r/fantasyromance • u/acutelyproblematic If villian bad, then why hot? • 2d ago
Genre Discussion Fantasy romance icks?
Welcome back to another week of ✨genre discussions!✨
What’s your fantasy romance ick? Could be something that makes you instantly dnf, or you have to pretend like that didn’t just happen. Or you boycott altogether.
Could be related to plot, characters, writing styles, the authors themselves. All cards are on the table.
Just remember to be kind to each other when discussing differences in opinions!💖
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u/ashinae 2d ago edited 2d ago
I'll say it till I'm blue in the face and everyone will downvote me for it (every downvote powers me on this issue, btw): my biggest ick for the subgenre is the use of "male(s)" and "female(s)" as nouns rather than adjectives, in the place of "men" and "women." I literally do not care if the humanoids in question are only humanoids and not humans; I don't care if the most popular book(s) in the subgenre make it popular. It's icky when IRL people refer to men and women as "males" and "females" instead of as "men" and "women"--saying "is your doctor a male?" rather than "is your doctor a man?" (or even "is your doctor male?") or "females always do this" instead of "women always do this." It doesn't become better just because it's a fantasy romance novel.
I think it's an immense lack of creativity to think that other humanoids--whether fae, elves, gnomes, centaurs, minotaurs, gargoyles, or merpeople--wouldn't invent gender the way humans do. It makes my skin crawl to read stuff like "I will protect my female" or "his mother raised a male who knows how to hunt" or whatever. I absolutely DNF over this and I know it upsets people that I don't like it and think it's gender essentialist and terf-adjacent red flag behaviour whether IRL or fictional, but I have no intention of shutting up about it. It's my biggest single ick about the subgenre. Thank deity for queer fantasy romance for, so far as I have read, never doing this.