Sadomasochism

Sadomasochism is defined in the dictionary as deriving pleasure from one's own pain. I think I've become a master at it. How else can you explain my love for romantic comedies aka chick flicks, and love stories? Why do I do this to myself???
This is no new development, my self-inflicted pain goes back a long time. When I was a kid I used to read Mills and Boons. You know the ones, girl meets guy. Guy is impossibly good-looking, but with a stubborn streak, girl is a ravishing beauty but very independent. They meet, they hate each other, then they love each other, then they have sex in the middle of the book ( I used to skip those parts), then they have a big fall-out, usually because they are at cross purposes, but they make up by the end, and they both live happily ever after. M&B's were so formulaic, that it seemed like anyone could write them, but I was a sucker for them every time. I even read the nigerian version - pacesetters....(By the way does anybody know if those books exist anymore?). As I grew up into the ravishing beauty that the M&B's said I was, my story didn't seem to follow the formula. The guys were not impossibly handsome, stubborn yes, but not in a good way, if we fought, that was the end, and the happy ever after bit, just wasn't happening. Don't tell me Penny Jordan lied - that I wouldn't find my Prince Charming after overcoming a few difficulties? Say it isn't so?
Well, it was so, and I grew older and I stopped reading M&B's, but I continued to read the type, and then there were the movies. With the books, I had to imagine the romance, with the films, there it was right before my eyes, and I watched them all. I watched pretty woman, house arrest, bird on a wire, while you were sleeping, you name it - if it was billed as romantic I was at video net trying to rent it. Watching these movies, I started to think to myself, you mean the prostitute, pathalogical liar, con-woman, and fake fiance, can get the man of their dreams, but I can't? It just didn't seem fair.
Life just isn't fair, it wasn't fair in the movies as well, but somehow it seemed to work out for them. I mean, it wasn't fair that Julia Roberts had to overcome all those problems, which led her to become a prostitute, but what do you know, she ended up with Richard Gere, so I guess it turned out all right ( I have seen pretty woman, a record number of times). The thing about reading these books and watching these movies, is that you are transported to a world where everything works out in the end, yeah you have misunderstandings, but love conquers all. The men aren't afraid to say how they feel, and the women are vulnerable enough to accept it. You spend 2-3 hours watching the film, or reading the book, and then it ends, and you are back to reality, and that stupid boy still doesn't know you exist, or you are spending another saturday night at home. Or it's valentines day and you're all alone.................