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Book Club 6w
Yknow what I wish more green flag men were seen as viable love interests in romance novels. I’m so tired of shitty men who treat the main characters like property. We should be romanticizing people with healthier traits like empathy and gentleness
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Anonymous 6w

On that note…. Recs with a healthy relationship couple?? I haven’t read a good romance in a while

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Anonymous 6w

Authors (or anyone who has anything to do with entertainment and media production at all, actually) are allergic to positive masculine men. It’s either toxic masculinity bc all masculinity is bad and evil (and they even let this bleed into masculine women too, which is always fun to have misogyny disguised as empowerment), or hyper uwu soft boys (nothing wrong with them, love them, but that’s not the only type of man that’s a good person, yaknow?)

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Anonymous 6w

The ones that are pretty much stalking? That’s what they want? 😭 please I’d be scared and weirded out asl.

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Anonymous replying to -> #1 6w

I get that but I’ve also never in my entire life seen a romance novel that has a “UwU soft boy” as a love interest. Is that even a thing that exists?

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Anonymous replying to -> OP 6w

Omg yes. Though I guess they’re referred to as “Cinnamon rolls” or “golden retriever boyfriends” more often lol. Pretty much every romance book that isn’t Booktok famous I see out on the floor rn def have soft boy MMCs. And again like I said this is an overarching theme in media, not just books, so the influence movies and such are having shouldn’t be neglected here

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Anonymous replying to -> #1 6w

Oh I didn’t realize that’s the sort of character that you were referring to. That’s actually my favorite kind of guy. And I’ve been struggling to find them in fiction, and I’ve always assumed they were rare. And you’re saying they’re common? I’ve never found one before.

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Anonymous replying to -> OP 6w

They’re common in a lot of newly written stuff. I really like those types of mmcs too, I just wish we could have a larger variety in relationships in romance literature beyond cinnamon roll and toxic man were just expected to ignore and forgive

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Anonymous replying to -> OP 6w

Also, I don’t think there’s anything inherently “non-masculine” about softness or kindness. Men can be gentle without sacrificing their masculinity. Kindness and manhood are not mutually exclusive.

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Anonymous replying to -> OP 6w

Oh no I’m not saying that either. There’s also strength in traditionally feminine traits. I’m not saying it’s bad at all don’t get me wrong. Emotional and vulnerable characters are still GOOD characters, and “soft boys” can still 100% be masculine. It’s just in my experience at least, they aren’t being written that way. It’s more so being done in a way where they’re all anxious, self doubting, scared of a shadow type of “soft boy”. I also mean this is a super recent trend, as in last 2-5 years

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