Words: Grace Hussey (she/her)
Romantasy is the latest craze on BookTok – from dragons and gargoyles to explicit descriptions of domineering male-led sex, this subgenre has taken the internet by storm, blending elements of fantasy and romance. Book sales are surging, and the primarily female fandom is gaining traction. It’s nice to believe that we have moved on from the ‘tongues battling for dominance’ era of Wattpad fanfiction; but in reality, the popularity of romantasy suggests we haven’t moved so far.
The popularity of romantasy stems from ease of reading. These books put aside pretension – it’s all about indulgence. Reading should be fun, it doesn’t all have to be so demanding. In order to save publishing, the act of reading needs to become more accessible. Typically, romance is the driving force for the plotline: the stakes are high and protagonists embark on dangerous quests for power and survival. This combination of world building, fairies, dragons, and romance tropes like enemies to lovers, formulates the perfect equation for literary entertainment. Life might be boring, but these books are not.
Potentially the most memorable aspect of romantasy is the sexual explicitness; as put by author Rebecca Yarros at her launch of Onyx Storm, ‘they get to ride dragons, they get to ride each other’. But it’s a little more complex than this – the sexuality explored in romantasy novels like Onyx Storm and A Court of Thorns and Roses is primarily incredibly heteronormative. The men are brooding, aggressive, and dominant, while the women are submissive. This raises the question: should these tropes be romanticised and placed on a pedestal of desire, or are they simply a revival of a misogynistic perspective on what sex between men and women should look like?
This certainly is a revival rather than a new phenomenon. Romantasy’s male protagonists come from a long line of predecessors. Perhaps the most famous romantasy novel of all time is Twilight, in which Edward is Bella’s cold (literally and figuratively) and controlling love interest. Women swooned at Edward’s unrelenting possessiveness of Bella back in the early 2000s. In the UK, Twilight has sold more copies than The God Delusion. Cut to today, where A Court Of Thorns And Roses’s Rhysand sexually harrasses Feyre ‘to protect her’, a fact she appears giddy about. A moment that is designed to be romantic and swoon-worthy made for uncomfortable reading.
There is definitely an argument to be made that although these books depict dominant men and submissive women, it is content that is women-led. Women are writing these books and exploring these kinks outside of the influence of a male audience. The majority of romantasy authors are women. Furthermore, these books celebrate female desire when in the past it has been shamed in literature. Romantasy is all about female pleasure. However, this argument is attacked by the reminder that these kinks ultimately derive from the patriarchy, female submission is and always will be a kink aimed at male pleasure.
The most popular trope of romantasy remains the enemies to lovers trope; in which romantic protagonists will be forced to battle between their emotions of hatred and lust for one another. But this trope simply perpetuates violence towards women, rebranding it as sexy. Within the realm of romantasy, men hating women is just another step in the staircase of romance. Watching love interests press knives to one another’s throats only to then passionately kiss only desensitises us to aggressive treatment from men. Rather than allowing women to explore these dynamics within the controlled safety of book pages, the enactment of these tropes sends worrying subliminal messages of how we should receive aggression.
There is nothing intrinsically unethical about enjoying domination, consensual nonconsent, or other such kinks, but we cannot attempt to rebrand misogyny and the patriarchy under a pink banner. Sub/dom kinks are to be explored safely between partners who do not harbour underlying resentments for each other; this respect is what is missing from these interactions within romatasy literature. Gender roles are stark in romantasy and deviations are met with punishment, degradation is not contained to the bedroom, it is felt everywhere. When will romance tropes allow women to be lusted over and adored by their male counterparts without being despised first?
Our generation is indulging in a reinvented version of the Drarry and 1D fanfiction that we would read underneath our duvets as preteens. It’s familiar in a comforting way – escapism from the realities of your early twenties. But we’ve come too far to disregard the implications of such patriarchy-induced smut. Let us allow sex and dragons to continue to save publishing, but maybe in a healthier way. In any case, it is cemented that the future of publishing shall be decided by the masses. Literature is no longer dictated by the few; not in a world where so-called ‘fairy porn’ is more popular than Austen.
The-guardian-view-on-romantasy-fiction-dragons-storm-the-bookshops (Yarros quote)
Best-selling-books-all-time-fifty-shades-grey-compare
