Submitted by Piazytiabet t3_10nczro in books
My cousin f/13 has always sort of really looked up to me—which is both great and horrifying because I don’t know how much of a guide I can be for her. I have noticed that she reads a lot of colleen hoover books and although I didn’t mind it at first because I thought they were just your average romance novels, I’ve realized that most of them have really dark plots and a lot of smut where consent is not necessarily obvious. I don’t think that is setting a good idea in her head since she’s young and impressionable, I’m afraid that exposure to such content will leave some negative effect on her. I don’t know whether I should gradually guide her in a different direction or if it’s just better to confront her and talk about why I don’t think she should be reading these books. I don’t know if I would be justified in doing so either because I haven’t personally read any of those novels. What do you people think?
Edit: just for context, because I realized that most of you are looking at this from a western perspective. But we (me and my cousin) live in a middle-eastern society, sex is almost never discussed. If it’s discussed, it’s shamed. Her parents are both religious, I would literally never tell them about this. And I want to make it clear that smut is okay with me as long as its not non-consensual. She’s had little exposure to sexuality, and I’m only concerned that this kind of exposure might sort of normalize it for her.