Romance Novel Nattering
Jul. 28th, 2008 01:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
botiasNow I'm wondering what would happen if men started demanding fair representation in the extremely female-dominated romance novel industry. The male characters in romance novels, as they stand now, exist purely to fulfill the needs of the female characters. They are always quite charismatic and extraordinary even though the female characters have a much, much greater range of possibilities. The heroes very often give up lifestyles and ways of which they were previously very fond to conform to the wants and needs of the heroine.
I honestly don't know that I would welcome changes that would make romance novels more appealing to men. They might want a ban on heroes who mysteriously adore listening to the heroine's inane chatter. Men might be rightly disgusted with the notion that the hero finds himself incapable of having deeply satisfying sex with anyone other than the heroine--since the man is inevitably so charismatic that he can bed pretty much any woman that takes his fancy, it's rather as if the poor guy has been hexed. Men might frown on plot lines where the hero chooses to scale back a career which he found challenging and rewarding simply to enable him to lavish more attention on his spouse (though the heroes always come to accept the heroine's demanding or dangerous career, understanding that 'it's part of who she is and he wouldn't want to change it'). Men might find themselves at a loss to understand or feel represented by heroes who are bored by the lithe beauties who are always flinging themselves in front of their limos, instead falling madly in lust with a woman with smallish breasts, sensible hair and 'some meat on her bones'.
I honestly don't know that I would welcome changes that would make romance novels more appealing to men. They might want a ban on heroes who mysteriously adore listening to the heroine's inane chatter. Men might be rightly disgusted with the notion that the hero finds himself incapable of having deeply satisfying sex with anyone other than the heroine--since the man is inevitably so charismatic that he can bed pretty much any woman that takes his fancy, it's rather as if the poor guy has been hexed. Men might frown on plot lines where the hero chooses to scale back a career which he found challenging and rewarding simply to enable him to lavish more attention on his spouse (though the heroes always come to accept the heroine's demanding or dangerous career, understanding that 'it's part of who she is and he wouldn't want to change it'). Men might find themselves at a loss to understand or feel represented by heroes who are bored by the lithe beauties who are always flinging themselves in front of their limos, instead falling madly in lust with a woman with smallish breasts, sensible hair and 'some meat on her bones'.
