First of all, Happy New Year, everyone!
Second, Happy Birthday to Zia! Hope you have a wonderful day.
Now, to the topic at hand.
I recently watched an old movie I’d never seen before, Only You. Not the cool 1994 Romance with a young Robert Downy Jr and the always brilliant Marissa Tomei, but another Romance from the 90’s with Andrew McCarthy and Helen Hunt. It was an okay movie for its time, I guess. I mean, what’s not to like about Andrew McCarthy in 1992?
But there was a scene in the middle that really bothered me. Something I wouldn’t have noticed back in 1992, but now, it’s a glaringly obvious Diss.
During a scene on the beach, a couple with a toddler sit down, put a fence around their child, and proceed to lie in their chairs and ignore the kid until he gets into trouble, at which point the mother complains to the dad to get up and take care of the kid. The mother is overweight and it shows her reading–you guessed it–a Romance novel.
One can only conclude that Romance novel reading moms are fat, lazy, and worst of all, BAD MOTHERS.
And there are more examples of this prejudice. Think of Roseanne Barr’s character in She-Devil. She’s overweight, unkempt and–another HUGE female NO-NO: a woman who can’t please her man. And of course she reads Romance novels. And to add insult to injury, the other woman in this movie is selfish and spoiled. She, of course, is a Romance author.
In Misery, Kathy Bates’ character is a deranged, homicidal sadist -and, you guessed it–a Romance reader.
No wonder us Romance readers have such a bad rep.
However, I think perceptions are gradually changing. A recent Huffington Post article ( May 2015) begins, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that romance readers are single women in possession of cats and in want of a man. Other “true” facts about the romance reader: They’re “nice people with bad taste in books”, uneducated, bored, stupid, “lack romance in their lives.” Or if we want to be really specific, they’re “middle aged women who are bored in their marriages and want to fantasize about hard, chiseled men.”
This article is a MUST READ and debunks all the stereotypes about Romance Novel readers and goes on to reveal the actual statistics.
Statistics such as: 60% of Romance Novel readers consider themselves feminists. I definitely fall into that category. Remember my blog about the Bechtel Test?
And lately, there are some better roles for Romance readers. Like Jane Villanueva from the hit TV show, Jane the Virgin. Jane is young, hip, smart, and compassionate. And she reads and writes Romance. 
And a couple of years ago, Carly Rae Jepsen featured several well-read Harlequin Romances in her hugely popular music video for Call Me Maybe
Not to mention the numerous articles and studies written and conducted that discuss and reveal the truth about the many smart, successful, happy, single, married, fat, thin, dog-loving, cat-loving, young and old women and men–yes, men!–who read Romance.
So, Unite, Dear Readers! We love Romance and we’re here to stay!
Do you ever get rude questions or dirty looks when you are reading your Romance novel in public?