Do Men Read Romance Novels?
- Thread starter Camilleon
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JAMESBJOHNSON
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Of course not.
noisymother
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Probably an irrelevant comment . . .
but I'm a woman and I would rather read any other genre than a romance novel . . .
but I'm a woman and I would rather read any other genre than a romance novel . . .
G
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Well, but there's sex here in the romance category.
Guaranteed sex, of some sort, anyway.
Men like guaranteed sex.
They'll read.
dr_mabeuse
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No.
We write them, almost always using a female nom de plume, but we don't read them.
I'm guessing the only reason you get feedback from men is because your stories have sex and you're a woman. The two are irresistible to men. If you had women and sex in a shoe catalog, men would write you.
We write them, almost always using a female nom de plume, but we don't read them.
I'm guessing the only reason you get feedback from men is because your stories have sex and you're a woman. The two are irresistible to men. If you had women and sex in a shoe catalog, men would write you.
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That's what I had been thinking, but then I remembered something. Chapter 3 of my story has no sex in it and that is stated in the notes prefacing the chapter. That chapter received the highest score and the most feedback, almost exclusively from men. They are actually interested in the story.
So, now I'm wondering....
rgraham666
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And I write erotica of all sorts and most of my feedback comes from women. 
To be honest, I don't read romance. They don't appeal to me. I recently won an e-book romance. I started reading it and stopped at the first major plot turn. I thought it very contrived.
But I know lots of women who loved it.
I believe in this case I'm pretty representative of a lot of men. Which is highly unusual.
To be honest, I don't read romance. They don't appeal to me. I recently won an e-book romance. I started reading it and stopped at the first major plot turn. I thought it very contrived.
But I know lots of women who loved it.
I believe in this case I'm pretty representative of a lot of men. Which is highly unusual.
And I write erotica of all sorts and most of my feedback comes from women.
To be honest, I don't read romance. They don't appeal to me. I recently won an e-book romance. I started reading it and stopped at the first major plot turn. I thought it very contrived.
But I know lots of women who loved it.
I believe in this case I'm pretty representative of a lot of men. Which is highly unusual.
Mainstream romance novels are contrived. You're right about that. They're downright silly. I can't read them now, but I did when I was about 18.
However, if such a novel read as a real story, I am beginning to think men would read it. But then, maybe it would no longer be considered "romance."
dr_mabeuse
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There's a cliche in porn that women are interested in the pursuit and seduction, and men are interested in the deed itself. I think that's pretty true. Women are interested in the social games and strategies while men are generally impatient with those kinds of social romances.
On the other hand, men can find interest in tales of frustrated love and heroism, rejection and redemption, the kinds of things they worry about in their own love lives. They want to see love stories that live out their own male values and myths, which are pretty out of fashion these days.
MarshAlien
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If there's also martial arts, sure. Seriously, the majority of my feedback in any category on this site - sci-fi, romance, novels, erotic couplings, loving wives - comes from men. They do read romance stories here, yes. Will they buy them in a store? No. Borrow them from a library? No. In a boat, with a goat? On a dish, with a fish? No, no, no.
It's a mystery.
It's a mystery.
Liar
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That's probably the thing. I've read many good novels that contain romance. But if you make it realistic, it's not puppies-and-unicorns perfect anymore. It gets messy, it gets tangled up in the rest of life, os you have to write about that too. And either way, I've never seen anyone successfuly stretch just romance out over a whole damn novel without adding other parrallell themes. (I can't even manage it in my short stories, predominantly labelled romance.) In which case the hero get to do other things. Save the world, solve the case, travel there and back again or something, AND get the girl.
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3113
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http://media.collegepublisher.com/media/paper999/stills/9bpywd3h.jpg
Men read romantic *stories* not novels. You won't see a guy on the subway reading a bodice ripper mainly because the main, pov character in such novels is female (men almost always want a male pov character unless it's a lesbian story), and because they don't want to get picked on by other men. But I get lots of responses on my on-line romance stories here from men. Note that all my romances either feature men as the main pov character or switch pov's between the guy and the girl.
My biggest hits with men in the romance category are "shy guy" stories where the guy is a lonely sort and the woman is very sexy, and the two rescue each other with romance and a lot of sex.
There are a lot of romantic gents out there, but the pov of romance novels rarely cater to them--it caters to female romantic fantasies, not male romantic fantasies.
Men read romantic *stories* not novels. You won't see a guy on the subway reading a bodice ripper mainly because the main, pov character in such novels is female (men almost always want a male pov character unless it's a lesbian story), and because they don't want to get picked on by other men. But I get lots of responses on my on-line romance stories here from men. Note that all my romances either feature men as the main pov character or switch pov's between the guy and the girl.
My biggest hits with men in the romance category are "shy guy" stories where the guy is a lonely sort and the woman is very sexy, and the two rescue each other with romance and a lot of sex.
There are a lot of romantic gents out there, but the pov of romance novels rarely cater to them--it caters to female romantic fantasies, not male romantic fantasies.
The_Fool
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Tzara
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Well, I love Jane Austen's novels and they are all female POV. And when I read Persuasion it is Anne I identify with, not Captain Wentworth. It's her story, after all, not his.
I'm not sure that Ms. Austen is what you mean by romance or whether you mean what you'd find shelved in the romance section of a bookstore. Having been a co-owner of a bookstore, I have read some genre romance as well, though that was as much for background and out of curiosity as anything.
I would agree with Dr. M. that the kinds of themes that would appeal to most guys as romantic are probably somewhat different that what would be typical in most romance novels. Think about The Bridges of Madison County, for example. Self-sacrifice is a big Guy theme.
But then Jane Eyre walks away from Rochester, too, so maybe it's more common than I think.
J
JAMESBJOHNSON
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I've never seen a guy reading a romance novel.
rgraham666
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sr71plt
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Funny, the vast majority of the feedback I have received on GM stories has been from women.
Anna_Malia75
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Don't know why A Fish Called Wanda came to mind:
Oh, wait. Yeah, I do.
Otto: Apes don't read philosophy.
Wanda: Yes they do, Otto. They just don't understand it.
Wanda: Yes they do, Otto. They just don't understand it.
Oh, wait. Yeah, I do.
rgraham666
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Most of the people that write it are as well.
oggbashan
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Like listening to ABBA music, it is best done in private behind closed doors...
Og
G
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My wife loves romance novels and has a bit of vampire thing going, so every two weeks or so I'm trolling the library for vampire romances. And, if I run out of things to read at home, I'll read those.
But would I deliberately pick out a romance if something... um, meatier... was available? No.
But would I deliberately pick out a romance if something... um, meatier... was available? No.
michchick98
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The only guy I ever saw reading a romance novel was someone I worked with a few years back. I can't remember what the title was, but it was a Harlequin romance. He made no effort to hide it from anyone.
I remember just a few months back when I was up visiting my parents (my mom had gone in for hip replacement surgery) and my brother was there also. During a break from visiting mom at the hospital, my brother and I headed back to mom and dad's house and I pulled out the current book I'd been reading (a romance) and my brother said: (and I quote)
"I can't believe you're actually reading that trash!"
I just smiled at him and replied, "Yeah, well I write that trash, too and maybe someday I'm gonna make lots of money off that trash!"
He just stared at me as if I'd grown another head, shrugged and walked away.
This is the same guy who when we were in high school denied watching soap operas. He stayed home sick from school one day and when I got home, he didn't hear me come in. I caught him thoroughly engrossed in watching ALL MY CHILDREN. He denies it to this day, but I stood there out of sight of him for over 15 minutes. He never changed the channel and he was talking to the TV about something he didn't like that was happening on the show.
My dad reads a lot of the romance stories on this site. My step-dad does also, but I don't think either of them would read an actual romance novel.
I guess they think it makes them less of a man to read one? Although, I'd also hazard a guess that they'd read an erotic romance or a paranormal romance (shape-shifters, vamps, ghosts) over just a regular romance novel.
Oh, and strangely enough, not on this site but on SOL, most of the positive feedback on my romance stories is from men, even the chapters that have no sex.
