My roommate, Michaele, is a 21 year old woman who is beautiful, smart, and funny. She’s also really into romance novels. Yeah, not your stereotypical middle aged, cat loving (sorry, Prof), spinster, sweater-wearing, sexually repressed romance novel fan. As I’m writing this blog post, she is sitting on my bed, telling me about the differences between the romance novels between the 70’s-80’s and now. Apparently back in the day, the sex scenes were a little bit too “rape-y”, as Michaele puts it (“Like, teenage virgins who don’t even know where their vagina is. The plot was basically teenagers getting married to douchebags who raped them.”). Luckily, modern romance novels most often portray their heroines as sexually experienced, or at the least possessing some sexual agency. My roommate is a veritable wealth of knowledge on the subject, and what a subject to be an expert on.
I, personally, am fascinated with the phenomenon of young women reading romance novels, a genre that is at the same time widely read yet also shunned by the rest of the literary world. I mean, come on, some of these writers have been on the New York Times bestsellers list multiple times over their careers. No matter the economy or the current literary trends, romance novels always sell very well. There is clearly a huge market for it, so why are these novels seen so negatively?
I think, perhaps, that because these novels are written largely for women and by women that the general disdain towards them is a sign of blatant misogyny. Of course, the novels are largely about straight, white, middle to upper class couples. According to my roommate, though, the gay male romance novel community is huge (“Lesbians, not so much”). Another trend is, apparently, polyamory in which the relationship is often two men and one woman. There is also a growing trend of interracial couples and, of course, African American romance novels, though perhaps not at your local Barnes & Noble.
Opinions/thoughts?
Have you ever/would you ever read one?
Check out http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/ for snarky commentary by young women on many different types of romance novels.