In Defence of the “Romantasy Girlies”
Good afterevenmorn, Readers!
So, once again I have entered the world of TikTok. This one is very old now, in the lightning fast news cycle that is that particular platform, so I’m rather behind the ball on commenting on it. For a few reasons for this. One, I’m old (ish. In internet terms, I mean). I simply cannot move at the speed TikTok seems to demand. Two, the one really got under my skin, despite not being one of the group targeted. So I wanted to take the time to calm down before approaching it. And third, I feel like I’ve covered this topic more than once, and I’m very annoyed that I feel compelled to tackle it once again. But here we are.
It is, of course, the weird, irritating, and erroneous snobbery between genres.
Those of us in the “genre” fiction community are very familiar with this coming from the “literary” fiction squad (quotations required, because every type of fiction is/has a genre, and literary fiction is literally a genre of fiction). It also exists between the various genres of genre fiction. The latest target? Romantasy and Romantasy readers. Uh… I feel like I need to define Romantasy, because it’s a relatively new term for me. It’s basically a romance, but with fantastic elements (often Fae-type creatures, for example). Which… isn’t me. But I am absolutely offended on their behalf.
Let me start at the very beginning.
A few weeks ago, TikTok absolutely exploded after an author opened her video with the phrase:
We all know that Romantasy girlies are not the brightest sparks…
Um, excuse me?
I’m not a Romantasy girlie. I don’t write it. I don’t read it. I couldn’t even tell you the difference between Romantasy and Romantic Fantasy (there is apparently a difference, I have learnt during all of this). I do have quite a bit of romance in the books I write, I realise on reflection, so maybe that’s where my knee-jerk reaction came from, but I don’t think so. I think it’s because I immediately recognise and dislike the attitude exposed in that single sentence.
Look, Romance in general has been the one nearly everyone picks on, despite being the largest selling genre around. There are a lot of reasons for this, explored more fully by much better informed people. A large part of it is the devaluing of seemingly “womenly” things. There’s a very long history of it, and full examples of the same work being initially praised until it’s revealed that a woman wrote it, whereupon it’s suddenly considered “trite” or “simple” or even “awful.” Or, there is ample denial that a woman could have written it. See also, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Whatever the reason, everyone seems to be extremely comfortable looking down their noses at the Romance genre.
I have a small confession: I used to be one of those people. I read science fiction and Fantasy. I read non-fiction. I would not touch romance. I still don’t read it. I confess that the kind of story that is solely about the romantic relationship between two people is not all that interesting to me. The difference now is that I worked on myself, and I don’t now think anyone who does read or write that particular genre are in any way lesser. I don’t think that the genre is frivolous or unworthy.
The video goes on to talk about Romantasy and how the whole genre is conservative propaganda; in their her words, “A patriarchy kink.” I will say this once, and, I hope, very clearly, weaponising feminist rhetoric against a genre that is historically derided and dismissed specifically because it is considered to be by women for women is not feminist. Now, she did this in order to promote her own work, which was not the thing to do. Tearing others down in order to try and lift yourself up is a surefire way to get yourself blacklisted pretty much everywhere you would actually want to be.
This particular author found out. The backlash was swift, and it was fierce. Video response after video response, articles, and parodies followed her video. Her own book was review-bombed (which is not a tactic I agree with, incidentally, but it’s something that certainly does happen. Please don’t do it. It’s not right). One of the reasons I’m not dropping a name here is because of the backlash. I think this is a good opportunity for her to learn, but I don’t want to pile on. You can go looking for her if you want.
Now, might she have a point? Perhaps, yes. I have no doubt that there are extremely problematic Romantasy books out there. There are certainly very poorly-written ones that have gotten quite popular. But the instances of these things are no worse, in my opinion, than in other genres. I have read science fiction and fantasy books with extremely problematic themes, scenes, characters or tropes. And I’ve also read books in the aforementioned genres that are, in my opinion, in possession of quite appalling writing. What a sentence. Speaking of appalling writing…
I digress.
Just because one book in a genre might be distasteful doesn’t mean they all are. Dismissing readers of an entire genre as somehow less intelligent because one or two books are “bad” (in one’s humble opinion) is alarmingly ill-informed. Like many, many books in other genres, there are a bunch of Romantasy books that are critical of the patriarchy, and actively work to counter its messaging. And this is not to mention all the queer Romantasy, which by its very existence is extremely anti-patriarchy, and offer some much needed representation of a population that is still underserved in nearly all kinds of fiction. Speaking of which, let’s briefly touch on how radical it is that people of colour, who are often main characters of Romantasy, get to see themselves as lovely and loved in an entertainment culture that doesn’t often allow that.
The idea that just because romance features prominently in something, that is it somehow frivolous, infantile or otherwise unworthy is absolutely laughable. Broad brush statements and trying to justify literary elitism with feminist rhetoric is not feminist; especially when it’s weaponised against a genre/sub genre that is historically ridiculed specifically because it’s enjoyed largely by women.
Even if the books are all terrible, let’s pretend. Even if they offered nothing more than rock candy for the brain – saccharine, tasty but ultimately without nutrition and perhaps a little bad for you, actually (they’re not, but we’re pretending), what does it matter? People are reading! Don’t we want people to be reading? Do we not realise that Romantasy is a gateway for exploration of other sub genres of fantasy? Or do we only want them to be reading a very narrow sliver of kinds of books?
Life is really hard right now. Let people have their silly, frivolous things that clearly bring them joy.
(Once again, I don’t believe it is, but we’re pretending)
I really miss the days when people read whatever genre they wanted, and we all minded our own business. The elitism is not the way, folks. We don’t need to drag others to prop ourselves up. Can we please just stop.
When S.M. Carrière isn’t brutally killing your favorite characters, she spends her time teaching martial arts, live streaming video games, and sometimes painting. In other words, she spends her time teaching others to kill, streaming her digital kills, and sometimes relaxing. Her most recent titles include Daughters of Britain, Skylark and Human. Her next novel The Lioness of Shara Mountain releases early 2027.
I am old(er), so my brain keeps whispering “Paranormal romance” to me as we move into the Romantasy era. And Writer’s Digest is nice enough to explain the difference(s) to me (PR – more adult, more “urban”/contemporary fantasy elements; Romantasy – more YA, more “high”/secondary world fantasy elements). So I am learning. And as someone who has read Paranormal romance, I am not pleased to see Romantasy being dissed as “frivolous”. Heck, as a sf/f reader from before it was “cool”, I am sensitive to the kind of elitist “literary” criticism that Romantasy is now suffering. Yes, I remember all too well the old axiom: “If it is science fiction, it is not good; if it is good, it is not science fiction.” Grrr!!
And I will say that the best bit of signage that I have recently seen in a bookstore was a charming newer shop that had two shelving units in a room, one labeled “Romantasy – more dragons”, the other with “Romantasy – less dragons”. So, from my cross of genre, along the road of literature, all I can do is cry, “I am a Romantasy girlie!” and hear the other genre hangers pick up the call: “I am a Romantasy girlie!”, “I am a Romantasy girlie!”
It is honestly so exhausting.
I think Romantasy’s popularity is partly due to backlash against Grimdark. Just a few years ago, Grimdark was the subgenre that was popular, but just like Romantsy, there were and are a lot people who hated it and those readers jumped all over Romantasy and Cozy fantasy.
There was a time when I would have been bashing Romantasy, because of all the things “I” hate about it but I’ve grown to know better. As passionate I am of the genres I read, I would never belittle any genres that others are just as passionate about. As fans of SFF, we should be glad that the next big thing in genre fiction, is at the very least, a subgenre of SFF.
My problem isn’t with Romantasy itself, but the way it’s getting pushed down our throats. We should blame that on publishers and the way marketing is done nowadays. With social media and the internet’s algorithms, it’s like we are being told what we should be reading. If we consider ourselves to be serious bookworms or genre-junkies, than ____ is what THEY tell us we should be reading.
Also I’m a little jealous and put -off that whenever I walk into the book-and-mortar bookstores, whether it’s a big chain like Barnes and Noble or a small indie shop, table after table is piled to the point of collapse with Romantasy and YA books. The SFF sections, which already have fewer books than my personal library, are 90-95% Romantasy. They even sell Romantasy themed bookmarks, stickers, t-shirts, and, miscellaneous collectables. Romantasy has like this awesome club that could care less if an old school SFF fan like me joins or not.
Bookstores used to be one of my favorite places, and now that I’m an old dude, I don’t feel like I even belong there anymore. I wish that my favorite genre, sword-and-sorcery, had just a fraction of the marketing, Romantasy has.
I get it, publishers produce what sells, but that’s the thing. Publishers and booksellers are TELLING us that Romantasy is where it is at. How many Romantasy books are actually selling because they are solid well- written stories and how many Romantasy books are bestsellers only because they are being marketed as the IT THING to read?
I think you’re right about the Grimdark exhaustion. I love Grimdark myself, but I can also see how tiresome it could get; particularly since life seems so bleak right now. So, yeah. I can totally see that.
So much of Romantasy has killer plots, from some of the ones I’m aware of, and I *FULLY* believe that much of how many there are right now is just marketing. Romantasy is hot, so publishers are selling books that even just flirt with it as Romantasy so they sell.
As a reader since early childhood and someone with a ton of bookstore experience, I understand and appreciate what you’re saying. I too remember when S/F was very much considered ghetto genres and you wouldn’t dare mention to a girl in high school that you read either.
My problem with the romantasy boom is the same as I had with the science fiction and later fantasy booms: the infantlization and fetishness of readers coupled with the rapid homogenization of genres that the publishers, media (particularly the social variety) and fans stoke like the boiler of a runaway train.
I will always argue that any guilty pleasure (and I certainly have mine) is fine and healthy within reason but one has to have a balanced diet and I find myself increasingly disturbed by the way readers have fallen prey to niche baiting/gentrification. And don’t even get me started on the YAification of all genres.
Walking into a bookstore now, even the independents, is just depressing. Their selections are all but indistinguishable, like the worst Walden Books ever. Hell, Walden Books in the seventies had a deeper, richer selection than whatever Barnes and Noble has become, which is now nothing more than the book racks from a Kroger spread widely out over the dingey remains of a former Office Max in a ghoulish parody of a bookstore.
I guess what bothers me most is that I remember when women, particularly young women, were usually the most interesting people in any room. They were always the most curious and had the most expansive tastes. One could argue that yes, they are reading (which is more than you can say for most men) but the sad reality these days is that they’ve largely crossed the line from readers to mere consumers and that, coupled with the black hole like contraction of the publishing world, is depressing and scary.
I apologize for going a bit off topic and I do agree with you. I worked in an independent record store back in the day when coworkers and the worst little shit geek customers would ask each other what they listened to soley as an excuse to unleash their petty rage upon one another. I have no appetite for pop culture shaming. Leave each other alone, people.
This is why I avoid social media. I realize that, as an author, you don’t have that option these days. All I can say is hang in there. The naysayers are screaming into the ether because this is their pathetic excuse of a social life. Since you have to wade through the snake pit you can’t avoid them the way I avoid reading bumper stickers, yard signs and the scribblings on men’s room walls but I’d respectfully suggest averting your eyes within the first sentence of any rant. Save your sanity and your talents by perhaps limiting your responses to thoughtfully advocating for the girlies. Yes, I know that’s probably unrealistic. Still, don’t let the bastards get to you. Plus, the girlies are a surprisingly tough bunch and I’m betting they can take care of themselves just fine.
Oh, I totally understand how depressing bookshops have become. The rush to make money over the latest trend is a very real thing.
I would argue that the “Romantasy Girlies” are not exclusive to the genre, though. New folks to it will be until their desire is slaked and they go looking for something different. It’s always the way with these trends. And for now, it’s opening the fantasy door for folks who might have otherwise walked right by it. I think, ultimately, it’s a good thing.
Also, Lord I wish I could avoid social media! Maybe one day, when my books start making money, I can hire someone to do that for me, and then vanish into the woods to live in a quaint cottage with my cats á la Enya and her castle.
Yup. I think we’re definitely on the same page. Sorry to take this off track but its been on my mind a lot lately, and I’m desperate for someone else opinion.
I guess partly, what I feel going into a bookstores nowadays as 58 year-old, straight, white male, is what marginalized people felt forever. It’s well past due that everyone gets some representation, and I could be wrong but I feel like Romantasy readers are almost all girls, women, and LGBTQIA and that’s a great thing. I might never have became the avid reader I am today, if, when I was a kid, I never saw anyone like me be the hero in a good book.
But also, I think when it’s said men don’t read, its because the majority of books being published today aren’t the kind of books most men like to read.
When I was a kid, blue collar guys did read; truckers, and, coal miners, even bikers read the black and white illustrated magazines like Savage Sword of Conan. My dad didn’t read for leisure but he was a Baptist minister. My best friend’s Dad though; he had an awesome collection of Tarzan and Westerns.
I realize the and agree with the problematic long gone section in the bookstores called Men’s Adventure, but man thats what I miss. And I guarantee more men would read if those kinda of books were marketed.
It’s very true that there doesn’t appear to be any marketing towards men for books. It does seem like they’ve been abandoned as a demographic, though I do think there are a LOT of books being published that would suit their tastes; they’re just not marketed that way.
That’s definitely something to ponder.
The 2022 US National Endowment for the Arts survey of reading had 47% of women and 28% of men reading any fiction (novels, short stories) in the previous year. So, with a 2-to-1 ratio, it is easy to see why bookstores and publishers aim at female customers. And that is a pretty select group, too, as only 48% of US adults read any type of book in 2021.
I think this could be a case of the tail wagging the dog though. I think the reason men stopped reading as much because, the kinds of books that men liked to read, westerns, military fiction, sword and sorcery/planet, post-apocolyptic, spy thrillers, hard boiled, etc.. started getting frowned upon as low-brow and misogynistic and publishers started to distance themselves from what were, for lack of a better term, seen as Men’s Adventure. (I tempted to say along about the time publishers switched from painted illustrated book covers to stylized ones. )
Either because of the lack of books or the lack was due to, young men and boys getting their stories from video games. Or maybe it worked both ways.