Pose A Question: Are Romance Novels Porn?

 

I decided to start a new segment titled “Pose a Question.” This time the question is, “Are romance novels porn?” If they are, they are, but if so, I need to rethink everything. How did this question come about?

Well, I was reading other romance authors’ reviews, and I ran into, no less than three times, the reviewer saying they had a problem with the book because there wasn't enough sex in it. Say what?

This had me thinking, “Are women and/or men getting off from reading romance novels?’

I have been reading romance novels since the age of twelve, which means I may have been consuming porn from the age of twelve, and this fills me with dread. But here is what I seriously think. I always thought that romance novels were relationship porn.

The man meets the woman, and the reader is taken on a journey, while two characters fall in love with all its ups and downs. You get passion, emotional intensity, interesting dialogue, and sometimes sex, but the sex isn’t the point; it is the result of them falling in love with each other.

Now, I am talking about contemporary romance novels. I am not talking about erotica or erotic romances, which are not that emotionally satisfying. It could be why these reviewers were saying there was not that much sex because they were talking about an erotic romance, but from what I saw, they were contemporary romances.

Romance novels are not all about sex, and they never were. I can say that the juicy parts can get you juicy, but it will not happen if the emotional, the falling in love part, is not there.

Also, it could be that the book was boring, and it was being blamed on the fact that it was not enough sex in it. Romance readers consume a lot of romance novels. It is a heady experience to read about love and experience it if only through the pages of a novel. I would read two to three books a week(not that much anymore), but I like to think it was not just because of the sex.

If you are reading romance novels  just for the sex, why aren’t you instead just watching sticky pornographic DVD tapes? There is a craft to romance novels. Writers develop the plot, characters, do research, and rewrite the story until it sings a tale of love. I don’t think porn does that, and I think most romance writers would say they are not writing about sex but love.

In my humble opinion, romance novels are not porn. What do you think? Am I being naïve. Leave comment below.