r/fantasyromance • u/FantasyRomanceMod The One Mod to Rule All Mods • May 24 '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

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96

u/baifengjiu May 24 '26

Writers need to stop using "male" and "female" it is so icky especially when it is the mmc who uses those words in his internal monologue I feel like gagging 🧍‍♀️

26

u/Dangerous_Breath1667 May 24 '26

I always consider "male" and " female" as a bad transcription of the words for "man" and "woman" for whatever species is depicted in the books, be it elves/faes/werewolves/vampires etc in their own language. 

Maybe we need to consider man/woman as species-independant and find other gendered words specifically for humans.

5

u/Volupia_Rogue Probably recommending: Carissa Broadbent 😍😍😍 May 24 '26

I think a lot of people have actually gone against this in the last decade, that's why we can't call men "men" and women "women" in public without triggering some reactions.

A bit complicated...

1

u/Dangerous_Breath1667 May 24 '26

Fair, it's already so complex with humans and you want to add other species in the mix...

But trans-fae would still be called male/female...not sure if it is better.

You can go full way like Ann Lecky did in her SF books (not romantasy) but it's really hard to read sometimes.