Well, they can't be nearly as bad as porn, right?
It's pretty straightforward to spot the purposes for both porn and romance novels, and to see how much they parallel each other, so to speak. Porn (I resent using the term and in turn judging it) is the absolutely shameful watching of a woman demoting herself and her body to a man's personal lust fulfillment. I suppose there may also be cases where the roles are reversed. With romantic fiction, on the other hand, you have teenage girls and grown women alike reading about another girl or woman who serves as a blank slate for the reader to project her fantasies into the world of the book and, of course, the heroic male character in the book. Yes.
But since I've read almost no romance, I hardly think I can take the most accurate stance on this genre. I have, however, taken clues from other people who've written on this subject, and so I'll draw an intuitive-based conclusion from those as I go along. (This brings into question why I chose this topic in the first place.)
Putting aside the question of their quality as a whole, in determining whether or not romance novels are only harmless fun - nothing more, nothing less - one must first ask oneself: how do these books portray male characters, and then how do they portray female characters? Generally speaking? Clearly the core market is the crowd of females ranking from their preteen years all the way up to old age. But the characters they read about and envy are perhaps... less than desirable.
Scenario number one: boy meets girl. Girl is lonely, has an indifferent family oblivious to her "needs," mean classmates, neighbors, etc. Boy is caring, strong, and the all-around awesome boyfriend. Get these two together and you have magic. And by magic, I mean eventual passionate, sexy sex. Or at least an impulsively planned wedding.
Let me explain: the problem I have has (almost) nothing to do with weddings and love-making; it has to do with the conjuring of shallow, stereotypical characters to move the plot of the typical romance, wherein people are subordinate to predictable conflicts and outcomes. Males seemingly have one set of stock personalities for the "spicy" story, while females have a completely separate set, exaggerating gender differences. Add to that the fact that both the male and female characters have to be pretty darn good-looking, so their merits are much dependent on physical attractiveness. They judge and are judged accordingly, regardless of any character depth they might possess.
Because of my suspicions I don't often count on romances to produce healthy role models, especially for the ladies. The worst part of it though, in my honest opinion, is how unrealistic it all is. Love at first sight - what's this? I guess it could happen, but I doubt the love would last if it's solely won over by outward appearances. If you get to marry your favorite hunk of a man, does that mean an automatic happily ever after? Eh-heh-heh... pessimism aside, it's not always heaven from then on out.
Fantasy worlds such as those in pop romantic fiction and corresponding film adaptations, where people are but caricatures of the real and love-struck, can in fact be dangerous to the unwary. It wouldn't be a stretch to assume that women entrenched in their romance-centric media are inclined to carve out in their minds an unrealistic ideal "Man" whom they would want to marry and make babies with, using men in the books or movies as, at the very least, a template. They additionally may pretend to be the main female character in the story, and act out her love life in the confines of their own imaginations. Forget porn; this consumption of "romance" gives the impression of a lust fulfillment by itself, putting on the deceptive form of a spiritual transcendent longing to replace bodily sexual pleasure!
It's an indulgence, for sure, which from what I've read can potentially damage real-life relationships. A woman, fantasizing about perfect fictional men, and setting an unattainable standard for a real, flawed man to reach, so he can never meet her approval. Hmm. Sounds nigh just as bad as a man searching for the perfect-bodied woman he's imagined after viewing pornography.
Any other reasons I have for comparing something as seemingly innocent as romance to awful, misogynistic porn? Well, I've never been too enthralled by the whole romance genre to begin with. That might explain my biases - my dislike of the lovey-dovey saccharine stuff. Really, I'll never understand why so many other gals just gobble it up. It could simply be the desiring of an ideal life partner, or there could be some more complex underlying causes. Maybe the surrounding culture's influence on girls and women, pressuring them into becoming "hopeless romantics?" Quite possibly.
