2025/11/12 by Georgia Nicholls · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · #American and British Literature Analysis #Literature: history, themes, analysis #Modernist Literature and Criticism
paper · doi:10.1080/23268743.2025.2569337
openalex created_date 2025/11/12 · openalex publication_date 2025/11/12 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15
Sexual pleasure is a fundamental concern of the romance genre, and while romance novels do prioritize ‘women wanting and getting great sex from partners who know how to deliver’, it is important to develop a more in-depth understanding of how this great sex is represented and achieved, as well as considering the potential patriarchal sexual scripts they adhere to or challenge. Without an understanding of how women (reliably) experience sexual pleasure, it is likely romance authors will continue to centre sexual representations on male sexuality, skewing the reality of what sexual pleasure can and does look like. This article identifies, and then explores, the three main tenets of sex that are characteristic of gender inequality (prioritizing of penetration, arousal concordance and genital size). Close readings of textual examples from the works of current and recent best-selling romance authors (Emily Henry, Ali Hazelwood, Elle Kennedy and Christina Lauren) will serve to explore how, exactly, the false norms and biological myths are either perpetrated or challenged within contemporary romance novels.