Because apparently I need to say this again

[annathepiper]

While I was working the NIWA table at Worldcon, one of the people who came by was a very outspoken, charming fellow who took the time to chat and make jokes with several of us. I wanted to like him. Except for one thing: he was very blunt in his opinion of romance, sweepingly dismissing the entire genre as “swill”.

And as soon as he said that, I

Comments

[annathepiper]

I'm aware of the overall romance-y flavor of McCaffrey, yes; I have a LONG history of reading her work, and I'm well familiar with how the love stories she writes are front and center in her storylines. Often with primary focus, e.g., the Rowan series. Less so in the Pern and Crystal Singer books, but the romance influence was definitely there.

Re: rape in romance--yes, there's a history there, but modern romance is way less rape-y than it used to be, and this is an issue that gets acknowledged and talked about considerably on the blogs I follow, Dear Author, and Smart Bitches Trashy Books. There's a lot of public discussion about how to properly warn rape survivors about books with rape as an on-camera event, or as character backstory.

Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan, the founders of the Smart Bitches site, released an excellent book going into the history of the genre, and this is included in that book.

This is not to say modern romance doesn't also have its share of rape-y scenarios depending on the subgenre--but those subgenres are not the ones I read, so I can't personally attest to the frequency of it as a trope these days. I'm going by what I observe getting discussed on the aforementioned blogs.