There Is Only One Way To Be Handsome

Fictional stories aren’t real. Simple. However, when a story is written in a contemporary setting and is about creating a sense of realism, something people can believe to be possible and can relate to, what then is the responsibility of the writer to society.

My husband is currently reading The Hunger Games, and has said time and again this last couple of weeks how interesting it would be to study in English Class in High School. We compared the different books and themes studied in our own high school classes, as well as discussing the moral issues raised in this series.

In year 12 I studied Romeo and Juliet and our teacher decided that we would read a book based on the play. The book was a Harlequin Contemporary Romance written by her friend and set in our local town.

From this experience, and my discussions about The Hunger Games I started to think about what cont. romance books say about our society, relationships, gender roles and expectations.

Most of my articles have already been based around these themes, however, in this post I thought it was time to think about what these books say about men.

This genre tends to be a lot kinder and more lenient to the female form. This makes sense, the majority of these books are written by females. Heroines are forgiven for carrying a few extra pounds, which are often passed off as luscious or sexy curves. Boobs range in size from mosquito bites to voluptuous melons. Women may be extra short to extra tall, and be petite and breakable or possess ‘man hands’.

When it comes to the hero, authors tend to stick to a much tighter set of characteristics. It is almost impossible to find a modern romance where the hero doesn’t possess a six pack, and narrow waist leading to impossibly broad shoulders. Their eyes range from the deepest blue to the brightest green and their hair is either thick and luscious, or cut to a military buzz.

Should we feel a little guilty that after all our (our being the female gender) complaints about the media constantly pushing women to look a certain, sometimes unrealistic way, that we are essentially doing the same thing to men in these books.

The average man doesn’t have a six pack, never will, and those that do probably spend way too much time in gyms, sucking down protein shakes and looking in the mirror. Same goes for those with the wide shoulders.

If a young man were to read enough of these books, would it be the same as a woman reading too many girly mags or indeed boy rags?

I love reading romance stories, but I desperately want to drag them into the current day, so that they are a better reflection of modern life for women in their 20′s and 30′s. Part of this is of course updating how men are portrayed in these books. I believe we need men who go beyond the cliché of tall dark and handsome. Writers need to consider the many other characteristics of male beauty. Each hero should be unique in their looks, just as each heroine is. Think of how different each of the men you have ever considered to be handsome have looked. We know that this is possible and not unrealistic. Take a stand against washboard abs!