Anti-Romance Novel Rant

So about a week ago I read a romance novel.  No, not a novel with a romantic plot, which in my opinion is a totally different animal, but a regular old romance novel.  I haven't read one for years, mostly because I think that the majority of the mainstream ones are inappropriate reading for a person who's trying to live the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I still think that. In addition, my experience with most of the Christian ones is that they aren't very well written, and tend to cast religiously minded women in stereotypical molds.

However,  this book didn't look particularly trashy and it was set somewhere interesting, and I needed a fluffy read so I gave it a shot.  I did finish the thing, but I didn't enjoy it, except for one aspect - all of my various multiple personalities (Mormon Girl, Writer, Feminist) were in complete agreement that the thing was pretty much total crap.

The Mormon Girl in me did not enjoy that she did in fact have to turn pages to avoid an inappropriate scene at the end of the book.  She was also annoyed at the extreme emphasis on the physical.  Yes, I'm glad my husband thinks I'm cute, don't get me wrong, but the idea that romantic love is almost entirely about how hot the other person is drove me insane.  

The Writer in me was annoyed that a book with such clearly cliched plot and characters is published, and that the author of this book has been on the freakin' New York Times bestseller list. 

The Feminist, like the Mormon Girl, (nice to know they can be friends), was also annoyed with the emphasis on the physical as the be all, end all of romantic love, and was equally annoyed that the man in the story seemed to want the woman only because 1) She made it easier to deal with his kid 2) She was hot 3) She could cook and 4) She was 'wounded' and needed saving.  Not that any of those things are bad qualities necessarily, but for them to be the only things a guy likes about a girl?  Bleck.

And I'm now remembering that a lot of romance novels really are like this.  There are exceptions of course (Shannon Hale's Austenland comes to mind), but overall I think this book was representative of the genre.  Even most of the Christian romance novels are pretty much in this mold, they just skip the inappropriate bits. 

This has made me really glad that my reading habits have changed.   I wonder how much of the depression of my single years was exacerbated by allowing these ideas to be constantly shoved into my head.