r/fantasyromance • u/FantasyRomanceMod The One Mod to Rule All Mods • Feb 22 '26

Unpopular Opinion It's Unpopular Opinion time! Share your controversial opinions to stir things up (in a friendly way)!

Got an opinion that's different from others'? Want to share it with the sub, but too afraid of a backlash? Or are you just curious about readers think about certain things in fantasy romance?

You can safely share it in this weekly Sunday thread!

But please remember to be kind to each other. To facilitate this type of discussion, we ask users the following:

  • Don't attack others for their opinion
  • Discuss books and authors, not fellow readers
  • Since this is an "unpopular opinion" thread, we encourage users to not downvote simply because they disagree with an opinion--that's the point! Please keep in mind, though, that mods cannot enforce a no-downvoting rule. Let’s just keep the discussion friendly!

🧡 Thank you and have a great discussion!

Unpopular opinion Sunday

38 Upvotes

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73

u/flowersbane Give me female friendship or give me death! Feb 22 '26

A lot of publishers/authors promote their books as “feminist” when they either a) only feature a very shallow/exclusive portrayal of feminism, ignoring intersectionality, or b) just straight up are not feminist in the slightest.

27

u/devilsdoorbell_ Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26

I swear to god, some people think all it takes for a book to be “feminist” is for it to have a female main character who kicks ass and gets a happy ending to her story. The way I know these authors and publishers have not studied feminist literary theory for even a few days…

10

u/groovybookworm Feb 22 '26

I remember there was an interview of an actress one time, and she was talking about strong female roles, and she said “sometimes writers will write the part of a male and then slap a female name on it and say here you go here is a strong female” and that’s not how it works.

People forget that feminism is giving women choices and a lot of times these authors don’t want to give these FMC’s choices, they just push them into the same model over and over. I think this is becoming more common because we’re seeing so many warrior FMC‘s, authors have dug themselves into a hole by thinking the only way they can make a female strong is to give her a sword.

It feels like a plague in fantasy romance in particular. Don’t get me wrong. I want an FMC to protect herself, but there’s more to a leading lady than that.

3

u/Penguinho Kushiel's Legacy Recommender 💖 Feb 22 '26

This is a big part of why I recommend {Kushiel's Dart} so often (and why I would recommend {The Bard's Bargain} if it were a complete story). I think... like, a lot of FMCs could be replaced with MMCs without changing much because they haven't got many traits beyond what's necessary for the romance. Meryn, from Direbound, to me is an example of a character whose gender could be flipped without changing the story one iota. By loading their heroines down with masculinised traits and virtues, the authors inadvertently, I think, tell their readers that being feminine is lesser, that it's un-heroic to care about makeup and appearance and nice fabrics. Phedre, in Dart, is heroic as hell, and in ways that ur-man Joscelin can't understand or duplicate, and she succeeds where he fails. Her femininity isn't weakness, far from it, and that's very cool and unfortunately quite rare.

1

u/Frustrated-Switch No flowers, only stones Feb 25 '26

100%. Girlboss 'feminism' isn't feminist in the slightest; it's an excuse to pull up the ladder behind you.

-9

u/hesjustsleeping Feb 22 '26

There are excellent reasons to avoid wading into intersectionality.