” a graphic and descriptive romance novel for its time, caused quite a stir almost 90 years ago.  But, in today’s world, where we are constantly flooded with sexual images, picking up a risque romance novel seems rather tame.  However, a lot of women still aren’t comfortable with their own sexuality, which in my opinion, is really too bad.  Owning and embracing our bodies is one of the best things that we can do as women.  It’s uplifting, enlightening, and helps us shed embarrassment and fear. It also ultimately gives us the opportunity to have a better sex life, and who doesn’t want that?  Unfortunately for women, there are still negative stereotypes and images surrounding us that can keep us from fully embracing our sexuality.  But I say we need to start changing that, we need to embrace our sexuality and not be ashamed of it anymore.  This doesn’t mean we have to flaunt it, or take it to the extreme, it can even be as small as picking up an erotic romance novel and not hiding it under your coat.