What’s so wrong with reading Romance?

Recently a gentleman (and I use the term loosely) wrote a blog that received quite of bit of attention, good and bad.  Bad grammar aside (i.e.; the word lessor used incorrectly) from a man who claims to want to be an author, it was a very interesting read.  To summarize; he declared open season on the romance genre of writing as well as its authors.  His entry was short but derisive, full of malice and discontent towards the entire genre and painting them all with one broad paintbrush as being worthless and ‘inferior’.  He goes on to declare that they were always meant to be inferior and will never amount to be being ‘classics.’  I am loathe to point out to him but most of the ‘classics’ we know of were as a whole dismissed by the authors’ peers as works of merit-less fancy.

This man’s opinion, uneducated, dismissive, derisive, and rather poorly defended for the most part, says that people who write, and read, romance novels are, to a woman (and he insists that only women read romance novels, an opinion I’d like to disabuse him of), are rather stupid, most likely only a step above being illiterate ("Many people don’t have the reading skills to rise much higher than children’s books or romance novels."), free-loading, stay-at-home housewives with no thought in their head more important that what to make for dinner.  He self-importantly insists that women who read these sorts of stories are immature and need to leave romance novels alone, going so far as to moronically write out "As I said earlier, I object to grown women reading and thinking on thi(n)gs they should have gotten out of the way when they were still girls."  (Please note, I corrected yet more of his improper use of the English language.)

So I pose the question.  What exactly is so wrong with reading romance novels?  Is there something ‘immature’ about reading them?

My opinion is quite different from his.  I am not saying I think romance some sort of prophetic prose.  Indeed, I’ll be the first to admit that I am rather dismissive of some works that are full of drivel and frippery and nothing but heaving bosoms.  I’d probably make a good editor for all the books that I’ve dismissed over the years (romance, adventure, thriller, et al) for being poorly written, badly developed, or being utter word vomit.  I’ll admit some of my favorites are contemporary sci-fi and fantasy, quite a number are ‘trashy romance’ novels.  

This man, unfortunately, is part of the greater proof of why an increasing number of people (particularly women) are reading romance.  This man, would-be author and self-proclaimed ‘sexy’, most likely has no idea what romance is or how to be romantic.  He is one of many men who dismiss romance novels out-of-hand thinking them trash and nothing else.  I think men like this should be checked into a seminar taught out of romance novels and then perhaps they’d be in relationships.  The heroes in romance novels are not always the knight-in-shining-armor type.  Some of them are flat-out bad boys.  Some of them are in fact rather dorky.  But they have one thing in common. When they meet a good woman and they want to be with her, they make it happen.  They pursue her, they woo her, and they treat her well!!  They share their feelings (sometimes with great reluctance), they include their chosen heroine, they protect her, they care for her, they care about her.  Please make note, this is a two -way street.  The heroines in these stories (the good ones at least) are just as strong and loyal as their male counterpart.  They stand up for their man, they take care of him when he gets his ass kicked, and they lay down their lives for him.  

This is not foolishness; it is not childish.  It is perfectly acceptable to want to find a relationship like the ones that we see reflected in the well-written romance novels on the market.  Any woman who is being honest will admit, we see relationships like this in life (yes they exist in the real world too, though often not as outrageously as portrayed in novels), we get jealous as hell!  I do not think it is wanting to much to see in a hero traits that a modern woman wants in her chosen mate.  Chivalry shouldn’t be dead but sadly it is an endangered concept.  Romance is right there on the list with it.  

Is is too much to want a man to look at us like he wants to gobble us up like the last pizza of deep-dish supreme pizza at the Super Bowl party?  Is it wrong to want a man who isn’t afraid to admit that he dreams about us at night, that he misses us when we go away?  Is it a crime for a man to bring a woman flowers simply to give her something lovely to look at?  Is it a sin for a man to pick up the damned phone when he says he will call?

Romance novels give us a dose of ‘happily ever after’ that is so often lacking in our modern society.  They allow us to forget for a moment our own dreary heartaches and headaches.  

Writers of this genre should be afforded as much respect as writers in the other genres.  It is their time, their effort, and their creativity on the shelf. &nbs

p;At least they have to balls to put their work out there for idiots to criticize.  And their works were good enough that a publishing house backed them.

So, sir, where is your novel of great accord and wisdom?  Can we expect it to be on the Classics shelves next week?  No.  Then when will it be published?  Oh, you haven’t actually written it yet.  Oh, no.  How sad.  Then continue to sit on your make-believe throne and wave your pompous foolishness about like it makes you somehow more important or more intelligent.  It doesn’t make you any more brave.  It certainly does not make you a good writer.