5 hours ago
4
[ This might be a controversial one, so feel free to delete if inappropriate, but I personally think this topic is rather important. Disclaimer: I am female and love any and all genres of literature, including romance novels. ]
I have found that ever since reading got more and more popular on tiktok (which I wholeheartedly approve of) there has also been a rise of taking literary criticism as a personal offence, especially when it comes to romance novels.
To the point that you can barely criticise popular romance novels without your review being called pretentious or downright misogynistic because how dare you criticise something that happens to be enjoyed by mostly women.
I get that people who claim "all romance is the same", "booktok is only smut", etc etc are disrespectful to the genre, people do seem to love hating on certain authors without ever having read any of their work, but I personally am also struggling to see nuance on the romance lover side of the spectrum.
When you say that a particular novel is badly written, or you dislike the quality of a certain author's writing based on reading you have actually done, you get attacked. You're hating for no reason, and especially if you're a male reviewer you might get called misogynistic. As if the romance genre was a magical safe space protected by any and all (valid) criticism.
The criticism of specific works of literature is neither a personal attack, nor an attack on a whole gender. Just like there is no need to judge people who enjoyed certain books you disliked for having "low standards" and enjoying something "easy".
I feel like the literature community on social media has just become more and more hostile overall, in both directions and it's tiring to even have strong opinions without wanting to fight off allegations of being hostile. (I do like a healthy discourse/discussion, but many conversations are neither healthy, not productive anymore).
Where is the nuance?
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