Romance is both the most popular and the top-selling literary genre around the world — so why are romance books often referred to as a “guilty pleasure”?
Fantasy and romance author Sara J. Maas recently went on Alex Cooper’s podcast Call Her Daddy and had a few choice words for those who refuse to treat romance with the credibility it deserves. She mentioned the instant eye roll that women get when they read books that contain romance or sexual content and society’s inability to respect female-dominated interests.
When men write sex into their books, it’s often mentioned in an unromantic and almost clinical way, so it isn’t deemed as “trashy,” but rather an artistic decision. Maas claims that when the second sex is mentioned in a female written romance book, it devalues the work in society’s eyes. So when a man disregards romance in sexual scenarios and it’s considered more respectable than a romantic scene, there’s an implication that women shouldn’t expect romantic sex because it isn’t respectable.
Dating back to the 1800s, romance has been a female dominated genre, created by and catered to women. The genre has been considered “women’s fiction,” which is a terminology that discredits the range of the genre. For example, when George RR Martin writes sexual themes into A Song of Ice and Fire, it’s still considered a fantasy book with political themes, rather than a fantasy book with romantic themes. When Maas writes sexual themes into Throne of Glass, it’s considered a “romantasy” despite the political themes.
Maas says she doesn’t understand it because “you’re writing a thing that is so accurate to life, and sex is a part of life.”
Sex is a commonality amongst the human race; it is something all of us share and indulge, so when we begin to spread the idea that women shouldn’t read or talk about sex, we reinforce conservative and dated ideals about modesty.