WC062123: Things I like/dislike about the Romance Genre

 

Things I like/dislike about the Romance Genre.

My wife and daughter went crazy over Bridgerton. We faithfully watch every episode of every season on Netflix, and in order to save money I bought every e-book in the series (nine at last count) and let them get on my Amazon account to read them on their readers. Otherwise, they would both have bought them, and they are not cheap.

Soooo... What do I like about Romance novels?

1. I like the historical settings, if done right. The history has to be based in reality. Get the time period right. It gives great insight into the life and times of the place and time period.

2. The social restrictions of the day and how the heroine of the story either conforms or rebels against them.

3. Attitudes of men concerning women in all ages.

4. The elusive striving for love and happiness.

5. Not all, but many have sex as the hook for the reader. This sometimes has rape or at least coercive sex, not necessarily physical abuse, but other ways of pressuring a woman to consent that today I find at least on WC women are finding offensive. 

6. Gone With The Wind is a prime example here. The scene in the book and movie when Rhett has had enough of Scarlet refusing him, he picks her up, and carries her up the staircase. That was considered very romantic until recently and now I have read women claiming this is rape culture. The fact that it includes slavery is now putting it on the banned books list.

What I dislike about Romance books 

1. Sometimes the sex can be too blatant or repetitive. Anne Rice's Beauty series becomes too pornographic and treats romance as roadkill.

Jean Auel's Clan of the Caveman series has rape in the first book, but the other books the sex becomes so repetitive I grew bored and skipped them. She must have cut and pasted the scenes whenever she decided to spice up the story between describing fauna and flora.

2. Sometimes what women consider romance is not what I consider it to be.

In college literature class we read The Horse Dealer's Daughter, by D.H. Lawrence. In class I was called upon to tell the plot. I responded by saying a man see's a woman walk into a lake trying to drown herself. He rushes in, takes her to her home and while drying off she attacks him by putting her arms around his legs and not letting him go.

Mrs. C. became indignant and said, Mr. Prescott you may have considered she attacked him, but this is considered to be one of the most romantic stories in English literature."

I stand by my response.

3. For some reason there's a trope involving a stalker. Either the woman is being stalked or in the Fifty Shades trilogy the man is being stalked.

4. Somehow a man can do just about anything if he's rich enough. It's always romantic with a Billionaire, used to be millionaire, but inflation has hit.