On problematic romance (and other) novels
This rant/discussion began as a book review on Goodreads, which morphed into a discussion of misogyny in romance and (some) other genres. The review (abridged, because Goodreads caps the length of book reviews) and discussion are reproduced here.
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Please note that this review contains a discussion of adult topics.
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All righty then.
I will first point to a fellow reviewer here by saying that they said a good deal of what I wanted to say while reading this particular book, and said it really well: a cool review of this crappy book is here.
However, I feel that a more general (but hopefully brief) and ranty segue is in order here IMO.
One thing about romance novels which never ceases to amaze me is how relentlessly misogynistic they tend to be.
Some examples from historical romance:
-Exhibit A is here: where the 'hero' emotionally manipulates and berates the heroine into sleeping with him. (Let's also not forget about the wonderful, lovely former fiancé the heroine was pining for at the beginning of the novel... who wound up stalking her. But hey! Everyone goes through bad patches sometimes, am I right?)
-Exhibit B is here: where women don't have a sex drive unless they are (knowingly or not) in love with a man.
-Exhibit C is here (another really good review by a fellow reviewer): the '"hero's" magical penis can instantly heal the heroine's rape trauma. (!!)
-Exhibit D is here (more reviews by other reviewers): see here and here. As these reviewers mention in passing
(and as I can attest to since I read the damn thing -which is yet more time in my life I'll never get back), the 'hero' undergoes a complete personality change around the time he and the 'heroine' are married, and he becomes emotionally abusive towards her.
-Exhibit E is here (by a fellow reviewer): see here. Again, our 'hero' is abusive to the heroine. Anyone see a pattern here???
-Exhibit F is here (I hadn't read the previous book in the series before reading this one, unfortunately): see here (again by a fellow reviewer). The so-called 'hero' of this book actually kidnapped and tried to rape the heroine of the previous book in this series (i.e. number 2 in the series). Yep. And when he marries the woman in the current novel (i.e. number 3 in the series), when she is uncomfortable with sleeping with him once they are married (because she doesn't know him) he insults her and calls her a bitch. Lovely. (NB: As a later note, please note that the review in question has been deleted from Goodreads, probably due to the attacks on the reviewer which you can still read in the comments (i.e. the comments are still there despite the review having been deleted). Gosh, I love Goodreads! /sarcasm)
-Exhibit G is here. The 'hero' of this lovely book knows that a vulnerable young woman he has just met is married to a much older man. He realizes that there is an attraction between them. He also realizes that she has come from a difficult background and yet he pursues her regardless (i.e. he actually makes out with/kisses her).He pursues her despite the fact that an affair between the two of them might cause her irreparable harm. He also treats her like garbage throughout the book, because she is never good enough for him. So she's good enough to sleep with, but not good enough for anything else! Good times.
-Exhibit H is here. (Review written by a fellow reviewer, not yours truly.) Basically the 'hero' spends the entire novel trying to force himself on the main female character. (More details are in the excellent review in the link.)
-Exhibit I is here. At (approximately) the three quarters mark, the 'hero'/main male character discovers a secret which his wife was keeping from him (i.e. I will preface this by saying that while she kept a secret from him, it was regarding a situation in the past where she had been a VICTIM). His reaction to finding this out is to become both emotionally and physically abusive towards her.
-Exhibit J, where it is implied that a man is not responsible for his actions when he really 'wants it'. I kid you not (see here and here for discussions of this, by fellow reviewers.)
-Exhibit K is here, where the main female character is essentially brainwashed by the 'hero' into fitting into a particular mould (which includes giving up her business and any independence), and where said 'hero' doesn't realize that rape exists until it is right in his face (in other words, that it has almost happened to the woman he considers his and therefore his penis is involved so he has a sudden epiphany...).
-Exhibit L (see here and here): the 'hero' marries the main female character and then cheats on her. He is never really sorry for anything except having been caught but his wifey forgives him anyway. The fuck??? (Also a reviewer made some really good comments about the treatment of indigenous peoples in this book.)
-Exhibit M (see my discussion of this here). Full disclosure: I started out enjoying the Starz television series version of Diana Gabaldon's 'Outlander' (at least partly because I didn't remember the books). I don't anymore: once I realized what was in the books I did prefer the series to the books, but I still thought that it was better to quit watching when I honestly feel that the main (male) character is fully deserving of a combination treatment involving both castration and lobotomy. (This character is worse in the books, btw, hence my increased dislike of the latter. PLEASE also note that I am referring to the CHARACTER and not any person(s) portraying said character.) Did I mention that this character (1) beats his wife and (2) rapes his wife? Good times! Also, the book is also massively homophobic. (Some other reviews which raised the same issues are here, here (as this review points out, this book is also really, REALLY homophobic), here (read the tags for this review, they are gold), and here.)
-Exhibit N (see here and here, the second is by a fellow reviewer): where the so-called HERO slut-shames the main female character he is supposed to love or be falling in love with.
-Exhibit O (see here and here, the second review is again by a fellow reviewer): where the main (male) character threatens to beat the main (female) character. Because physical violence is soooo romantic!!
-Exhibit P (see here and here: please note the caveat that I have not read this one, I am taking the reviewer's word for it in this case), where the 'hero' rapes the heroine. Yep.
-Exhibit Q (see here), where it's three for the price of one: the 'hero' slut-shames the main female character, blames her for almost getting raped (i.e. by another assh*le), AND doesn't stop kissing her/making out with her when she tries to fight him off.
-Exhibit R (see here and here (by a fellow reviewer)). As the second link discusses in passing, the 'hero' (as well as the main female character and everyone around her) constantly points out that the main (female) character is not good enough for the 'hero' etc. (and she believes this), because he is sooo gorgeous and she is apparently not. After they are married they hold off on having sex, so our 'hero' naturally wonders how long he'll have to hold out and whether he'll have to resort to 'other means' (i.e. read cheating on his wife), because OF COURSE a man can never go without and men are inherently more sexual than women.
-Exhibit S (see here), where the 'hero' has sex with the main female character despite having a strong suspicion that she is not in her right mind at the time. But HE CAN'T HELP HIMSELF OFC.
-Exhibit T (see here), where the 'hero' knows his new wife is not ready to have sex with him, but he decides to press on regardless! (Because men have needs and husbands have a right to sex...)
-Exhibit U (see here), where the 'hero' sexually assaults the heroine (but we can forgive him because he was drunk when he did so) and abusing one's role to have sex with a subordinate and get them pregnant (which is easily non consensual!) is forgiveable.
-Exhibit V (see here), where the 'hero' treats the main female character like dirt and never once considers what she wants (in other words, he spends the ENTIRE BOOK making decisions for her, without consulting her, but of course he is such an ALPHA MALE that he doesn't have to bother).
-Exhibit W (see here), where the 'hero' is supposed to be just woooonnnderrrfffuuullll and so manly and so on... except he NEVER considers what the main female character wants. He simply makes decisions for her (and her son) without consulting her. Ever. Then he wonders why she has a problem with this.
-Exhibit X (see here), where the 'hero' is super jealous and that is perfectly reasonable, but the main female character's jealousy is automatically 'shrewish'. The main female character undergoes a complete personality transplant once she marries this dude and wants nothing more than to bear his babies. /rant
(Also, I give you example 1 of problematic sh*t from more 'contemporary' romance, where the 'hero' (and the narrator) spend their time belittling the main female character by constantly reminding us of how ugly she is and how he is almost doing her a favor by marrying her. Also, the 'hero' is a chauvinistic pig. So ugh.
And have example 2 from contemporary romance, where everyone slut shames women who *gasp* dare to like and/or have sex, and the main male character is utter garbage.
Example 3 from contemporary romance is here, where the lovely main male character (who is presented as being 'one of the good ones', mentions his first sexual experience with his ex in such a way that it is obvious that things were not fully consensual. Good times!)
(Also, here is an example of yet another historical romance novel which does not have the misogyny I discuss in this post, but which is massively homophobic and ableist. Good times!)
More examples, reviewed by yours truly, in paranormal romance and urban fantasy (i.e. I am listing these two genres together because there is a lot of overlap between them) as well as from novels combining fantasy and romance:
(1) Here (Female werewolves -or were panthers *gag*- are super duper rare so of course they have no rights and are treated like possessions! yay! Also, the following great review by another reviewer actually explains the problematic nature of this book much better than my review.)
(2) Here (The heroine is raped but it's not that bad because she winds up having an orgasm!)
(3) Here (Another one with the rare female werewolves/were-whatevers who are treated like doormats trope!)
(4) Here (One of the most misogynistic novels of all time IMO, with female werewolves again.)
What the f*ck is it with were (werewolves, were-hedgehogs, were-mice, were-mosquitoes) novels, anyways? You tell me.
(5) Here (The passive female who must be rescued! This of course is ANOTHER were-gnat/were-something novel.)
(6) Here (A good penis is what all women secretly crave -the magical penis will always save or otherwise transport a woman. Another example of this trope is here.)
(7) Here (Women being treated like doormats for no good reason in the story.)
(8) Here (If a woman finds a good penis, she'll be saved from the darkside!!)
(9) Yet another example of misogynistic crap in the paranormal romance genre is here.
(10) Another example is here, where the main female character first gets with the main male character/'hero' in a massively non consensual and problematic way.
(11) Yet another example is the following SERIES, where many (all?) of the main romances are bordering on non consensual, women can never be leaders and never are as dominant as the males, and other wonderful sexism and misogyny that made me want to vomit.
Hey romance and urban fantasy (and other genre) authors, here's a message:
DO BETTER.
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My review of this particular book is as follows.
The characters: The 'hero' is an emotionally abusive asshole, who thinks that the heroine is beneath him. He broke up her engagement to his brother years earlier because she wasn't good enough for his brother, apparently. When she opens a bakery next to where he's been (temporarily) living while his London house is refurbished (or something -she had no idea he was living next door, and it's been years since the failed engagement) he goes ballistic and tries to have her evicted.
...Was I supposed to like this guy? Yeeeech.
The heroine is an independent woman -she has become an expert pastry chef and simply wants to work at her art... for most of the book anyways. This is before she realizes that what she really wanted all along was the 'hero's' penis and she gives up on her bakery and her dreams, in order to marry a guy who has treated her like dirt all along.
So much for being an independent woman, I guess. (I also call bad characterization here, because really.)
Plot: I've pretty much detailed this bad boy above, so there isn't much to add regarding the plot, really, except that much of it involves the 'hero' acting like an entitled douchecanoe.
Setting: It's pretty thin, which is another problem with historical romance novels, to my mind. This could have been set in the present day, really without it affecting the story much: think Sabrina.
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Please note that this review contains a discussion of adult topics.
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*
*
*
*
*
*
*
All righty then.
I will first point to a fellow reviewer here by saying that they said a good deal of what I wanted to say while reading this particular book, and said it really well: a cool review of this crappy book is here.
However, I feel that a more general (but hopefully brief) and ranty segue is in order here IMO.
One thing about romance novels which never ceases to amaze me is how relentlessly misogynistic they tend to be.
Some examples from historical romance:
-Exhibit A is here: where the 'hero' emotionally manipulates and berates the heroine into sleeping with him. (Let's also not forget about the wonderful, lovely former fiancé the heroine was pining for at the beginning of the novel... who wound up stalking her. But hey! Everyone goes through bad patches sometimes, am I right?)
-Exhibit B is here: where women don't have a sex drive unless they are (knowingly or not) in love with a man.
-Exhibit C is here (another really good review by a fellow reviewer): the '"hero's" magical penis can instantly heal the heroine's rape trauma. (!!)
-Exhibit D is here (more reviews by other reviewers): see here and here. As these reviewers mention in passing
(and as I can attest to since I read the damn thing -which is yet more time in my life I'll never get back), the 'hero' undergoes a complete personality change around the time he and the 'heroine' are married, and he becomes emotionally abusive towards her.
-Exhibit E is here (by a fellow reviewer): see here. Again, our 'hero' is abusive to the heroine. Anyone see a pattern here???
-Exhibit F is here (I hadn't read the previous book in the series before reading this one, unfortunately): see here (again by a fellow reviewer). The so-called 'hero' of this book actually kidnapped and tried to rape the heroine of the previous book in this series (i.e. number 2 in the series). Yep. And when he marries the woman in the current novel (i.e. number 3 in the series), when she is uncomfortable with sleeping with him once they are married (because she doesn't know him) he insults her and calls her a bitch. Lovely. (NB: As a later note, please note that the review in question has been deleted from Goodreads, probably due to the attacks on the reviewer which you can still read in the comments (i.e. the comments are still there despite the review having been deleted). Gosh, I love Goodreads! /sarcasm)
-Exhibit G is here. The 'hero' of this lovely book knows that a vulnerable young woman he has just met is married to a much older man. He realizes that there is an attraction between them. He also realizes that she has come from a difficult background and yet he pursues her regardless (i.e. he actually makes out with/kisses her).He pursues her despite the fact that an affair between the two of them might cause her irreparable harm. He also treats her like garbage throughout the book, because she is never good enough for him. So she's good enough to sleep with, but not good enough for anything else! Good times.
-Exhibit H is here. (Review written by a fellow reviewer, not yours truly.) Basically the 'hero' spends the entire novel trying to force himself on the main female character. (More details are in the excellent review in the link.)
-Exhibit I is here. At (approximately) the three quarters mark, the 'hero'/main male character discovers a secret which his wife was keeping from him (i.e. I will preface this by saying that while she kept a secret from him, it was regarding a situation in the past where she had been a VICTIM). His reaction to finding this out is to become both emotionally and physically abusive towards her.
-Exhibit J, where it is implied that a man is not responsible for his actions when he really 'wants it'. I kid you not (see here and here for discussions of this, by fellow reviewers.)
-Exhibit K is here, where the main female character is essentially brainwashed by the 'hero' into fitting into a particular mould (which includes giving up her business and any independence), and where said 'hero' doesn't realize that rape exists until it is right in his face (in other words, that it has almost happened to the woman he considers his and therefore his penis is involved so he has a sudden epiphany...).
-Exhibit L (see here and here): the 'hero' marries the main female character and then cheats on her. He is never really sorry for anything except having been caught but his wifey forgives him anyway. The fuck??? (Also a reviewer made some really good comments about the treatment of indigenous peoples in this book.)
-Exhibit M (see my discussion of this here). Full disclosure: I started out enjoying the Starz television series version of Diana Gabaldon's 'Outlander' (at least partly because I didn't remember the books). I don't anymore: once I realized what was in the books I did prefer the series to the books, but I still thought that it was better to quit watching when I honestly feel that the main (male) character is fully deserving of a combination treatment involving both castration and lobotomy. (This character is worse in the books, btw, hence my increased dislike of the latter. PLEASE also note that I am referring to the CHARACTER and not any person(s) portraying said character.) Did I mention that this character (1) beats his wife and (2) rapes his wife? Good times! Also, the book is also massively homophobic. (Some other reviews which raised the same issues are here, here (as this review points out, this book is also really, REALLY homophobic), here (read the tags for this review, they are gold), and here.)
-Exhibit N (see here and here, the second is by a fellow reviewer): where the so-called HERO slut-shames the main female character he is supposed to love or be falling in love with.
-Exhibit O (see here and here, the second review is again by a fellow reviewer): where the main (male) character threatens to beat the main (female) character. Because physical violence is soooo romantic!!
-Exhibit P (see here and here: please note the caveat that I have not read this one, I am taking the reviewer's word for it in this case), where the 'hero' rapes the heroine. Yep.
-Exhibit Q (see here), where it's three for the price of one: the 'hero' slut-shames the main female character, blames her for almost getting raped (i.e. by another assh*le), AND doesn't stop kissing her/making out with her when she tries to fight him off.
-Exhibit R (see here and here (by a fellow reviewer)). As the second link discusses in passing, the 'hero' (as well as the main female character and everyone around her) constantly points out that the main (female) character is not good enough for the 'hero' etc. (and she believes this), because he is sooo gorgeous and she is apparently not. After they are married they hold off on having sex, so our 'hero' naturally wonders how long he'll have to hold out and whether he'll have to resort to 'other means' (i.e. read cheating on his wife), because OF COURSE a man can never go without and men are inherently more sexual than women.
-Exhibit S (see here), where the 'hero' has sex with the main female character despite having a strong suspicion that she is not in her right mind at the time. But HE CAN'T HELP HIMSELF OFC.
-Exhibit T (see here), where the 'hero' knows his new wife is not ready to have sex with him, but he decides to press on regardless! (Because men have needs and husbands have a right to sex...)
-Exhibit U (see here), where the 'hero' sexually assaults the heroine (but we can forgive him because he was drunk when he did so) and abusing one's role to have sex with a subordinate and get them pregnant (which is easily non consensual!) is forgiveable.
-Exhibit V (see here), where the 'hero' treats the main female character like dirt and never once considers what she wants (in other words, he spends the ENTIRE BOOK making decisions for her, without consulting her, but of course he is such an ALPHA MALE that he doesn't have to bother).
-Exhibit W (see here), where the 'hero' is supposed to be just woooonnnderrrfffuuullll and so manly and so on... except he NEVER considers what the main female character wants. He simply makes decisions for her (and her son) without consulting her. Ever. Then he wonders why she has a problem with this.
-Exhibit X (see here), where the 'hero' is super jealous and that is perfectly reasonable, but the main female character's jealousy is automatically 'shrewish'. The main female character undergoes a complete personality transplant once she marries this dude and wants nothing more than to bear his babies. /rant
(Also, I give you example 1 of problematic sh*t from more 'contemporary' romance, where the 'hero' (and the narrator) spend their time belittling the main female character by constantly reminding us of how ugly she is and how he is almost doing her a favor by marrying her. Also, the 'hero' is a chauvinistic pig. So ugh.
And have example 2 from contemporary romance, where everyone slut shames women who *gasp* dare to like and/or have sex, and the main male character is utter garbage.
Example 3 from contemporary romance is here, where the lovely main male character (who is presented as being 'one of the good ones', mentions his first sexual experience with his ex in such a way that it is obvious that things were not fully consensual. Good times!)
(Also, here is an example of yet another historical romance novel which does not have the misogyny I discuss in this post, but which is massively homophobic and ableist. Good times!)
More examples, reviewed by yours truly, in paranormal romance and urban fantasy (i.e. I am listing these two genres together because there is a lot of overlap between them) as well as from novels combining fantasy and romance:
(1) Here (Female werewolves -or were panthers *gag*- are super duper rare so of course they have no rights and are treated like possessions! yay! Also, the following great review by another reviewer actually explains the problematic nature of this book much better than my review.)
(2) Here (The heroine is raped but it's not that bad because she winds up having an orgasm!)
(3) Here (Another one with the rare female werewolves/were-whatevers who are treated like doormats trope!)
(4) Here (One of the most misogynistic novels of all time IMO, with female werewolves again.)
What the f*ck is it with were (werewolves, were-hedgehogs, were-mice, were-mosquitoes) novels, anyways? You tell me.
(5) Here (The passive female who must be rescued! This of course is ANOTHER were-gnat/were-something novel.)
(6) Here (A good penis is what all women secretly crave -the magical penis will always save or otherwise transport a woman. Another example of this trope is here.)
(7) Here (Women being treated like doormats for no good reason in the story.)
(8) Here (If a woman finds a good penis, she'll be saved from the darkside!!)
(9) Yet another example of misogynistic crap in the paranormal romance genre is here.
(10) Another example is here, where the main female character first gets with the main male character/'hero' in a massively non consensual and problematic way.
(11) Yet another example is the following SERIES, where many (all?) of the main romances are bordering on non consensual, women can never be leaders and never are as dominant as the males, and other wonderful sexism and misogyny that made me want to vomit.
Hey romance and urban fantasy (and other genre) authors, here's a message:
DO BETTER.
-------------------
My review of this particular book is as follows.
The characters: The 'hero' is an emotionally abusive asshole, who thinks that the heroine is beneath him. He broke up her engagement to his brother years earlier because she wasn't good enough for his brother, apparently. When she opens a bakery next to where he's been (temporarily) living while his London house is refurbished (or something -she had no idea he was living next door, and it's been years since the failed engagement) he goes ballistic and tries to have her evicted.
...Was I supposed to like this guy? Yeeeech.
The heroine is an independent woman -she has become an expert pastry chef and simply wants to work at her art... for most of the book anyways. This is before she realizes that what she really wanted all along was the 'hero's' penis and she gives up on her bakery and her dreams, in order to marry a guy who has treated her like dirt all along.
So much for being an independent woman, I guess. (I also call bad characterization here, because really.)
Plot: I've pretty much detailed this bad boy above, so there isn't much to add regarding the plot, really, except that much of it involves the 'hero' acting like an entitled douchecanoe.
Setting: It's pretty thin, which is another problem with historical romance novels, to my mind. This could have been set in the present day, really without it affecting the story much: think Sabrina.