Surprise!
Beware of Stereotypes — Romance Novels
Only for girls? Romance author’s stats show different.
Note: (the * at the end of a link indicates that it is also in the References section)
Stereotype
When I was growing up, romance comics were for girls. Guys read sci-fi. They would never even touch a romance comic. Adulthood was no different with paperback books.
Reality
Then, at age 67, I read Starstruck*, a teenage sci-fi romance novel by the romance novelist Brenda Hiatt. It was so good that I read all 19 of her pure romance novels and I was hooked. I now have over 200 romance novels on my Kindle.
Hiatt sponsors two Facebook pages, Brenda Hiatt and Brenda’s Sparkling Readers, a readers group. She poses a question each day which followers answer. She assigns points for comments and icons, like the thumbs up, and publishes reader rankings each week under the following headline:
Who’s engaging with Brenda Hiatt (Feb 18 — Feb 24)
Following the stereotype, one would expect nothing but women on the list. It appears that it takes a minimum of 20 points to make the list.
I am #3 out of 52 readers with 266 points!
Two other men occupy the top two spots, with Ken Ehrhart at #1 at 350 points! Most of the occupants in the list are women, but not all.
Conclusion
This is a great example where the activity readership doesn’t quite follow the pattern. It is not an even ratio, but male readership contradicts the stereotype.
Reference Links
- Changed the entire romance novel stereotype.
Stereotypes and Prejudices Everywhere
- Details of how Starstruck caused the radical reading habit change.
Note: An * at the end of a link indicates that the link is also in the story
