Is romance only for girls?

[dfloyd]

In the spring, does a young woman's fancy turn to love while a young man's turns to baseball? It's undeniably true that girls mature both physically and emotionally at an earlier age than boys. This is why there is a tremendous market for the so called 'Romance Novels'. But as I was reading a thread yesterday lauding a mundane romance novelist, the incomparably bad Nicholas Sparks, I thought why strive to change these girls normal feelings? Why not just point them in the right direction, away from the overly sentimental Sparks. Believe it or not, there are some really good romance novels. I mentioned some on that other thread, as I will here: Camille by Alexandre Dumas fils and Doctor Zhivago (remember Lara) by Nobel prize-winning Boris Pasternack. So let's give the girls some good classic romance novels to read which are not Shakespeare plays, but classic romance novels which will satisfy their yearnings for love. Can anyone else name a few?

[blazeofglory]

Romance is common to all no matter what sexes people are. And both sexes are capable of romancing despite the fact that girls choose to books of romance compared to boy.

[The Comedian]

Generally, I think romance novels are for chicks. Me, being a man, I prefer a bowl of hot chili con carne, a can of cold (and cheap) beer, a smelly Lazy-boy recliner and a copy of Batman: the Dark Knight Returns or Into the Wild. :lol:

Seriously though, as an English teacher, I have witnessed the clear tendency for women to prefer novels with romance plots over other types. There is, of course, many exceptions to this tendency. But, by anecdotal experience, I've observed it with a great degree of frequency.

[rimbaud]

well I wouldn't agree

I'm a girl, and I don't like romance novels
Batman happens to be my favorite comic book, and I love so-called "guy" movies

[The Comedian]

well I wouldn't agree

I'm a girl, and I don't like romance novels
Batman happens to be my favorite comic book, and I love so-called "guy" movies

That's cool. I didn't mean to make any assertion that females ubiquitously prefer romance stories to others, just that that's the tendency I've observed. There are many happy exceptions to this tendency. You, for instance.

Just as an aside to let you know where my observations come from: In the graphic novel class that I'm teaching, the class has just finished reading Blankets by Craig Thompson, which is essentially a romance-based book. In a class that has about 8 males and 8 females, all females LOVED the novel. The next book as Astro City which is superhero anthology, all of the females either "hated" it or "don't understand superheroes".

It was kind of funny because one of the topics that we addressed was why females had difficulty connecting to the superhero stories, which has been a traditional issue with the genre.

Of course, I've taught this class several times before and there are exceptions to this side story, but again, those non-romance preferin' females are more the exception than the rule.

Oh, and my bluster from the earlier post aside, I like a good romance and a good adventure story.

[rimbaud]

ok, my comment was a bit feminist :S
and I am aware what most of the girls and what most of the boys prefer , but I am against dividing things and interests into male and female.

for example: I do like fight Club, it's one of my fav movies, (though most of my friends consider it a guy movie) but I do like romantic movies too, like High Fidelity,

[mlw166]

I'm a girl and hate romance novels!

[Dark Muse]

The closest thing I will read to romance are the 19th century novels, Jane Austen, the Bronte's, Eliot, etc. because they are about so much more, behind the romance is satire about society of the time and a critique of the treatment of women, and the flaws of the marriage institution and courting at that time.

[dfloyd]

answered my request: that is to list some classics which have romance as an underlying theme. I can think of several, Including many by Hemingway a traditonal male writer: a Farwell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and the love story of Lady Brett and the protaganist, Jake, in The Sun Also Rises. My point being that their are plenty of Love stories without reading such incompetant writers as Nicholas Sparks. Although reading him may be a higher aspiration than viewing/reading a comic book novel. Next, they'll be teaching video games in schools.

[kiki1982]

The closest thing I will read to romance are the 19th century novels, Jane Austen, the Bronte's, Eliot, etc. because they are about so much more, behind the romance is satire about society of the time and a critique of the treatment of women, and the flaws of the marriage institution and courting at that time.

That is my view too. Couldn't care less about chick-lit and that kind of crap. I'd leave it to wither after a while because it is not interesting to read about only that.

[Dark Muse]

Thier Eyes Were Watching God by Hurston is also a wonderful story, that though is not "romance" in the way it is thought of today, tells the tale of a girls coming of age story rising into womanhood and discovering what she truly wants in life, through varrious relationships all of a very different nature.

[La Pluma]

.....

[Helga]

when I was about 10 to 12 I read romance novels but I don't today, many women around me love the 'red series' but I find nothing interesting about them. maybe some classics with romance as a part but I need a bit deeper plot then that most of the times...

[Nemo Neem]

It all depends on what you mean by "romance."

If you mean a love story, I would say that girls would trend more towards them; on the other hand, if you mean a Poe or Henry James romance, then that type is common to all.

[Rachel1965]

I have never subscribed to girly fiction mills and boon, and other stuff, like that.
I have enjoyed many times the musings of the bronte sisters, jane austin and her fellow 19th century sisters.
Like a previous poster I find the moral and social aspects of the stories of great interest and I become annoyed from my modern perception of wanting to scream at these ladies and tell them to get a life.
I am enjoying the BBC adaption of "Emma" at the moment its really very good. I am glad to see that I am not alone in finding no interest in girlies fiction. but are well aware that I'm in the minority.

[The Comedian]

Oh! So you just wanted a list of titles of classic romance novel. I see. And no silly comic books or video games. I see.

Here goes:

My Antonia
Lolita
Sula
Their Eyes were Watching God
Cat on a hot Tin Roof

My deepest apologies for not responding correctly to your query. My bad!

[Paulclem]

As a teen boy I used to read violent horror, but grew out of it in a few years when it didn't offer anything but more of the same. Do teen girls grow out of the romantic stuff and progress on in a similar way?

Sorry if I'm not answering your question. My suggestions have been mentioned.

[JBI]

I'm not going to lie, I like the notion of the romance - I've read my share of classic Gothic ones, as well as the Jane Austen collection, and works like L'Amant by Duras and stuff - the genre in itself isn't the problem - my problem is with the generic nature of romance novels.

In truth, I think anyone who is a serious reader is intrigued by the concept of the romantic plot-line - except the cliché narrow-mindedness of popular Romance novels tends to really only appeal to women, as is effected by the gendering within other forms of media, and within culture.

After all, how many of Shakespeare's plays, for instance, are romances, in a lose sense - all the comedies, and all the romances, and much of the tragedy contains at least plot threads of the genre. How much poetry has been written about the subject?

Fundamentally, I think romance, to an extent, is inscribed by genetic tendencies, and therefore is perhaps the most natural of literary topics - in the wild, for instance, you see the same thing going on with animals - it's a natural, instinctive thing. That's probably why it is such a strong genre.

But when it comes down to it, lots of men seem afraid to read books by women, or to read poetry for fear of being "too girly". Total nonsense in my opinion.

The point with the romance is that the audience can delight in the success of the couple presented - we can delight in the resolution of A Midsummer Night's Dream, for instance, or in Pride and Prejudice - there is more there than meets the eye, of course, the books are endlessly deep, but as a story the whole plot line is essentially the same, and perhaps one of the few plot lines that seems to be everywhere, and work throughout the ages.

I'm not talking about Twilight, I'm talking about, for instance, Hart Crane's Voyages sequence, or something like that. Something that is that powerful because of the way it anticipates the experiences of the audience, and even though we are not Hart Crane, or Austen, makes us feel like we are within the same frame of experience.

[Paulclem]

I'm not going to lie, I like the notion of the romance - I've read my share of classic Gothic ones, as well as the Jane Austen collection, and works like L'Amant by Duras and stuff - the genre in itself isn't the problem - my problem is with the generic nature of romance novels.

In truth, I think anyone who is a serious reader is intrigued by the concept of the romantic plot-line - except the cliché narrow-mindedness of popular Romance novels tends to really only appeal to women, as is effected by the gendering within other forms of media, and within culture.

After all, how many of Shakespeare's plays, for instance, are romances, in a lose sense - all the comedies, and all the romances, and much of the tragedy contains at least plot threads of the genre. How much poetry has been written about the subject?

Fundamentally, I think romance, to an extent, is inscribed by genetic tendencies, and therefore is perhaps the most natural of literary topics - in the wild, for instance, you see the same thing going on with animals - it's a natural, instinctive thing. That's probably why it is such a strong genre.

But when it comes down to it, lots of men seem afraid to read books by women, or to read poetry for fear of being "too girly". Total nonsense in my opinion.

The point with the romance is that the audience can delight in the success of the couple presented - we can delight in the resolution of A Midsummer Night's Dream, for instance, or in Pride and Prejudice - there is more there than meets the eye, of course, the books are endlessly deep, but as a story the whole plot line is essentially the same, and perhaps one of the few plot lines that seems to be everywhere, and work throughout the ages.

I'm not talking about Twilight, I'm talking about, for instance, Hart Crane's Voyages sequence, or something like that. Something that is that powerful because of the way it anticipates the experiences of the audience, and even though we are not Hart Crane, or Austen, makes us feel like we are within the same frame of experience.

I agree with this. I think the romance theads in literature are a satisfying aspect to the stories as they complete the verisimilitude of the world the author is trying to replicate.

[stlukesguild]

JBI is on track with this one. (And he's avoided the pro-Canada/anti-American rants... which must have involved a great deal of self-restraint on his part:nod:). Seriously, I agree. Romance is a huge part of a great deal of poetry, drama, and novels. Again it brings me to Yeat's assertion that the only subjects worthy of contemplation are sex and death. I would note that "Romance" need not be reduced to only those works where such is the central theme... the Raison d'être... although surely there are any number of masterful works within even this narrower range (Romeo and Juliet, The Sorrows of Young Werther, La Vita Nuova, Eugene Onegin, Spenser's Sonnets, etc...). I would add to this the grand "romances" that unfold within any number of novels or other narrative forms which may not be thought primarily as "romances": Les Miserbales, War and Peace, Steppenwolf, Faust, Rousseau's Confessions, DeQuincy's Confessions of an English Opium Eater, etc...

[blazeofglory]

Romance is something that woos girls more often but boys have alternative choices too. But it does not mean that boys do not reading romantic novels.

[La Pluma]

.....

[Veva]

for example: I do like fight Club, it's one of my fav movies, (though most of my friends consider it a guy movie) but I do like romantic movies too, like High Fidelity,

Have to agree with you, I am a girl and my hero is Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club, Choke...), though I often like to read this what you could call "girly-girl" stuff like Jane Austen.... tastes are something that cannot be really generalised.... :wave:

[Night_Lamp]

the genre has so many meanings- if you mean soppy love chicklit; then I hate it. I do really enjoy gothic 'romance' like Radcliffe and other dark love stories of the 18th C.

As I said in another thread, one of my favorite books is Enrich Remarque's
Arch of Triumph (he wrote All Quiet on the Western Front); which in my opinion is not too mushy, but is the greatest 'love in the time of war' novel I've read. It's fantastic, and very well written- I recommend it highly.

[Phaedra's Love]

I had a male friend who would only read Nicholas Sparks or Nora Roberts. It was disgusting. Romance? Well, fine. But horrible writing? Blegh. He was also heterosexual, somehow.