Heaving Bosoms: A Tonic for the Recession?

I set out for Princeton University last week with one question in mind: Why is romance fiction doing so well during our current recession? I was fascinated by a recent article in The New York Times which reported that "Harlequin Enterprises, the queen of the romance world" saw "fourth-quarter earnings [2008] up 32 percent over the same period a year earlier." But the accompanying explanation that "escapist urges" are fueling these sales wasn't satisfactory for me. Isn't all fiction escapist in some way? I wondered. And why are readers escaping into this particular kind of fiction?

Hence I headed for Princeton.

The university is known for its theories of relativity more than its theories on Harlequin novels. Last week, however, it hosted a unique two day symposium which promised to take romance fiction seriously. Bringing together scholars, romance writers, and reviewers, the symposium's specific focus would be "the multiple ways that romance novels--long the most maligned of literary texts--can provide rich critical insight for the study of American culture, politics, and society."

During the opening keynote panel, I thought my question about the recession-busting appeal of romance had been answered. Jennifer Cruise, a best selling romance author, argued that romance novels present an "emotionally just landscape;" a landscape in which a good, honest heroine will always be rewarded with her happily ever after - or "optimistic ending," as Crusie preferred to call it.

Although Crusie wasn't talking specifically about the appeal of romance in this recession, it struck me that these "emotionally just landscapes" are perfect antidotes for our current times. When shady Madoffs are making off with billions of dollars and banking executives are awarding themselves huge bonuses from bailout monies (while the rest of us watch our 401ks disappear like puddles in the midday sun), the appeal of a world where integrity and honesty are rewarded seems obvious.

But as the Princeton conference continued, I realized that it was too hasty to rush to this conclusion. Romances are not one kind of thing. Neither are their readers. And to draw fast conclusions about the genre and its audience is to perpetuate the kind of stereotyping which has always made romance the "most maligned of literary texts."

Over the next day and a half, speakers at the symposium made clear the incredible variety within the romance genre. Werewolves, vampires, shape-shifters, elves, Duchesses, sheikhs, bondage-lovers, bisexuals, gay men, slaves, ghosts, frontier women and evangelical Christians are all the stuff of romance fiction these days. Moreover, this heterogeneous cast of characters appears in an equally heterogeneous range of stories.

There is always a love plot and a happy ending, of course, but what happens around and prior to these things runs the whole gamut.

Beverly Jenkins, a best selling author of African American historical romances, for example, spoke of her book about a free man who goes back into slavery for love. Another author, Ann Herendeen, described her comical "bisexual regency romance" in which her heroine ends up married to a man - and his male lover. Professor Mary Bly, a Shakespeare scholar and bestselling romance author who writes under the penname Eloisa James, analyzed J.R.Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood novels which feature a band of hypermasculinized vampires defending their race against their slayers.

Undermining the stereotype about the formulaic, bodice-ripping sameness of the genre, characters and stories in today's romance world are staggeringly varied.

Furthermore, readers of romance are equally diverse. In their new book Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches Guide to Romance Novels, Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan offer a witty portrait of the stereotypical romance reader:

"She's rather dim and kind of tubby - undereducated and undersexed - and she displays a distressing affinity for mom jeans and sweaters covered in puffy paint and appliquéd kittens."

But as Wendell pointed out to me at the conference (she was also a presenter) the romance audience is incredibly varied: "We are everywhere, but sometimes the books we love are the only thing we have in common." One in every five books sold is a romance so it's not really surprising that its readers come from every class, every race, and every educational background. These readers enjoy romance in different ways and seek it out for a whole host of reasons.

On a panel about romance fiction and sexuality, Professor Guy Mark Foster admitted to the Princeton audience that inter-racial romances held scholarly interest for him. But also, as an African American gay man in a long term relationship with a white man, he found reassurance and a refreshing engagement with issues of race within stories of black women falling in love with white men. Another professor, Sally Goade, described Sara Donati's historical romances about frontier women and admitted that, as a busy wife and academic, these stories about women learning to live in the wilderness tapped into her own "fantasies of freedom."

Romances offer very different things to very different readers, therefore, and to lump the genre and its audience together is short-sighted - and problematic. This point was driven home to me during Professor Emily Haddad's paper about the depiction of the Middle East in romances featuring sheikhs. Haddad drew on Edward Said's theory of Orientalism which describes the way the West constructs and "others" the East through its writings and discourses. For too long, romance has been the "East" and "other" of the literary world: talked about in generalities, pigeonholed, and not understood for its nuances and variety.

I may not have gotten my answer for why romance is selling so well in our troubled times, but the Princeton conference taught me that to rush to conclusions about romance fiction is to flatten out a rich, varied, and continually evolving genre. In the end, though, I did conclude one thing. People read and enjoy romance just as people deal with hard economic times: differently.

Comments

[MarciaJames]

Thank you for your thoughtful and positive article. As a romance author, I am used to hearing dismissive and rude comments about my profession by people who often have never read a single romance. I find that attitude misogynistic since romances are predominantly written by and for women. Although I do tell my male friends that they don’t know what they’re missing. After all, guys are always saying they don’t know what women want. And romances are filled with “insider information.” ;-)
-- Marcia James
www.MarciaJames.net

[EsriRose]

Reading the "bodice ripper" line again, maybe you did avoid it. Still, romance writers would like to see that adjective/noun disappear completely. As both a romance writer and a feminist, it really offends me. Those books offended me. But those books were not the whole of the romance genre, even back then.

[EsriRose]

D'oh! You were so close to avoiding ALL the usual misconceptions, and then you went and said "bodice rippers." That was a fad in one subgenre of romance in the 70s, and you'd be hard pressed to find a ripped bodice these days. Saying that is kind of like calling a teen girl a "disco queen" these days.

One thing that people don't seem to realize is that romance novels account for about 50% off all paperbacks sold in the U.S. Do people expect the other 50% of paperbacks to be uniformly stunning in quality and exactly suited to their taste? And yet, I continue to hear people say, "I read a romance once. I didn't like it." That's like saying you read a book once and found the experience unsatisfactory, so you'll never do that again.

And of course,

[olddognewtrick]

One more example of America's fascincation with over analysis of the trivial.

[annecarrole]

I attended this conference, pleased to see a serious examination of the romance genre and its subgenres. Romance is a broad and encompassing category with a big tent that holds readers from all walks of life--including, as was demonstrated, serious, literary based academics. As an author of contemporary and historical western romances (and co-founder of www.lovewesternromances.com), the romance genre also encompasses sub-categories that might have difficulty finding a readership without those anticipated romantic elements that unite the genre and assures an optimistic ending. Inspirationals, urban fantasies, sci-fi, mysteries, suspense, latin, eastern, medieval, turn-of the century, comtemporary, paranormal, world war II, regency, victorian--the list is only limited by the imagination. It is a rich tapestry of writing where the conflict and struggle inherent in finding love is played out against a varied backdrop that adds unique elements to the story. Romance encompasses not only love, but betrayal, risks, danger, hope,dreams and yes, sexual tension. All the emotions inherent in the human experience. And as I told my husband when I first began to read romance--it brings me back to those heady days when I first discovered I was in love with him. What more could you ask of any genre?

[Rosina Lippi]

I wish I had been at this conference. As it is, I appreciate the discussion of my series of historical adventure/romance -- except the penname I write the Into the Wilderness novels is Sara Donati (not SaraH). You can find my weblog here: http://rosinalippi.com/weblog

[stagebandman]

Good article, and true enough. But I was hoping for pictures.......

[BGSanford]

During the bad economy, a number of gendres in print form do better in sales. Movie rentals go up, as does a lot more types of escape entertainment. I am a writer of romance, and I know this first hand. It's an excellent, informative article and the comments are also very good. Before I leave the site I would like to mention my new book, "Beth:Love Along The Way...by B.G.Sanford," and just released by Eloquent Books. It's the story of one woman who overcomes all odds that life has dealt her, to find real Love......­.......Alo­ng The Way. It's both an amazing and entertaining book, you're sure to enjoy. And if you're so inclined, you can order it off the internet, or have your local bookstore order it for you.
Good reading friends,
B.G.Sanford
http://www.eloquentbooks.com/BethLoveAlongTheWay.html

[romwriter]

Excellent breakdown of the genre, and its readers. As a bestselling author of romance myself, I'm still, in the end, a romance reader, and for whatever reason, I love the stories. In troubled times, there's something to be said for feeling happy and uplifted after escaping into a world of people who overcome their difficulties to be together. When it comes to 30 minutes in a hot bubble bath -- away from the kids and dishes and work and politics and war and Swine Flu and recession -- I'll take a romance with me over "literature" any day.

[Shiloh Walker]

Excellent article! Before I quit my job to write fulltime, I worked as a nurse.

I'm happily married, I have three beautiful kids, and while I don't hate cats, I'm certainly not a cat lover...and I love romances. I also love taekwondo, photography, Ireland, my church, going to wineries and visiting old graveyards. I love urban fantasy and SF almost as much as I love romances.

Romance readers are definitely not all cut from the same cloth. It's great to read an article that recognizes that! Thank you.

[Holly Schmidt]

As a digital publisher (www.ravenousromance.com), we have access to more information about exactly who are customers are and what they prefer than traditional print publishers. It is fascinating to see how voracious these readers are, and how they buy across all subgenres, even in one order. Yes, the material is escapist, but it's also entertaining. I think it's interesting that the media has latched onto the legitimacy of romance fiction when they don't question romantic movies the same way. Nobody asks whether "When Harry Met Sally" is a legitimate art form, and these books are the literary equivalent. It's the inherent snobbery of the literati rather than the taste of the consumers themselves that sparks the conversation. But, go Princeton for taking it to a higher level!