Why would I even suggest there's a problem with historical romance novels? They are what inspired me to write. I love historical romance novels.
But there's a dark under belly to many of these beloved books, and it's very, very white.
Elizabeth Kingston gave a presentation at the Researching the Romance conference entitled, "History's been hijacked: How to combat white supremacy through popular literature." Look it up, she's written a post about it on her blog.
White supremacy in a Regency romance? Come on, those books are just about dukes, balls, and pretty gowns. But it goes much deeper and involves an inaccurate representation of most of the people (including the rich white folks who got wealthy off the backs of poor, often brown, folks) and what really happened during these time periods. This is something I'm battling, myself, wanting to write a historically accurate romance novel based in the 18th century and located in India and England before the English colonization of India. Because, let's face it, people believe what they read, even when it's found in a romance novel.
And I'm all about representation. I have daughters. I know the importance of girls seeing women doing amazing things. It helps them understand they really can accomplish anything. So, give me all the representation in my books.
Course, I am doubly frustrated as I research how women lived in India in the 1700's ( read my post expressing some of my frustrations researching women during this time period). The history books forgot to include them except to fetishize them. And while I don't discount writing romance novels involves a fair bit of fixating on certain details, I want to make sure I portray all my characters fairly as the heroes or villains they are be they *insert adjective here*: female, male, black, brown, pink, poor, rich...
Because it doesn't just have to be a white knight on a steed.
But there's a dark under belly to many of these beloved books, and it's very, very white.
Elizabeth Kingston gave a presentation at the Researching the Romance conference entitled, "History's been hijacked: How to combat white supremacy through popular literature." Look it up, she's written a post about it on her blog.
White supremacy in a Regency romance? Come on, those books are just about dukes, balls, and pretty gowns. But it goes much deeper and involves an inaccurate representation of most of the people (including the rich white folks who got wealthy off the backs of poor, often brown, folks) and what really happened during these time periods. This is something I'm battling, myself, wanting to write a historically accurate romance novel based in the 18th century and located in India and England before the English colonization of India. Because, let's face it, people believe what they read, even when it's found in a romance novel.
And I'm all about representation. I have daughters. I know the importance of girls seeing women doing amazing things. It helps them understand they really can accomplish anything. So, give me all the representation in my books.
Course, I am doubly frustrated as I research how women lived in India in the 1700's ( read my post expressing some of my frustrations researching women during this time period). The history books forgot to include them except to fetishize them. And while I don't discount writing romance novels involves a fair bit of fixating on certain details, I want to make sure I portray all my characters fairly as the heroes or villains they are be they *insert adjective here*: female, male, black, brown, pink, poor, rich...
Because it doesn't just have to be a white knight on a steed.
