By Maddie Adams
Despite long-held criticism that romantic fiction is intellectually shallow or just plain bad, the guilty pleasure genre remains the most commercially successful.
More women are reading than men – and they’re choosing steamy, smutty and sometimes strange romance books.
Reflecting a troubling gender gap in reading, in which women are consistently more likely to read for pleasure compared to men (72 per cent of women and only 50 per cent of men), the recent boom of romance novels, which are predominantly consumed by women, is thanks to BookTok and its influencers.
Popular and divisive since it was mass-marketed to women by Mills & Boon in the 1930s, there are a multitude of reasons why female readers are still consuming the modern romance genre; it’s a switch off from heavier materials, a joyful escape from monotony, an exploration of fantasy and a realisation of universal romantic desire.
But for Avalon’s independent bookstore owner Sally Tabner, the romance genre is an “instant gratification and cheapening of the [reading] experience”.
Often labelled as a “lesser” genre and quickly subjected to the same misogyny and judgement placed on female-centric literature and women writers throughout history, Tabner offers a more nuanced critique of the genre.
“I’m quite sceptical about the commercialisation [of romance novels],” she said. “It’s about spectacle over substance, the image of being a reader doesn’t have the same authenticity.”
Tabner suggested that the recent boom of romantic fiction reflects a larger trend of “aspirational” readership, a rejection of elitist or exclusionary literature and a collective embrace of the experience economy where people want to identify as a reader and belong to a reading community (see the resurgence of book clubs).
Although romance books continue to polarise, Bookoccino bookseller Beatrix asserts that it’s “tricky to keep up” with the local demand and compete with larger chains like Kmart that “sell thousands of romance novels for cheap”.
Tabner conceded: “It’s negligent to ignore what people are wanting … we limit it to one new release and twelve of each.”
At Bookoccino, the romance section is new to the store, and it’s kept up the back next to the fantasy section.
While Tabner agrees it’s a net positive that more women are reading, the goal for her and her staff is to take women who are stuck on romance offline and pivot them to “more nuanced” reads.
Featured image: Vintage romance novels with graphic illustrations and bold typography. Photo: Stephen Coles/CC/Flickr
