Thursday, June 30, 2011

Time for a Rant

Been a while since I've had a rant on the blog, but something the Criminal Element site did today really irked me. I clicked over there to read an article about the "Heroines of Summer TV" and was redirected to their Romance site to read the article. Why? I have no idea, because the article was about CRIME fiction characters.

Women keep pissing and moaning that they get no respect in their writing genres, crime and sci-fi in particular. Well, if you're going to allow all of your heroines to be dropped into the romance genre what do you expect? I tune in to watch Brenda Lee Johnson, Mary Shannon, and Fiona Glenanne solve crimes and kick ass. What they do in the bedroom is of little interest to me. So why do I have to go read about these ladies on a Romance site? Because, they're women? How many male crime fighters get slotted into the Romance category?

I find it very annoying that because a female character has a love interest, it's automatically categorized on some level as romance. Male characters have love interests and not just the wham, bam, thank you ma'am type. When's the last time you saw Matthew Scudder, Harry Bosch, or Lucas Davenport in the Romance section of your local book store or review site?

Female writers plus female characters does not automatically equal romance.

9 comments:

pattinase (abbott) said...

Seconded.

Chris Rhatigan said...

Valid points, Sandra.

Unknown said...

You tell 'em, Sandra!

G. B. Miller said...

Absolutely.

By the same token (a small tangent if you will), I have problems understanding how a certain movie that really has no western elements in them beyond the action taking place on the Texas/Mexico border can be called a western.

Katherine Tomlinson said...

Sigh...So annoying. Women shouldn't have to write under their initials to be taken seriously. And any story I write with a man and a woman in it--one of them's going to die. So right on my pissed-off sister. Thanks for the rant.

sandra seamans said...

I understand perfectly, G. And I've probably read more Westerns that were tagged as Historical Romance than Western :) And again, because a woman wrote it, and it had elements of romance in it.

LupLun said...

I'd blame Anita Blake, but she gets ragged on so often it's not fun anymore.

-LupLun
Lupines and Lunatics

sandra seamans said...

Welcome to the Corner, LupLun!

Naomi Johnson said...

Brava!