I rarely watch TV. I just don't have the time. I have a few shows I TiVo and once in a while I actually watch what I have taped. My favorites: ER, Gray's Anatomy, Criminal Minds, Numbers, Men in Trees, and Boston Legal. I think I have finally caught up to the end of last season's shows and am now starting on this season that I have taped so far.
Yesterday I happened to have the TV on while I was getting ready for work. I wasn't really listening to it....I call it background noise. That is until I heard the word: cliterature. New word for me. Interesting discussion and on Oprah! Well, I had missed a lot of it so here in the Chicago area, Oprah is on twice a day...9AM and 11PM so I set up TiVo to record the 11PM show.
I just got through watching it. The show was on menopause of which I am on intimate terms with that word. I have been living with that word since my hysterectomy 9 years ago for uterine cancer. I am in what is called a surgical menopause which basically means I went into menopause abruptly through surgery. Since my cancer was hormone related, I was not allowed to use any hormone therapy for over 5 years. How my husband lived with me I have no idea...imagine PMS personified! I had no sexual feelings....someone could wag their wand in front of me and I would look then look away and just go about doing what I was doing...it was like a 'so what'. Not good for a relationship. So I did some research on hormone therapy and learned about natural hormones which I am now taking although not in the same amount my body would have been normally producing. I take the edge off the hot flashes and over time I have learned how to have a sex life again.
Ok back to Oprah and cliterature. There was a doctor on the show that explained that romance novels are cliterature. They are designed to stimulate the senses and she strongly encourages women to read them to become aroused. She called them cliterature. I was like...huh? I will stand right up right now and admit, I am an reader and yes, I even read romance novels aka to her cliterature. I read a variety of things...contemporaries, medical thrillers, action romance, and yes I like erotica. I don't need a happy ever after like old Harlequins but I do like a well written book and definitely not cheesey or corney. I am lucky enough to have a few friends who are all established authors whose writing I love.
But to call them cliterature? I think that is going way too far. I can only imagine what they call medical thrillers like The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. I just finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (fantastic book I highly recommend) and I wonder what it would be called.
Back to that word: cliterature. So I got to thinking....interesting word....cliterature. I wanted to see the real definition rather than her definition. Imagine my surprise! Urban Dictionary defines it as this: An amalgamation of clit and literature. Literature dealing with the clitoris, that is, pornography.........wait....this doctor termed romance novels pornography? Wow....how far we have come at times and how archaic we still are.
So I read cliterature. Who knew?
