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I usually like Smart Bitches Trashy Books but this annoyed me.
Breaking Up with Damaging Conventions in Romance: A Conversation with Kate Cuthbert
It annoyed me to start with by being more gendered than it needed to be. Not all romances are about or by women, and even the ones that are aren't just read by women. You can talk about it being a genre mainly about/for/by women (which it is, and that's important) without overgeneralising.
But then she did that thing a lot of anti-problematic-fiction people do, where they start out saying "write about whatever you want, but think about the context of what you're writing and do it mindfully" but by the end are unambiguously saying "don't write this". She talks a good game about being ok with women's sexuality and fantasy but she clearly doesn't get it.
*** Content note: discussion of rape fantasy ***
tl;dr Rape fantasy in romance novels is fine...if the heroine imagines herself being raped, or maybe consensually roleplays it with her partner.
But if you published the fantasy she's having as a stand-alone story, that would be bad, because it wouldn't be clear it was fantasy! And presumably, her reading and enjoying that story in-universe would also be bad, because it would imply that publishing such stories can be a positive part of women's lives. It can only live safely in the dark recesses of her own mind, where it can't hurt anyone else.
Breaking Up with Damaging Conventions in Romance: A Conversation with Kate Cuthbert
It annoyed me to start with by being more gendered than it needed to be. Not all romances are about or by women, and even the ones that are aren't just read by women. You can talk about it being a genre mainly about/for/by women (which it is, and that's important) without overgeneralising.
But then she did that thing a lot of anti-problematic-fiction people do, where they start out saying "write about whatever you want, but think about the context of what you're writing and do it mindfully" but by the end are unambiguously saying "don't write this". She talks a good game about being ok with women's sexuality and fantasy but she clearly doesn't get it.
*** Content note: discussion of rape fantasy ***
Did you ever read the book Asking for It by [Lilah Pace]?... I think that there’s absolutely room for fantasy. I think that the difference that comes in when you’re reading romance novels versus reading something that is meant to be pure fantasy is that romance novels, particularly contemporary romance novels, are supposed to be depicting, you know, contemporary reality as it is now, and granted it’s an incredibly optimistic reality, but the coercive behavior that I talk about isn’t coming through in the heroine’s fantasy. You know, it’s coming through in, in her reality, and I think that it’s, it’s so tied up in everything that we’ve been taught and everything that we’ve heard for years and years and years from, you know, the school yard – oh, he only picks on you because he likes you – through to, you know, well, he just couldn’t help himself, and I think that that’s pushing back a lot of responsibility on the women to take care of themselves and the men to not be able to control their behavior, and while there is something that is sexy about being desired so dramatically that, you know, you make somebody lose control, the reality of that situation isn’t sexy? It’s scary.
tl;dr Rape fantasy in romance novels is fine...if the heroine imagines herself being raped, or maybe consensually roleplays it with her partner.
But if you published the fantasy she's having as a stand-alone story, that would be bad, because it wouldn't be clear it was fantasy! And presumably, her reading and enjoying that story in-universe would also be bad, because it would imply that publishing such stories can be a positive part of women's lives. It can only live safely in the dark recesses of her own mind, where it can't hurt anyone else.
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