The Waves: Romance Novels Are For Everyone

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🗓️ 31 March 2022

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this week’s episode of The Waves, the co-host of Slate’s internet culture podcast ICYMI, Rachelle Hampton sits down with Slate associate editor and romance author, Marissa Martinelli to talk about romance novels and, of course, the television show Bridgerton. In the first half, they dig into the longstanding race and gender politics at play within the romance writing community and gatekeeping, why we need more Short Kings and Fat Women in romance, and of course…Fabio. Then they get into the Netflix phenomenon, Bridgerton and talk about the problematic dynamics the show didn’t sort out when it “solved” racism, why making Daphne pretty ruined season one for Rachelle, and how season two kinda, sorta, almost cured some of the problems of season one. In Slate Plus, are corsets feminist? Recommendations: Marissa: The romance novel book club podcast, Hot and Bothered. Rachelle: Season one of Netflix’s Virgin River. Further Reading: Dangerous Books for Girls by Maya Rodale “Inside the List” by Gregory Cowels “How Bridgerton Touches on Colonialism in India” by Desiree Ibekwe “The Biggest Changes Between Bridgerton Season 2, and The Steamy, Ridiculous Book It’s Based On” by Marissa Martinelli “Under the Covers” by Anne Wallentine “One Romance Novelist’s Fight for Diverse Love Stories” by Rachelle Hampton Podcast production by Cheyna Roth with editorial oversight by Shannon Palus and June Thomas. Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to thewaves@slate.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the waves. This is the waves. This is the waves. This is the waves. This is the waves.
0:13.0	Welcome to the waves. Slates podcast about gender, feminism, and this week,
0:17.4	heaving bosoms. Every episode you get a new pair of women to talk about the thing we can't get
0:22.7	our minds off. Get your mind out of the gutter. Today we've got me, Marissa Martinelli,
0:27.1	an associate editor here at Slate. And me, Rachel Hampton, a staff writer and host of Slates
0:32.7	Internet Culture Podcasts in case you missed it or I see why am I. On today's episode,
0:37.6	we are talking about romance novels. So I grew up reading romance novels. I worked in a public
0:44.4	library in high school. And when things were slow, I admit I would sneak into the back section
0:49.6	where we had all these little stubby mass market paperback books with couples
0:54.8	passionately embracing on the cover and I would flip through them and I would try to find a
0:58.4	sex scene. A lot of us did. There was a whole group of I know. I know. Sorry to my bosses who,
1:07.2	hopefully, are not listening to this podcast. But there were a lot of teens working at this library
1:12.8	and we all kind of did it. We loved making fun of romance while also kind of secretly enjoying it,
1:18.2	but at least I did. Now as an adult, I still read romance and I'm fascinated how attitudes about
1:23.4	the genre, which has been so often stigmatized and ridiculed have changed. Rachel, why did you want
1:28.7	to talk about romance novels? That's a very leading question because you definitely know the answer
1:33.9	to this as you introduced me to romance novels. Oh, did I? Oh yes, yes, yes, you did. Way back in the
1:41.1	in the Housey End days of 2019 when we still went to the office, you gave me the Duke and I,
1:47.6	the first book in the Bridgerton series. But I would say I've been into romantic content for
1:53.4	my entire life. I can't say romance specifically because there actually are very specific rules about
1:58.7	what constitutes romance. But I basically grew up reading fanfic. I adore Twilight, which is basically
2:07.9	a paranormal romance. One of the books that I think most influenced my developing teenage brain
	...

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