Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I see no protests about Harlequin and their degrading depiction of men as objects of sexual exploitation. The romance/erotica genre sells way, way more books than SF/Fantasy, and it's pretty much all depicting men in a sexually-exploitative manner. As I said, I see no harm whatsoever in such escapist fantasy. Are you suggesting that it's wrong for readers to enjoy such books, or for authors to write them?
|
If it makes you feel better there are a lot of books I don't buy and don't read because of that sexism. Although having read a lot of Harlequin in my youth, men weren't really "exploited" in there. Fantasy yes--about how men might/should put a woman on a pedestal and...they are the hero with money and kindness not seen through the ages...and they see only good and perfection in the woman be she fat, old, bitchy, etc. If anything many of those books exploit the woman, making her look rather helpless or unable to care for herself. It's more common today to have the woman in a place of power and with the wealth in those stories.
Now as for the covers, that's a bit of a different story.
And I do find many of those covers insulting, degrading and outright stupid.
But, again, just because it happens in romance and other genres doesn't mean it should happen in Sci/fi or anywhere else.