Romance Novel Nattering

[botias]

Now 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'.

Comments

[beanbeans.livejournal.com]

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'.

OH NOES!
*re-writes M & I book*

:P

Oh, wait, I'm targeting my-aged women. Never mind. \o/

ILU, OMG, and I love the way you think about these things. Truly, the genre is written by and large by women, for women. So yeah, it's an idealized generalization of what is expected that women want. Or what women are supposed to want.

:|

Oy, murky waters. Yikes.

Stop making me think! It's hard! *Buffy whine* :P

Hi, hihihi!

I have to go to work, but I miss you and miss chatting with you. I hope we can catch each other on IM soon. <333

[botias.livejournal.com]

Your M & I book is a thing of romance novel beauty whether you ever write more of it or not. :D I really enjoyed what I got to see of it.

Yes, as a reader I really wouldn't want to share the romance novel sandbox with men. As a writer... wow. I don't know that I would really want to write stories that I found less personally pleasing to me so that the story would be more broadly appealing. Does this lack of caring whether my male characters are realistic and satisfying to male readers mean that I am a selfish man-hating person? I mean really, does it? How would I feel if I was accused of that because of the stories I write and enjoy?

Anyway!! I am never in front of my desktop PC these days. >:( I'll have to start paying closer attention on the laptop so we can get together. :) <333

[beanbeans.livejournal.com]

Thanks, sweetie. I don't want to jinx it, but I have been having writerly thoughts lately, which makes me weepy simply at the fact that they are showing up. I'm holding onto them verrrry carefully, so as to not scare them away.

I don't think it makes you a man-hater, or selfish, no. I think what we write is fantasy and escapism, particularly since we both write fandom-based, non-published works. Although writing is relatively revelatory about one's self and one's personal belief systems. If you are truly going to write what you know, then some of YOU and your ideas about gender roles will show up. As will your fantasy about what is an ideal man/woman/relationship. But when writing fanfiction, we pretty much are indeed writing for ourselves, to suit our own desires about how we want to see someone else's characters behave. Our own little puppet shows, played out in our heads, wearing actors faces, as it were.

However, that may be a question to consider, should you want to market your story to a mass audience. Could you find a compromise, wherein you told a story that didn't make the man entirely self-sacrificing, and wherein the woman wasn't completely independent and heroic? It seems to me that layered character that was both heroic and flawed, ego-centric and generous, would be more realistic than simply writing formulaic gender stereotyped M and F characters. Not that you do that, mind you--you've quite good at writing characters with complex motivations--but I'm simply answering your hypothetical question.

I suppose you would have to consider how to make compromises both in plot line and in your character's emotional development, if you were to write with the intention of creating characters who are appealing to both men and women, and not just to serve your own writing fantasies. But I do think it's possible to do both.

Whew!

In conclusion, writing is HARD, yo. :P
But you are an excellent writer, my dear, and asking questions like these, considering them while you are writing, can only make you better.

♥ ♥ ♥