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User:Charm04/sandbox

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I am interested in editing articles related to women's literature, specifically romance novels.

Articles I am interested in editing are:

  1. Romance Novels:
    • This one has the most clear cut issues of original research and neutral point of view.
  2. Fantasy Romance:
    • Just not a lot of research and sources here. It's a short article without a lot going on.
  3. Erotic Romance Novels:
    • Same issue here. Not much research at all and blurbs that seem to be almost advertisements for specific books or the genre in general.

I would also like to edit the line in the section that says "Despite the broadening of some aspects of the plot, other taboos remained, and publishers discouraged authors from writing about controversial subjects such as terrorism, warfare, and masculine sports."

Further Change Section Draft[edit]

The 21st century brought additional changes to the genre that included diversifying main characters and plots to incorporate identities that hadn't previously been represented.

Scholars of romance novel history have observed that characters with disabilities have been largely underrepresented in mainstream media, including romance novels.[1] By the early 2000s, though, more books in the romance genre featured heroes and heroines with physical and mental impairments.[2] Mary Balogh's Simply Love, published in 2006, features a hero with facial scarring and nerve damage who overcomes fears of rejection due to his physical appearance to enter a romantic relationship and family unit by the end of the novel. This was a substantial shift from past narratives where disabled characters were "de-eroticized" and not given storylines that included sex or romantic love.[1]

Additionally, characters who are neurodivergent have gained more representation in the romance genre since the turn of the century. Helen Hoang's 2018 novel The Kiss Quotient drew attention for focusing on the heroine's Asperger's syndrome.[3] Despite the slight increase in this representation, though, it is still rare to find romance novels where characters with cognitive disabilities are featured. Romance scholars have found that they are much more likely to be included as secondary characters to the neurotypical heroes and heroines.[3]

Over time, many plot lines that were once thought to be taboo by the romance publishing industry have become much more accepted into the mainstream of romance fiction. For example, in the 20th century it was rare to find a book with a hero who was in the military or professional sports.[4] Now, however, such characters are relatively common and even have their own sub-genres within the romance category.[5]


Is there anyway to avoid the ugly, jargon term "neurodivergent"– what about "disabilities such as autism, etc"; "cognitive diversity"?Rwood128 (talk) 16:51, 29 October 2019 (UTC)

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Schalk, Sami (2016). "Happily Ever After for Whom? Blackness and Disability in Romance Narratives". The Journal of Popular Culture. 49, no. 6: 1241–1260.
  2. ^ Cheyne, Ria (2013). "Disability Studies Reads the Romance". Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies. 7, no. 1: 37–52.
  3. ^ a b Alter, Alexandra (2018-07-07). "The Changing Face of Romance Novels". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  4. ^ Luscombe, Belinda (2011-12-05). "Veteran Affairs". Time. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  5. ^ "Sports And Romance Novels: A Match Made In ... Hockey". www.wbur.org. Retrieved 2019-10-16.