Well, that's a new thing to hack me off
Jan. 19th, 2019 08:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
technocracygirlThis is from Kristen Painter's book, The Gargoyle Gets His Girl. It's a very fluffy paranormal romance, and the third in a series. I thought the first one way okay, enjoyed the second immensely, but was nudgy about this one, because the hero is described as ... not my preference in romantic heros. But the heroine isn't bad, and the plot set-up is kind of intriguing, so I can deal with a hero who's not my cup of tea.
Until I hit this passage:
"I'll have a double cheeseburger loaded, cheese fries, and a chocolate milkshake." Willa smiled up at the waitress...
He held up his menu. "Same."...
Nick's brows lifted, and he looked at Willa, seated across from him in the red vinyl booth. "Quite an order. You going to eat all that?"
"That's the plan."
There was something unspeakably sexy about a woman who ate like a long-haul trucker. "Then I have serious respect for you."
She squinted. "Why's that?"
"It's a rare woman who looks like you and doesn't live on rabbit food alone."
Amusement danced in her eyes. "You mean salad?"
"Uh-huh."
"I like salad too." She studied him for a moment. ... "Especially if it has bacon and cheese on it."
I tried to read past this, but just couldn't. I hate the dismissal of women who enjoy those foods but who aren't size two. I hate the dismissal of women who want to be size two and put a lot of energy and work into doing that. I hate the knowledge that advertising has taught this character to find something sexy that simply doesn't exist in real life except for in the fantasies created by ad execs.
Mostly, I hate that a romance, a book written for women, by a woman, is playing with something that's so hateful towards the people who are reading this book.
Just before I read this, I re-read Jem and the Holograms: The Misfits. That is a comic book that has one issue dedicated to each of the five Misfits. And you know what? Each of those women is shown as a woman of worth, a woman of power, a woman who deserves love. And I love and respect all of them so much more than Willa, who doesn't give Nick the finger for questioning her order, or Nick, who doesn't have any comprehension of the toxicity of his ideas about food and women.
Am I overthinking this? Probably. But this equating food with sex, and with thinness with beauty at the same f'ing time makes me angry, and I am metaphorically throwing this book against the wall. (Because it's an ebook from the library that I'm reading on my phone, and I don't intentionally throw my phone.)
Stormer, you tear the world up.
Until I hit this passage:
"I'll have a double cheeseburger loaded, cheese fries, and a chocolate milkshake." Willa smiled up at the waitress...
He held up his menu. "Same."...
Nick's brows lifted, and he looked at Willa, seated across from him in the red vinyl booth. "Quite an order. You going to eat all that?"
"That's the plan."
There was something unspeakably sexy about a woman who ate like a long-haul trucker. "Then I have serious respect for you."
She squinted. "Why's that?"
"It's a rare woman who looks like you and doesn't live on rabbit food alone."
Amusement danced in her eyes. "You mean salad?"
"Uh-huh."
"I like salad too." She studied him for a moment. ... "Especially if it has bacon and cheese on it."
I tried to read past this, but just couldn't. I hate the dismissal of women who enjoy those foods but who aren't size two. I hate the dismissal of women who want to be size two and put a lot of energy and work into doing that. I hate the knowledge that advertising has taught this character to find something sexy that simply doesn't exist in real life except for in the fantasies created by ad execs.
Mostly, I hate that a romance, a book written for women, by a woman, is playing with something that's so hateful towards the people who are reading this book.
Just before I read this, I re-read Jem and the Holograms: The Misfits. That is a comic book that has one issue dedicated to each of the five Misfits. And you know what? Each of those women is shown as a woman of worth, a woman of power, a woman who deserves love. And I love and respect all of them so much more than Willa, who doesn't give Nick the finger for questioning her order, or Nick, who doesn't have any comprehension of the toxicity of his ideas about food and women.
Am I overthinking this? Probably. But this equating food with sex, and with thinness with beauty at the same f'ing time makes me angry, and I am metaphorically throwing this book against the wall. (Because it's an ebook from the library that I'm reading on my phone, and I don't intentionally throw my phone.)
Stormer, you tear the world up.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-20 04:46 pm (UTC)Then again, it's all over TV and movies, too. One reason I love Ensign Tilly in the new Star Trek is she's not skinny, she's not conventionally pretty, and yet, she's a *gasp* fully functional woman with a brain and competencies and IS ATTRACTIVE in her own right!
And I wish I was more of a fan of graphic novels; the one you mentioned sounds awesome.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-21 04:06 am (UTC)Also, I will always recommend Courtney Milan to people who hate toxic masculinity and toxic femininity in their romance. Given your love of Ensign Tilly, I'd recommend the first (The Duchess War) or second (The Heiress Effect) books in her Brothers Sinister series. Both incredibly intelligent women who are definitely self-rescuing ladies. Courtney is a social justice warrior through and through, and her characters are so much better for it. (If you're a Twitter person, check her out there first. Very articulate for such a short space.)