Can Romance Be Feminist?

In front of a mixed audience of teenage boys and girls, four female authors are getting hot under the collar about “Girl Power” and the widespread stereotypes about women in romantic books.

From left to right: Melinda Salisbury, Katherine Webber, Catherine Doyle and Sara Barnard

On the lower ground level of Waterstone’s Kensington, the event is held in front of the romance section. Mostly women wander around this section turning books pages, touching lightly the pastel-coloured books and admiring the sensational covers that show half-naked women and men in suits sharing a passionate embrace.

A typical Mills & Boon romance cover

In 2016 romance was the second top ten fiction genre and the total sales value of romantic books was of £1.08 billion. It made up approximately one-fifth of all adult fiction sales, according to the Romantic Novelist’s Association, an alliance founded to promote romantic fiction.

Largely women are reading books produced by Mills & Boon, the UK’s leading romance fiction publishing since the 1930s. It sales 5.5 million books a year, one every four seconds. But there are more than 30 romance book publishing companies, including Harlequin Enterprises, Kensington Books and Zebra Regency romances.

Women constituted 84% of romance readers in 2016. Middle age women made up nearly a third of romance bookworms, according to Nielsen, a global marketing research firm.

Distribution of romance readers according to Nielsen

However, feminism is back in the UK. Last January more than 200 million women and men participated in the Women’s March on London for the protection of women fundamental rights and freedoms threatened by President Trump’s policies.

Women in 2017 have never been so empowered: they have achieved equal rights, they got rid of the patriarchal society restrictions and they are free to express their sexuality. 

Still, it is unusual to find a book that it is about women without love. The Modern Library, a publishing house of classics, created a list of the 100 Best Novels: only nine have women in the leading role and in only one the protagonist achieves personal success without marrying a man and raising their children.

The mission of the Feminist Book Club is to create a space to discuss books about women written by women without traditional stereotypes. Once a month in Europe’s largest bookshop, Waterstone’s in Piccadilly Circus, 15 women and one man share their thoughts about the role of women in romantic fiction books.

Historically, the precursor of romance was the sentimental novel Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded published in 1740 by Samuel Richardson. This is the novel that established the romantic fiction formula: a love story, a female heroine and a happy ending.

This is ironic if we think that the idea of romantic love arises from the medieval courtly love when knights had platonic relationships with the wives of their lords.

“The main problem in romantic fiction is how authors portray female and male characters. It’s all about identity in a love story,” claimed Isaac Marion, 30, author of the trilogy Warm Bodies.

The success of E.L James’ Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy about the romantic relationship between weak Anastasia and possessive Christian represents the dominance of gender stereotypes in the contemporary society.

“In a simple romance, it is unusual to have the female lead of the story, the love interest, to do something that it is not appealing, pretty and lovely. I can feel it as a writer,” remarked Marion and his eyes are lit by curiosity. 

Still, Austen’s hero Mr Darcy is an ideal man for many women today. In romantic books, only male characters can embody opposing features such as arrogance and tenderness in matters of the heart.

“But characters should not be the reverse of normality. Someone that is so strong and awesome with no flaws. This is also dehumanising. They should be an actual person, not a fantasy,” the romantic male writer concluded firmly.

However, romantic novels represent women’s fantasy. They are usually called “smut” or female pornography because women rebel against social conventions and consume men as products.

On the other hand, in romances heroines are always kind and innocent. If they have a job, they work in the traditional role of nurses and secretaries.

“I feel like female anti-heroines aren’t going to come up very often in romances because they embody qualities that are undesirable in women. We only like women when they are vulnerable,” said Melinda Salisbury in a slight bitter tone. She is the author of The Sin Eater’s Daughter, a love story set in a fantasy world.

Critics of the genre also emphasise how consent and rape are treated superficially in several books. The rape fantasy was introduced in 1919 when E.M Hull published his novel The Sheik about a strong male who kidnapped the heroine and won her love. 

“I experienced sexual violence when I was thirteen. Every time that an author uses rape or an attempted rape as a narrative device I feel deeply offended,” Melissa, 20, confided at the Feminist book club while she holds in her hands an underlined copy of Testament of Youth, a feminist book by Vera Brittain.

Can romance be feminist?

The members of the Feminist Book Club agree that romance cannot be feminist. A feminist love story is about a healthy relationship, respect between people. Everything that romance is not.

At the “Girl Power” panel the four female writers encouraged young women and men to read more books about feminist love stories to challenge stereotypes about women in romantic books.

“I think that it is time for men to adapt to women’s point of view. They should remember that there is another 52% of the population,” commented Sara Barnard, author of teenage love stories. She is joking but the look on her face does not lie.

In fact, men tend more than women to read exclusively books by authors of their same sex, according to Goodreads, a social network for readers.

“We really got something to teach them. When my younger brother read my book he rang me and said ‘I got a really important question about your book. Who is the hot girl on the cover? Do you have her number?’” concluded Catherine Doyle with an exasperated giggle and unleashing a chorus of laughs among the young audience.  

       Melinda Salisbury and Catherine Doyle about female anti-heroines in romantic books.