romance for guys
I was just asked to find a good romance for a young adult (an older teen). He wanted something like The Notebook. Turns out it is very difficult to find one! I avoided books from a female perspective, which knocked out 90% of the romantic teen fiction right there. Nearly all the rest were about gay romance, and I wasn't sure that would fly here. So I opted for 24 girls in 7 days, and Stargirl, and a few others.
But - where are the romance books for straight guys?
Labels: YA
posted by DearReader @ 6:41 PM
4 Comments:
I'm not sure if you wanted a librarian opinion here, but IMO I don't think many guys are interested in romance novels. Or, won't admit it and wouldn't like to be seen reading one at least. Personally, I don't think they're too interesting. When I first started examining a lot of them at the library, I actually thought many of them were hilariously cheesy, which reinforced my belief not to read them. Society's fault? Maybe. :)
Any opinions are fine - and it's good to get a guy's POV on this issue. I agree that many guys aren't interested in romance novels - but it's strange that I could find only one or two about straight romance. Why would gay men want to read about romance, if straight men don't?
(Or is the market for GLBT fiction a whole different issue? Certainly, I know straight people who read it).
I have a whole blog, of course, about hilariously cheesy romance. The difference here is that I occasionally seek out hilarious cheese (as it were), and you don't. Nothing wrong with that.
I don't mean to pick on romance novels in particular. I'll pretty much read any book as long as the writing's good. I've never really given them a chance to grab my attention. There being a lot of genre's I'm unfamiliar with, usually I stick to what I know will be entertaining. Probably, there is a romance novel out there that I would completely love. It doesn't take much :)
If I'm totally wrong I apologize first to those concerned, but it seems like many gay/lesbian relationships have dominant and submissive aspects, which correlates to the traditional roles in straight relationships. In general though, I don't think there is a stigma attached to reading romance novels for gay people. They seem to have much bigger issues to worry about anyway.
Ultimately, I think there is a negative connotation associated with romance novels for guys, which is likely why there aren't so many on the shelves (not just speaking romance novels necessarily, but anything that has to do with "effeminacy" and males). Nowadays though, it might be more incredible that a young guy is even reading a book, let alone what's inside it. :)
I've been thinking this over for a few days, and I think it's really interesting. I can't think of a romance novel where the dominant one in the pair is the narrator - and why would they be? It's not as interesting, because they're dominant and therefore better able to get the person they want.
It's a bit depressing that there aren't more books about men looking for romance with women - I mean, not all men are dominant. But all of this does help explain why most romance with male characters is gay fiction - the more submissive one (in most gay fic I can think of - practically every Alex Sanchez book, for example) is the narrator more often.
And it makes sense, because I'd argue that for many readers, a more submissive character is more sympathetic for readers. Like in Beverly Cleary's Ramona books, where Ramona's popularity with readers stems from their ability to relate to and, in some ways, look down on Ramona's actions. ("Silly Ramona! Only a baby would do that", etc).
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