When most people think of romance novels, it’s not likely that people empowerment springs to mind – but there’s a a whole generation of romance novelists who believe that their novels can raise awareness and empower women and others to come to grips with situations in their lives. They look at women’s issues and see not just the issue but the women and families affected by them. These authors recognize a basic fact that all the college professors and statisticians who want to bring awareness to an issue miss – numbers don’t motivate people. Stories do.
How Romance Novels Empower Women
For decades, the lowly romance novel has been seen as the poor cousin of the literary novel. They are generally ignored by the critics and looked down upon by academia – but in reality, they touch more lives than nearly any other type of literature, or, for that matter, more than other types of literature combined. They appeal to women – and many men who won’t admit to it – who don’t think of themselves as academics and who are reading for entertainment rather than enlightenment.
In recent years, however, a growing body of academics has begun to recognize a simple truth: romance novels speak to women because, no matter how escapist they may seem, they are about the issues that are central to the lives of women. They are about small-w women’s small-I issues rather than the self-important Women’s Issues with upper case titles. Many of those issues overlap – they include domestic violence, human trafficking, the effects of Internet scams and love/money scams and the devastating effects that illegal adoption can have on all parties. But where Women’s Issues look at the problem from the outside and take an impersonal, almost lecturing tone, romance novels approach women’s issues from the inside, the space inhabited by so many of their readers and the women loved by their readers.
In taking on the voice of women involved in desperate situations, romance novels achieve something that most people empowerment programs can’t – they forge a bond between the reader and the characters in the story. They create a sense of identity and serve as a vehicle for understanding.
For the woman who lives in fear of her partner’s violent outbursts, that identification with a character can be empowering and liberating. The story is acknowledgement – a recognition from someone outside her head that there is something wrong – and it is not inside her. Even that simple thing can be the first step in people empowerment – the feeling that you are not alone is a powerful and empowering thing.
For others, these romance novels that focus on larger women’s issues offer a window into understanding that goes beyond the numbers and the statistics. They introduce readers to real women who are not cardboard cutouts with numbers pasted across their foreheads. They are not stories of 1 in every 5 women who have faced domestic violence or a faceless silhouette on a news magazine show telling about her abduction or involvement in gangs or a drug cartel. They are the stories of one woman, with a name and a face, a woman who is struggling but who is no different than their mothers, their sisters or themselves, if the circumstances were just a little different.
The next time you’re about to turn your nose up at a lowly romance novel, think again. These formulaic books, roundly looked down upon by much of academia, are actually subversive documents – and some of the most effective tools available for people empowerment.
