I'm having trouble beliving this woman is an expert. Darcy can't buy an entialed estate, no one can. Darcy gave Lydia options, he tried to get her away. He probably hated the end result as much as the rest of us!
This is absolutely true across many areas of the romance spectrum. When I look back at the romances that I read as a young woman in the late ‘70’s and early ‘80’s, I’m appalled. I can’t blame my bad marriages on romance novels, but the idea that an emotionally unavailable man will somehow change enough to be part of a happy marriage is one that I wish I hadn’t bought into. It makes me very happy to read modern romances where the male characters are capable of healthy communication and overt affection even outside of bed.
I feel like the notion of women and their love "redeeming" or "fixing" emotionally unavailable men goes far, far beyond romance novels and women's fiction. I was just reading a history of home economics and the deliberate focus on "women's work" including managing the moods and relationships of every member in the household. I'm exhausted just typing that.
Cheers to your point! And I thought the recent Andie J Christopher novel, Unrealistic Expectations, had a hero who was really self-aware and communicative. I like that he did his therapy "off the page" and brought his better, wiser self to the relationship.
Yes! Recently I’ve been reading Ali Hazelwood and Kate Clayborn and I love that her heroes are sometimes anxious or unsure but always devoted. And I absolutely love the emphasis on consent, which was another huge problematic element in older romances.
I'm having trouble beliving this woman is an expert. Darcy can't buy an entialed estate, no one can. Darcy gave Lydia options, he tried to get her away. He probably hated the end result as much as the rest of us!
This is absolutely true across many areas of the romance spectrum. When I look back at the romances that I read as a young woman in the late ‘70’s and early ‘80’s, I’m appalled. I can’t blame my bad marriages on romance novels, but the idea that an emotionally unavailable man will somehow change enough to be part of a happy marriage is one that I wish I hadn’t bought into. It makes me very happy to read modern romances where the male characters are capable of healthy communication and overt affection even outside of bed.
I feel like the notion of women and their love "redeeming" or "fixing" emotionally unavailable men goes far, far beyond romance novels and women's fiction. I was just reading a history of home economics and the deliberate focus on "women's work" including managing the moods and relationships of every member in the household. I'm exhausted just typing that.
Cheers to your point! And I thought the recent Andie J Christopher novel, Unrealistic Expectations, had a hero who was really self-aware and communicative. I like that he did his therapy "off the page" and brought his better, wiser self to the relationship.
Yes! Recently I’ve been reading Ali Hazelwood and Kate Clayborn and I love that her heroes are sometimes anxious or unsure but always devoted. And I absolutely love the emphasis on consent, which was another huge problematic element in older romances.