Popular Culture Review Vol. 16, No. 1, Spring 2005 | Page 153

Ecosystem of Sex
14
galloping horses, and thrown out of moving vehicles) (1992,
69).
Clair, not without irony, defends a woman’s right to read whatever she desires,
hopefully without the chastisement of her own sex.
In the world of romance fiction writing, there is an unwritten rule that
the heroine always gets her man, the proof is in the struggle, and the novel
always has a happy conclusion. However, about a decade ago in the wake of
such back-and-forth criticism between feminists and secular-romance novel
writers, a quiet beginning was emerging for IRF.
“The success of evangelical fiction signals a fundamental change in
attitude among its core market of conservative Christian readers,” wrote Nick
Harrison for Publishers Weekly (Harrison 1998, SI). Conservative Christians
were initially suspicious and perceived religious fiction as make-believe or
something less than the truth, until writers like Jerry Jenkins (Tyndale’s Left
Behind series) and Tim LaHaye (Bible-prophecy expert) would become so
popular. The first three books of the Left Behind series, an apocalyptic fictional
scenario based on the book of Revelation in the Bible, sold more than a million
copies; the fourth (Soul Harvest) was released in June of 1998 with a sold-out
first printing of 150,000 (1998, S2). As of this writing, the ninth book of the
series is available, selling as well as the previous titles. Evangelical Protestant
Christian publishers would soon be in competition with general trade publishers
hoping to cash in on the mass appeal of religious fiction. As soon as fiction
became acceptable to the body of religious conservatives, IRF would come into
its own as well, soon dominating the romance market.
Probably the best known IRF writer is 68-year old Janette Oke (her last
name rhymes with folk). The success of her career is a beacon to many would be
IRF writers. Oke’s first novel, Love Comes Softly, was published in 1979. By
1998, it had sold 1,020,000 copies, had been translated into a dozen languages
(including Icelandic and Indonesian), and had been expanded into an eight-book
series that, combined, has sold nearly 5 million copies. As of 1998, her 33
Christian romance novels had sold nearly 15 million copies (Hensley 1998, 32).
Business was booming in the IRF market and by looking at the changing
ecosystem of sex in Western culture at that same time gives meaning to the
phenomenon.
For a better known example (of this changing ecosystem) from secular
culture, we’ll turn for a moment to Norma Jean Baker, a brunette with a pretty
face and nice figure. She was working in a defense factory when a photographer
took a picture of her that would eventually bring her to 20th Century Fox. Fox
would literally sculpt her into a Betty Grable successor: a girl made into a
product, the physical self became a commodity. The product, Marilyn Monroe,
would be designated by Playboy magazine as the female sex symbol of the
twentieth century. Underneath the beautiful, dumb blonde image was Norma