TW: Issues and tropes of dubious consent, forced consent, and non-consent, rape and rape fantasies, pornography and its influence on real-world violence, violence against women, language-use, NSFW content
This whole episode is a trigger warning and rather NSFW, so listener beware! Here be morally-questionable heroes, dubious scenes, and a lot of stuff that traditional romance wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. This whole subgenre runs the gamut from BDSM and kink/fetish, to forced/dubious consent, and much...much...further. Jen and Jackie herein have a discussion on some of the more common topics such as fantasies that include dubious consent, the heroes that this subgenre is known for. and why, if it's so scary, so many books still exist for such a large readership. Plug in those earbuds and breakout the flashlight sparkly nerds, because Jen's leading us into the world of dark romance.
The below links are resources for you to use at your own discretion. We here at Raging Romantics support and love you.
National Domestic Violence Hotline
RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline
National Resource Center on Domestic Violence
National Human Trafficking Hotline
Terms:
- Dark Romance: There is no actual definition for dark romance, but Wendell says "a dark romance is one wherein there's going to be a happy ending eventually, but it'll hurt a bit first, for everyone involved, including me, the reader.
- Features tropes such as abudction, dubious consent, rape fantasies, stalking, extreme BDSM, violence, morally-grey heroes, revenge narratives, and much more
- MC: Motorcycle club (gang)
- Closed door romance: Sex and intimacy is not featured on page, but is instead implied- also referred to as a "clean romance"
Articles/Blogs/Online Resources:
- Smart Bitches Trashy Books
- Silver fox episode
- "What makes romance novels "dark?" (Dering, 2017)
- "What to read: Dark Romance- My Recommendations" (Loren, 2015)
- "Smart Bitches, Trashy Books: The Dish Behind Dark Romance" (Wendell, 2011)
- "18 Dark Romance Books to Twist and Turn You" (Avery, 2019)
- "The nature of women's rape fantasies: an analysis of prevalence, frequency, and contents" (Bivona & Citrelli, 2009)
- Twitter thread on dark romance
- "The Psychology Behind a Very Common Fantasy" (Florio, 2015)
- "In defense of 'rape' fantasies" (Clark-Flory, 2015)
- "Don't ban 'rape porn'- introduce more porn with negotiations and boundary-setting" (Stavri, 2013)
- "Should We Include Trigger Warnings for Our Story?..." (Gold, 2018)
- Podcast- "Dark Romance" (Made in Romance, August 28, 2020)
Other books/authors we mention:
- Nancy Friday "My Secret Garden: Women's Sexual Fantasies"
- CJ Skuse "SweetPea" (woman serial killer!)
- Kathleen Woodiwiss "The Flame & The Flower"
- Jessa Kane
- Julia Sykes "The Daddy and The Dom"
- Joanna Wylde and Reapers MC and Silver Bastard
- Eden Summer Hunting Her series
- Alexa Riley "Mechanic"
- Ruby Dixon Fireblood Dragons series
- Sarah MacLean Bareknuckle bastards
LYSSA KAY ADAMS AUTHOR EVENT!
- April 21, 2021 @7pm- open and free with registration
- Registration opens April 1
Lyssa Kay Adams podcast goes live May 7--email us @ RagingRomantics@gmail.com if you want to submit questions for us to ask her!!