Today, as last week, we went through romance fiction as a genre. Now, I kept repeating myself both weeks as no one could answer in a logical and objective way to two questions:
1. What is the purpose of romance fiction (apart from making money as they, apart from -or because of- their idiocy sell well)?
2. Instead of reading about happy lives they'd like to have (to some extent) and to get away from their miserable lives, why don't the readers -as in straight women, teens and housewives- actually do something about it, to change their lives to what they'd want them to be?
The second question was left unanswered but the first had some feeble attempts:
* romance fiction is soft porn/ rf is pornography for women
* rf satisfies women's need (?) to change the man and in rf this is possible; also, there are happy endings - everything's black and white
* (my personal favourite:) rf brainwashes women into believing and embracing the warped version of the world constructed by men - this is especially visible in the dominance (men dominant and superior and complete, women/girls inferior and incomplete and in need of guidance) and sexuality (men experienced, women virgins)
* simply a diversion from the daily life (which is closely connected to the second question) and entertainment
* rf has a hidden fantasy element: the battle between good and evil (and good always wins); also, the battle of sexes
Any ideas?
