tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post44213897579227216..comments2024-03-26T01:10:13.720+00:00Comments on Teach Me Tonight: Gender and Love Conference: Demisexual Protagonists and FeminismE. M. Selingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426524354823232002noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-85011879405080852182013-08-11T14:09:18.069+01:002013-08-11T14:09:18.069+01:00Your question re feminism makes me think of George...Your question re feminism makes me think of Georgette Heyer because people have sometimes found her works (or at least elements of them) feminist but, according to Kloester's biography, "She consistently criticised the feminist stance" (134).<br /><br />Speaking for myself, I tried to identify novels in which feminism and/or sexism was mentioned explicitly. I also contacted a number of authors and asked if they identified as feminists.<br /><br />Re the lesbian romance discussed in Kyra's and my article, its subtitle is "A Bit of a Departure: The First Lesbian Regency Novel" and (<a href="http://teachmetonight.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/michelle-martin-pembroke-park.html" rel="nofollow">as I've discussed at TMT</a>) it's full of metafictional references, so one might expect it to be drawing on the conventions of the heterosexual Regency romance.<br /><br />The most recent research I've come across about heteronormative roles in lesbian romance is<br /><br />Cook, Jennifer R., Sharon S. Rostosky and Ellen D. B. Riggle. "Gender Role Models in Fictional Novels for Emerging Adult Lesbians." <i>Journal of Lesbian Studies</i> 17:2 (2013): 150-166. <br /><br />I've discussed some of its findings <a href="http://www.vivanco.me.uk/blog/post/gender-roles-lesbian-romance" rel="nofollow">at my blog</a>; the authors state that "The same traditional gender roles that may be problematic in heterosexual relationships appear to be grafted into many lesbian romance novels" (161).Laura Vivancohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00906661869372622821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-36270598327480633262013-08-11T13:46:34.826+01:002013-08-11T13:46:34.826+01:00My question might be more particular: while addres...My question might be more particular: while addressing feminist issues, (things that feminists are interested in) do they adopt an explicitly feminist perspective on these issues? It is quite possible to talk about "feminist interests" without following a feminist theory, politic, etc. I think here, for instance, of Sarah Frantz's paper in which she noted the use of "strange stirring" in a series of romance novels, a seemingly explicit appropriation of Friedan's use of the phrase (I'm working from memory here, so perhaps I am not representing her paper well).<br /><br />With regards to the lesbian romance, is this a matter of imposing a theoretical model founded in heteronormativity on a non-heteronorm romance? One of the striking things to me is how committed to heterosexuality popular romance studies, which is to say its criticism, is (and seemingly must be). But, popular romance writing and authors are certainly less committed to these models.Jonathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09577417918428286900noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-61172320055961944982013-08-11T10:45:24.734+01:002013-08-11T10:45:24.734+01:00My thought was that Jodi's view of "compu...My thought was that Jodi's view of "compulsory demisexuality" is congruent with Kyra Kramer and my <a href="http://jprstudies.org/2010/08/there-are-six-bodies-in-this-relationship-an-anthropological-approach-to-the-romance-genre-by-laura-vivanco-and-kyra-kramer/" rel="nofollow">findings about the Glittery HooHa and Prism</a> making a Mighty Wang monogamous. Most of the novels we looked at featured sexually experienced heroes paired with a heroine (who was often less sexually experienced) but we observed a similar pattern re the linkage of sex, love and monogamy in the one romance we looked at which made it explicit it had a virgin hero and in a lesbian romance.<br /><br />Re feminism, in my article about feminism in early twenty-first-century HM&Bs I suggested that they tended to differ in the types of feminist issues they addressed, depending on whether they were in the Modern/Presents line or in the Romance one. As far as Eirini's paper is concerned, she states that:<br /><br /><b>Prior to the analysis of these novels a definition of third wave feminism should be given. This is a difficult task since as a concept it is quite varied and contains a whole range of feminist positions some of which are even contradictory. [...] Nevertheless, there are four main points onto which third wave feminists focus: popular culture production (i.e. beauty and representation of women), sex equality and interaction, pursuit of sexual pleasure based on one’s own desire and enacting and personification of femininity.</b>Laura Vivancohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00906661869372622821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-41034652883212528962013-08-11T01:52:34.686+01:002013-08-11T01:52:34.686+01:00What is striking about "compulsory demisexual...What is striking about "compulsory demisexuality" is that it seems to also require a "compulsory heterosexuality." I'm not sure if this is the case, but one wonders about the implications of "compulsory demisexuality" in romances that challenge/transcend the norms of the genre, i.e. the virgin hero, or male/male romance, etc.<br /><br />The other question, to be asked, perhaps, is what we mean when we talk about "feminism" in HMB novels. What kind of "feminism" is it that we find in these novels?Jonathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09577417918428286900noreply@blogger.com