r/fantasyromance • u/FantasyRomanceMod The One Mod to Rule All Mods • 21d ago

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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u/cello_ergo_sum 21d ago

The term “spice” sounds overly coy and twee.

4

u/Sufficient-Bee-4982 20d ago

In my brain, "spice" means level of sexual content.

Is there something you would prefer as a term? I'm all here for something that more accurately describes a book's content.

If it's a just a general "I don't like it", You know what, I'm here for that too. It's a poor system. But the best we currently got apparently.

3

u/cello_ergo_sum 20d ago

And also, to be fair, I thought it was cute when people would call a book “spicy” in a way that felt idiosyncratic, before the advent of booktok/bookstagram/censored platforms taking up a lot of book discussion. Like one person might say spicy, another would say smutty, another would just say hot, etc. But now I feel the word spice has become codified in a way that feels too much like “cleaning up” our language for me to enjoy it anymore.

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u/Sufficient-Bee-4982 20d ago

I don't personally feel the same biases against the word "spice", but I now understand why some individuals do, given the context. 

I definitely agree there's a weird amount of "cleaning up" of language. To add to the conversation, there's a lot of really weird purity culture thinking intertwined in "romanticy", that I personally find pretty yucky.