u/Haunting_Start_7089

(reposting because i ended up making a subreddit for marxism & romance books & including the link in an edit so the post was removed for self-promotion. sorry, mods! that definitely wasn't the original point of the post.)

i was recommended a romance novel that sounded reallyy good btwn a business owner & his assistant. sure! i don't read romance books for politics.

but omg i just couldn't do it! every time she'd think "i can't believe i'm fantasizing about my boss" i was like wow my emotional associations with that word are very different!

lol idk just wanted to share. i'm used to disliking MMC's for a lot of reasons but i've read billionaire romances before and liked them. but the dynamic of boss/employee is just so intensely tied to exploitation for me that i can't put it aside even for fun. LOL maybe if the book had started with a copy of her work contract and i saw that the working conditions were really good i could've gone for it!

anyway, hurray for libraries, i didn't buy this so no hard feelings whatsoever.

i was recommended a romance novel that sounded reallyy good btwn a business owner & his assistant. sure! i don't read romance books for politics.

but omg i just couldn't do it! every time she'd think "i can't believe i'm fantasizing about my boss" i was like wow my emotional associations with that word are very different!

lol idk just wanted to share. i'm used to disliking MMC's for a lot of reasons but i've read billionaire romances before and liked them. but the dynamic of boss/employee is just so intensely tied to exploitation for me that i can't put it aside even for fun. LOL maybe if the book had started with a copy of her work contract and i saw that the working conditions were really good i could've gone for it!

anyway, hurray for libraries, i didn't buy this so no hard feelings whatsoever.

I'm open to light-hearted and serious answers!

I grew up reading a ton of romance fanfiction, and I can definitely see how it affected my thinking about love. It's funny, it's not like I ever thought it was realistic, but it ended up framing my understanding of love and relationships in ways I don't agree with anymore.

My serious answer is that I thought that for love to be real, it has to be obsessive, dramatic, and at the center of my life.

My light-hearted answer is that I worried a lot about kissing with tongue because I thought it was a requirement. Turns out lots of people don't like it!

I don't know how to phrase this request other than "characters who had/would have had a bad time in high school."

I love a neurodivergent FMC, but I don't want that to be the main draw of the book. I would like fully-formed, well-rounded FMCs who have character arcs and stick with you after you finish reading. Solid MMCs are a bonus as well. Extra points for lesbians!

The template is Talia Hibbert. I've read every book of hers in my library system. Does anyone else do it like her?

Thank you!

Hi everyone!

I'm making a video essay about settler-colonial themes in a video game (Hollow Knight) made by white australians.

The script is 1500 words (9 minutes) and structured around defining settler colonialism, summarizing the video game story, and showing how some of the themes and tropes the game uses align with settler mythology.

Since it's pretty short, I don't get too deep, but I would like to have the script looked over by an Aboriginal person for respect and accuracy. I would also like to have the finished video looked over before I publish it to ensure I do not use inappropriate imagery.

My budget is 30 USD; let me know if that's not a fair price.

Thank you!

i know this is not a popular opinion of mine but i struggle to understand the appeal of grumpy/sunshine romance. as i understand it, it's like...... she's super sweet and kind and nice to him and he hates her about it? or secretly likes it but pretends to hate it?

i think i'm really missing something because i just get reminded of all the stories about women getting with men who end up slowly dimming their spark. you know, "my best friend used to be happy and do all these things but after x years with her asshole husband she's dropped her hobbies because she gets too tired to argue with him about them."

obviously that's not the fantasy, lol. so please help me undetstand!!

edit: i referred to fmc sunshine/mmc grumpy because that's the vast majority of the variations on this trope. i am aware the genders can be flipped, lol.

i appreciate everyone's answers, especially the ones that emphasize that the mmc is not necessarily mean, but more so cynical & reserved, and both characters learn from each other!