Beyond Heaving Bosoms: Or All You Need to Know to Understand SSHG
I'm not a fan of the romance aisle, so it took a while before I realized that a lot of what disturbed and annoyed me in SSHG fanfic came from that genre. It's not that I don't like love stories, but I prefer romance embedded in suspense, mystery, literary and historic fiction, science-fiction, fantasy. I prefer my heroines able, brainy and not virginal and a partner to a man who doesn't cry out for a restraining order.
And no, I'm not speaking out of ignorance of the genre. Yes, I have tried recently written romances, partly because I have a friend trying to publish so we went scouting the market, and partly because my interest in SSHG pushed me toward trying to find out where the "ministrations" and "wet folds" and "secret babies" and MLC (aka "Marriage of Convenience") were coming from.
Well, I discovered the romance book review site Smart Bitches/Trashy Books run by Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan when I went in search of Twilight lolz, and now they have a book out, Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches' Guide to Romance Novels, and it explained so much...
No wonder so much of SSHG resembles that put out in the land of heaving bosoms, Fabio, and ladies and lairds. In the chapter "Petticoat: A Brief History of the Modern Romance Novel" the authors cover "Old Skool" romance with its "Alpha Male" heroes and "Virgin" heroines. The heroes have dark pasts, dark eyes (and are usually English) and are often abusive. The heroines, who are often considerably younger, are usually about 18 and innocent and naïve even if "a bluestocking" and "shrill" (so she "needs a comeuppance"). Seems poor Severus and Hermione were made to be poured into the mold (if you clean up Severus and dumb down Hermione). So prevalent is the rapefic trope in "Old Skool," an entire chapter is devoted to "Bad Sex: Rape in Romance." Now, the authors say this kind of romance novel is passé and fading (thus "Old Skool") but it does sound like the romance novels people were reading twenty years ago are alive and well in the SSHG ship.
I wish a lot of people in the ship would read the book, if only for the chapters "Corset: ...The Romance Heroine..." and "Love Grotto: Good Sex, Please" that among other things goes into exactly where the hymen can be located and other anatomical impossibilities that so often show up in fanfic (and it seems pro romance erotica...) The book is entertaining, snarky, and just plain hilarious and worth the price alone just for the list of cliché sex scene phrasing (hint: "ministrations" is on the list)
Oh and I'm linking to this YouTube Trek Parody...because made of win... brings new meaning to the phrase Canon Nazi....
And no, I'm not speaking out of ignorance of the genre. Yes, I have tried recently written romances, partly because I have a friend trying to publish so we went scouting the market, and partly because my interest in SSHG pushed me toward trying to find out where the "ministrations" and "wet folds" and "secret babies" and MLC (aka "Marriage of Convenience") were coming from.
Well, I discovered the romance book review site Smart Bitches/Trashy Books run by Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan when I went in search of Twilight lolz, and now they have a book out, Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches' Guide to Romance Novels, and it explained so much...
No wonder so much of SSHG resembles that put out in the land of heaving bosoms, Fabio, and ladies and lairds. In the chapter "Petticoat: A Brief History of the Modern Romance Novel" the authors cover "Old Skool" romance with its "Alpha Male" heroes and "Virgin" heroines. The heroes have dark pasts, dark eyes (and are usually English) and are often abusive. The heroines, who are often considerably younger, are usually about 18 and innocent and naïve even if "a bluestocking" and "shrill" (so she "needs a comeuppance"). Seems poor Severus and Hermione were made to be poured into the mold (if you clean up Severus and dumb down Hermione). So prevalent is the rapefic trope in "Old Skool," an entire chapter is devoted to "Bad Sex: Rape in Romance." Now, the authors say this kind of romance novel is passé and fading (thus "Old Skool") but it does sound like the romance novels people were reading twenty years ago are alive and well in the SSHG ship.
I wish a lot of people in the ship would read the book, if only for the chapters "Corset: ...The Romance Heroine..." and "Love Grotto: Good Sex, Please" that among other things goes into exactly where the hymen can be located and other anatomical impossibilities that so often show up in fanfic (and it seems pro romance erotica...) The book is entertaining, snarky, and just plain hilarious and worth the price alone just for the list of cliché sex scene phrasing (hint: "ministrations" is on the list)
Oh and I'm linking to this YouTube Trek Parody...because made of win... brings new meaning to the phrase Canon Nazi....
Click to view