In Defense of Romance

Sometimes life doesn’t have lessons. Sometimes life is just another day. I don’t ponder all the deep meanings behind little mishaps or contemplate existential topics during every conversation I have. Sometimes life is simple, and I like it that way. I like reading about other simple lives where their biggest problem is how to fall in love. I used to be ashamed to say that my favorite genre is Romance because it gets a bad rap. People don’t find it intellectually challenging enough to be an impressive reading choice, but now I am completely unashamed. If someone asked me why Romance should be respected more, I would say that it is the most real and challenging genre there is out there. Although it isn’t taken as seriously as other genres, it is still beneficial to read. From early on, we were taught that any good book must teach us a valuable lesson about how to live and experience our lives, and isn’t that what Romances do? Once we eliminate the idea of a shirtless, long-haired Adonis Romance book that our grandmothers read, we can acknowledge the reality, diversity, and representation that comes from this genre. 

Romance books may not be completely intellectually challenging, but there has to be some reason it is the 2nd best selling fiction sub-genre. It makes almost twice the amount of money that Literary fiction books make in a year. How come it sells so much, but people still undermine it? I guess it is some form of sexism lingering from a male-dominated profession, perhaps. Women make up 84% of the main consumers of Romance and there is a long history of women and anything they like being overlooked, not taken seriously, and avoided by men (book selling and reading statistics). Regardless of what people think, romance readers and writers are not slowing down in their consumption rate. The genre truly represents our society and literary movement better than anything else can. 

At the risk of accidentally writing a research paper, I believe we need to look at the most recent movements in art and literature to understand that Romance is truly one of the most organic and representative genres of our time. If you have taken any art or literature class, you have probably heard of Postmodernism. Postmodernism is recognized as the movement that promotes “Art for Art’s sake” which refers to there being no meaning left in art; instead, there are only super realistic and simple repetitions. Now, that was a very simplified and rough interpretation of PM, but it does enough to justify how and why Romance should be taken more seriously as literature (Read more about Post-Modernism). Reality has caught up with Science Fiction and Fantasy. Either outlook means that readers are more likely to get bored and recognize that all of the extravagances are overwhelming. This leads to people going back to the fundamental truth of life: people want to see love and be loved. Romance books offer that escape and peace as they generally aim to represent all different types of love and people. 

Our society is fighting for representation and basic humans rights. Romances can easily represent a variety of people who are looking for love. Not everyone is cut out for the “save the world at 17” life or “time travel to save someone” life, but I think everyone wants to–at the bare minimum–feel loved. Recently there has been a shift in the idea of Romance and what it looks like for readers and characters to experience love. Before we would only see white cis relationships in books and movies, and it was generally the same girl and guy over and over again, establishing the basic tropes of a romance that life is only meaningful if you are in a relationship. Current Romance and feminism challenges that idea and still aims for love, but a more healthy and independent love that doesn’t require a certain sexual orientation, race, religion, gender, etc. With all of this new and intentional representation, I don’t think it is fair to judge Romance’s validity based on the intellectual strain it causes a reader. Instead, we should consider how this genre or any other genre affects and changes the perception of our society. 

 

There are no barriers when it comes to romance. Romance can be sexual, romantic, frantic, inter-dimensional, professional, etc. As we grow as a society and acknowledge and embrace the variety of people we get to share this life with, we get to see more about how they live and love. There might not be any intense moral lesson at the end of a cheesy Romance, but it does reflect the times and teaches our progression towards total inclusion.

 

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• romance novels