#not rly that enthralled by empowerment narratives re: romance fantasies. i think that's often a shallow way of framing it | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

metanarrates · 6 days ago

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ive always had sort of a weird researcher studying a bug fascination with romance fiction. absolutely alien world to me. kind of a scary place. mostly this has manifested in me reading a lot of bodice rippers and m/m fanfiction on the downlow but for about two years now it's resulted in me reading a rather absurd amount of otome isekai. i feel like half the time the popular sentiment online w/ arospecs having this approach to romance fiction is like "well i don't understand this fantasy but it's nice that people are having fun and i like rotating it in my head 🥰" but I'm not like that at all. there's a lot of totally unexamined reproduction & upholding of nasty societal stuff in romantic fantasies and that's why I feel compelled to examine them from the outside. i want to dissect it

#narrates #not rly that enthralled by empowerment narratives re: romance fantasies. i think that's often a shallow way of framing it #ur not obligated to be morally pure in fantasy but it Is true that fantasies tend to be a site of unfiltered reflecting of societal bias #and at worst is a form of reproducing & transmitting hegemonic ideals #while there can be indiv. empowerment to be had there... it's worth discussing it thru critical lenses.#esp for things that get v. v. popular.#and like Whatever post or write whatever you want. I'm just going to be looking at the broader trends with binoculars and a clipboard

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