Oh, I so agree. I've read a lot of disturbing romances - in which they power dynamics are completely out-of-wack and it becomes alarmingly clear that...the writer is oblivious to this.
I understand having preferences (frankly, I think that they should just go the fanfic route and have a rating system so that people know upfront. I personally enjoy a wide range, but it's perfectly clear that many people do not. They want what they want and that's fair. But the "clean" thing irks the hell out of me. (Just as the H/h shorthand that shadowkat mentioned the other day. I had noticed that too and it had bothered me also. Why is Hero the capital and the heroine lowercase? What kind of subconscious sexism is that?!)
EXACTLY. I've learned to read the bad and good reviews on these sites. Some books do warn you - the self-published ones do and the ones that are .99 cents. Which is interesting.
(often because the people who often make these 'clean'/'unclean' judgments are the same sort that love 'traditional gender relationships' translated into an overbearing, power-sucking, controlling hero infantilizing a heroine.
Found that out the hard way... I really can't abide those romances. Read a few of them...and found them cringe inducing. Most, weirdly, were in the contemporary/New Adult category. Which is odd. Also a lot of the chicklit books have that power imbalance.
While the historicals...that I've been reading such as the Countess Conspiracy (which I adored to pieces) and Beguiling the Beauty...don't or rather they comment on how the time period enforced a power imbalance, which the characters struggle against and refuse to give in to.
But a lot of the reviewers on Amazon and Good Reads - I've found, find the stronger women - to be self-centered or not supportive. It's very odd. And they seem to want the 18-21 year old and the older guy.
Thomas in Beguiling the Beauty plays with that trope - in an interesting way, her heroine is older than the hero, but the heroine's first marriage was to that older controlling guy who wanted her to be the pretty/traditional girl (which is the established trope). While the heroine wanted to dig up fossils, but her first husband was against it.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2014-02-13 12:20 am (UTC)I understand having preferences (frankly, I think that they should just go the fanfic route and have a rating system so that people know upfront. I personally enjoy a wide range, but it's perfectly clear that many people do not. They want what they want and that's fair. But the "clean" thing irks the hell out of me. (Just as the H/h shorthand that shadowkat mentioned the other day. I had noticed that too and it had bothered me also. Why is Hero the capital and the heroine lowercase? What kind of subconscious sexism is that?!)
EXACTLY. I've learned to read the bad and good reviews on these sites. Some books do warn you - the self-published ones do and the ones that are .99 cents. Which is interesting.
(often because the people who often make these 'clean'/'unclean' judgments are the same sort that love 'traditional gender relationships' translated into an overbearing, power-sucking, controlling hero infantilizing a heroine.
Found that out the hard way... I really can't abide those romances. Read a few of them...and found them cringe inducing. Most, weirdly, were in the contemporary/New Adult category. Which is odd. Also a lot of the chicklit books have that power imbalance.
While the historicals...that I've been reading such as the Countess Conspiracy (which I adored to pieces) and Beguiling the Beauty...don't or rather they comment on how the time period enforced a power imbalance, which the characters struggle against and refuse to give in to.
But a lot of the reviewers on Amazon and Good Reads - I've found, find the stronger women - to be self-centered or not supportive. It's very odd. And they seem to want the 18-21 year old and the older guy.
Thomas in Beguiling the Beauty plays with that trope - in an interesting way, her heroine is older than the hero, but the heroine's first marriage was to that older controlling guy who wanted her to be the pretty/traditional girl (which is the established trope). While the heroine wanted to dig up fossils, but her first husband was against it.