Where are all the Male Targeted Romance Novels?

[maninahat]

This topic was inspired by recent news, wherein a self described MRA group called Honey Badger Radio tried to stir the pot at a comic book convention. The Honey Badgers sat in the audience of a "Women in Comics" panel at the convention and managed to sidetrack the discussion with questions about how feminists revel in victimhood and should just go and make the comics they want...it was a bit of a poorly thought out accusation, considering the panel was made up of female comic book creators.

Anyway, the one interesting argument they did bring up was "where are all the male romance novels? Aren't men just as poorly represented in romance fiction as women in comics?" The panel basically said, "Why yes, yes that's true...but this isn't a romance novel convention." I don't know how interested the Honey Badgers really are in the lack of male romance novels, but since they mentioned it, I kind of am.

Isn't it weird there aren't more male romance novels?

Even the books that are centrally about romances and are aimed at men, like Lucky Jim, are defined more as comic novels, or some other genre seen as more accessible to blokes. The majority of novels bought in the US are a romance genre, but the only time men seem to particularly factor is in gay romance, which tends to also be skewered towards appealing to heterosexual women. Meanwhile, two of the most popular romance series aimed at women today, Twilight and 50 Shades, accidentally depict men as creepy, rapey stalkers.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I think most men cut the bullshit and go straight for the porn.

 

[Rabbitboy]

There is hentai manga. Does that count?

 

[Tayh]

Probably the same place as all the female targeted porn movies.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Possibly because it's seen as a female thing, publishers don't go for conventional romances aimed at guys.

OTOH, every male action hero gets a love/sex interest character. Take the explosions and gadgets out of a Bond movie, and you've almost got a romance.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

What? You sayin' Ah'm sum kinda flowah-buyin' pansy! Ya'll oughta know tha' big Jim don't care 'bout nuttin' than 2 things: Big titties and beer! Anytin' ya'll say 'bout dem romancey-type novels Ah'll throw right outta the window!

OT:

I think most men cut the bullshit and go straight for the porn.

Not much I can add to that.

 

[Zontar]

I guess there just isn't enough of a market there for a publisher to deem it worth going into. I like romance, but I don't like it enough for it to be the beginning, middle and end of a story, it needs more meat on it then just "person A meets person B and they fall in love".

 

[Erttheking]

ROMANCE!? MEN DON'T LIKE ROMANCE, THAT'S GIRLY SHIT!

Probably the mindset behind why you don't see too much of it. Which is disappointing, because I like a good romance.

 

[Armadox]

Where are all the male centric romance novels? I'll tell you where, they lay in the pages of the 1930s crime dramas. They lay in the detective novellas, and the fantastical adventure dramas. See, what you're asking shouldn't be "where are the male-specific romance novels" it's "why are there a separation in the way we write romance novels for males and females". If you'd like a good example of a new version of this specification please read "Rats, Bats, and Vats" by Eric Flint. There was a serious, wonderful relationship between two characters who have no physical interactions once so ever.

We tend to have male centric romance be about the quick blossom of lust. The hero's needs being risen in spite of the the perils, love on a battlefield. That doesn't mean you could not make a "traditional" romance novel for males, but you'd have to write in MORE banter.. Female romance novels actually jumps right into the relationship, the touch and sensation. The desires to feel pleasure. Male romance novels tend to have it on the back burner. You get a feel for the world, the characters, the setting and romance is.. just what happens. It's designed so that when it happens, it's rough and dirty and quick, but it's PART of the over all action. It's not the action itself.

*sighs and considers this* You really want to see the difference between male centric romance and female centric (Albeit both underwritten), James Bond versus Anita Blake. The women James Bond meets are quick things, but are part of the action, and Laurel K. Hamilton's Anita Blake saga is.. well, the action is the relationships and betrayals and.. the adventure and story is what happens between.

 

[Guerilla]

ROMANCE!? MEN DON'T LIKE ROMANCE, THAT'S GIRLY SHIT!

Probably the mindset behind why you don't see too much of it. Which is disappointing, because I like a good romance.

That's a nice strawman and all but I'll go with the perfectly logical explanation about men not being interested in romance. I know it conflicts the delusional feminist narrative about both genders being completely the same but it's waaaaaaaaaaaay more possible than society forcing men not to care about romance.

 

[loa]

Isn't that basically everything since there is some form of romance in almost all stories?
Harry potter is a "male targeted romance novel". There you go.

 

[NeutralDrow]

You mean, like spy thrillers and the like? There's always some kind of love story in those.

Actually, my first thought was visual novels, though...

ROMANCE!? MEN DON'T LIKE ROMANCE, THAT'S GIRLY SHIT!

Probably the mindset behind why you don't see too much of it. Which is disappointing, because I like a good romance.

That's a nice strawman and all but I'll go with the perfectly logical explanation about men not being interested in romance.

What is that explanation?

 

[WindKnight]

Shojo Manga is generally pretty popular with men as well as women, and a lot of them have a heavy romance angle and/or a love polygon of some form.

 

[GabeZhul]

You mean, like spy thrillers and the like? There's always some kind of love story in those.

Actually, my first thought was visual novels, though...

You took both my points out of my mouth, but I'm going to elaborate on them anyway.

If you are looking fore male-oriented romance stories, visual novels are the prime medium for that. Moeges, nakiges, dating sims, even some better-written nukiges; they are all good sources of male-oriented romance (though I suppose a lot of people would just look at the box, notice that there is like ten minutes of explicit sexual content in a 50+ hours long VN and then file it under "porn" anyway...)

As for the other point, while there is no dedicated romance genre for men per se in novels/movies/comics, there are romance sub-plots in practically every story ever written even if they are aimed at young boys. Also there are stuff like the very extensive harem comedy genre, which is usually male-oriented and focuses entirely on romantic comedy.

So while there are no romance novels specifically for men, I don't think we are starved for romantic stories.

 

[totlmstr]

You mean, like spy thrillers and the like? There's always some kind of love story in those.

Actually, my first thought was visual novels, though...

Have to go with either on this one (the latter especially). And see GabeZhul's comment. And the James Bond movies/books are aimed at male audiences and have elements of romance spiced in.

But second verse is the same as the first: not much that are primarily aimed at males, but there are a lot that have elements.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I thought films like "There something about Mary", "Meet the parent" and "Scott Pilgrim Vs the World" were sort of like roamnce for guys or rather wanting for the guy to get the girl by the end of it?

 

[cleric of the order]

ROMANCE!? MEN DON'T LIKE ROMANCE, THAT'S GIRLY SHIT!

Probably the mindset behind why you don't see too much of it. Which is disappointing, because I like a good romance.

You don't have a high opinion of most men do you. I've always figured that there is a difference in focus. As some people above mentioned action movies do tend to have love interests. These movies and other things of the like are geared and formalized to sell to men of the western demographics, studios tend to greed driven machines so arguably they wouldn't put it in there if it wasn't necessary in some way.

Under those pretenses least in that sense men are actively want a romantic sub plot worked into a greater narrative and not have romance for it's own sake. I'd argue it's a difference in the way men and women prioritize information. Not something so blunt and callow as "that's girly shit", which I admit I have not seen any hint of such a notion outside of highschool and in the minority by far. Further more considering the work of earlier artists that focus on a man's devotion to their paramour within the western tradition and the popularity of such things (see troubadours whom I've been led to believe are responsible impart for our current notions, Shakespeare, The Iliad (Arete not withstanding), the death of eurydice, the raven to name a few) would at least suggest that, Romantic closeness, intimacy, love and the like are not alien to western ideals of men and by extension, romance. Now romance as a masturbatory aid, not insomuch, (cuze let's face the nature of harlequin Romance novels,) that's another story. Again from what I have been led to believe, men do tend to have a different preference for medias of arousal images > words, in that sense but that is neither here nor there.

What is that explanation?

your name is a paradox BTW everyone knows Drow must be chaotic good scimitar welders trying to make up for the evil in their race. And Viconia DeVir

I suggest the above, best I could do in a couple minuties notice but I hope it does satisfy.
Insofar as I know, I (being a man raised within the western culture and having ties to the athletic sections of it) have never seen anyone try and reenforce that notion, being a lover of good love stories myself.
That is not to say there are people that have been but I suspect that they are raised by sociopaths and assholes in a very small percentage.
However I have seen many number of people yakking on about how man show no emotions and citing crying (an innate, infantile reflex, as far as developmental psyche has led me to believe it is) as a sign (seriously how many "makes men cry" lists do we need). Mind you I view crying as emotionally stunted, being a person who has rarely cried at all, not because of some social construct (quite the opposite I wanted to because that was convention) because rather my emotions manifest in different ways like it does for different people. And with in mind people seeking outlets for them in different methods does not indicate a social taboo.
As I mentioned above, men do have a want for such things but never as the sole focus. If it was a social taboo like Ert indicated then it would have been circumvented in the manner of early action figures/dolls, in that someone would rebrand the essential elements in a way that ignores such a social taboo. like some form of MANLY ROMANCE NOVEL OH YEAH TAKE HER OUT TO DINNER, COMPLEMENT HER, COME ON BRO, POSE SHIRTLESS WITH WINDSWEPT HAIR(I know it's absurd but you get my point, in that). There isn't a re-maculinization of an existing concept to sell things because people arbitrary find the nature of such a thing socially stigmatizing (success ones i might add, and as far as I have been led to believe). though one could argue action movies are that sort of thing, I again like before have to argue that they are necessarily different things by nature of narrative focus, subplot compared to main driving focus, a small section of the main whole.
I'm sorry if this is a bit, disjointed but the main thrust is for it to be social construct and the only thing keeping men out is that then someone would have re-branded it like action figures were initially. There is a place for it but insofar as I can the male preference is in it as a sub plot and not in what I would assume to be the main focus of the romance genre, romance. But that's my assumption. Suggesting simply that men don't like it because MAN and social constructs is often bad reasoning alone. Correlation doesn't into causation but also I shouldn't throw stones in my glass house.


captcha Banana stand, With the power of my stand yellow banana, oraoraoraoraoraoraoraoraoraoraoraoraoraoraoraoraora

 

[cleric of the order]

Where are all the male centric romance novels? I'll tell you where, they lay in the pages of the 1930s crime dramas. They lay in the detective novellas, and the fantastical adventure dramas. See, what you're asking shouldn't be "where are the male-specific romance novels" it's "why are there a separation in the way we write romance novels for males and females". If you'd like a good example of a new version of this specification please read "Rats, Bats, and Vats" by Eric Flint. There was a serious, wonderful relationship between two characters who have no physical interactions once so ever.

We tend to have male centric romance be about the quick blossom of lust. The hero's needs being risen in spite of the the perils, love on a battlefield. That doesn't mean you could not make a "traditional" romance novel for males, but you'd have to write in MORE banter.. Female romance novels actually jumps right into the relationship, the touch and sensation. The desires to feel pleasure. Male romance novels tend to have it on the back burner. You get a feel for the world, the characters, the setting and romance is.. just what happens. It's designed so that when it happens, it's rough and dirty and quick, but it's PART of the over all action. It's not the action itself.

*sighs and considers this* You really want to see the difference between male centric romance and female centric (Albeit both underwritten), James Bond versus Anita Blake. The women James Bond meets are quick things, but are part of the action, and Laurel K. Hamilton's Anita Blake saga is.. well, the action is the relationships and betrayals and.. the adventure and story is what happens between.

hats off to you man, you said it better them me.

snip

, i'd point to this fellow, he did a better job of it then me, ignore my post if you wish.