The Sheik and the Virgin Princess
I work in a library and handle lots of books, and occasionally I even have time to think about them and make observations.
Let's talk about Harlequin romance novels. What I find bizarre is the number of stories involving purportedly non-caucasian leading men. It's not the stories themselves that are the problem, but that the cover art continues to depict men that look exactly any old white boy with dark hair. (For example, type "sheik" into Amazon and examine the results.) So women are encouraged to fantasize about the foreign, exotic men in the novels, but for the men to actually look foreign and exotic would be taking it one step too far?
On some level I am disturbed by this.
Let's talk about Harlequin romance novels. What I find bizarre is the number of stories involving purportedly non-caucasian leading men. It's not the stories themselves that are the problem, but that the cover art continues to depict men that look exactly any old white boy with dark hair. (For example, type "sheik" into Amazon and examine the results.) So women are encouraged to fantasize about the foreign, exotic men in the novels, but for the men to actually look foreign and exotic would be taking it one step too far?
On some level I am disturbed by this.