Think of iconic romance stories across the centuries: the late 16th has “Romeo and Juliet,” the 20th has “The Notebook,” and the 21st has “Twilight.” All three have something in common: modesty in their plots and respect for the characters, with no oversexualization or dangerously stereotypical character descriptions. That’s something that certainly cannot be said when referring to modern romance books, and that issue can be traced back to one style of writing: smut.
While a specific term, smut encompasses various forms, from a fluff piece with a few inappropriate scenes, to serious, triggering crimes being glamorized throughout. Something that is shared with these types of stories is that their writing quality is incredibly poor. On top of everything else, this is particularly harmful, seeing as the mass consumers of these books are teenage and young adult girls. Within the last decade, there has been a boom in smutty romance novels perpetuating negative stereotypes of “ideal” relationships and physical appearances, and the normalization of their content is slowly ruining the minds of impressionable teenagers.
Admittedly, it can be found that throughout history, some books have had sexual content: priests and nuns aren’t responsible for all the world’s literature. But the reason why it’s so important today is that that is all the romance genre is now. Stories like “Icebreaker” by Hannah Grace, or the “Cat and Mouse” series by H.D. Carlton, are porn with a side of plot. There’s rarely a lesson to be learned, no connections to the real world to be made, nothing to think about. This would not be that big of a deal if it were a few standalone books in the dark corners of a Barnes and Noble, but this is all this genre has come to be. According to WordsRated, as of 2023, which was the peak of this writing style, 48% of print book sales belong to Colleen Hoover and 32% to Emily Henry. Through these two sole authors, it makes at least 80% of romance print book sales primarily containing smut. So, clearly, the primary target of romance books—young women—are susceptible to this low-quality trash.
Smut and “spice” are used interchangeably in the BookTok community on TikTok and Instagram to cover up the actual descriptor of these stories: porn. Most people know the dangers of pornography across all demographics, which is why readers and authors of these stories refuse to use that term. Aside from the obvious harm porn has on adult men and women, teenagers experience the worst of it. Porn never depicts the intimacy and awkward moments that actually occur, and often objectifies women instead. While obviously, the objectification of anyone is not a good thing, the objectification of women, specifically, leads to violent thinking. The more content that portrays women as inanimate beings, the less people view women as humans with emotions and bodily autonomy. The American College of Pediatricians states that “among juvenile criminal offenders, there is a greater self-report of pornography use among the sex offender adolescents than among the adolescent criminal offenders who have committed non-sexual crimes.” Based on this statistic, it is clear that porn translates to real-life mentalities of its viewers, and in extreme cases, it’s acted upon. In addition, this line between fantasy and reality is significantly more blurred for children, which is why any exposure to sexual content harms both the minds of teenage girls and boys.
Sexual content is more easily accessible than ever, especially in writing. The website Supportiv found that people often find explicit content around the age of 12, usually by accident. Now, with smutty books having cartoon-style covers and countless positive reviews on social media, young readers drift towards them, and parents blindly buy them. In addition to being more accessible, it’s also becoming more normalized. As seen through BookTok on TikTok, you’ll have teenage and young women recommending inappropriate novels, constantly praising them, and the only negative comments would be a simple dislike of the book’s characters or plots. Some infamous books being, but not limited to, “Icebreaker,” “Haunting Adeline” by H.D. Carlton, and really any Colleen Hoover book. While there is a switch in the type of smut from “Icebreaker” to Carlton and Hoover’s works—being from smutty fluff to romanticization of abuse—all three are equally shared as the “ideal” life, with TikTokers basically telling young readers to envy the relationships within the pages. The dangers of these stories and their already widespread impact are rarely talked about, which, seemingly, won’t result in change.
Other than the general sexual nature—which is heavily exaggerated and fantasized—many of these spicy novels include scenes of rape and non-sexual violence, either from the love interest or side characters. This is especially prevalent in the book “Haunting Adeline,” one of the most popular romance books within the past couple of years, earning nearly 4 stars on Goodreads: it’s famous for its consensual-non-consensual content, aka roleplaying rape within a relationship. The main character ends up with her stalker who also assaulted her, and this romanticization leaves readers with admiration and desire for a similar relationship. From any normal perspective, that sounds absolutely insane, but take one scroll through TikTok, and you will find the victims.
On top of sexual violence, the trope of “kill whoever looks at her” is also dangerous, which Ruby Grace points out in her blog post on Medium. Grace encourages the point that, obviously, no girl is expecting her boyfriend to kill for her, but instead the general concept of being in a relationship where the woman is expected to be the submissive one, always needing to be protected by the dominant, strong man, which is an inherently poor mindset to have. These are very common in fantasy and mafia books, such as the “Kings of Sin” and “Twisted” series by Ana Huang, the 4th best-selling romance author as of 2023, according to WordsRated, and the “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series by Sarah J. Maas. It also gives women the impression that seeking out toxic relationships and staying in one is what’s truly desired, all circling back to the 20th-century political ideas that women have worked incredibly hard to fight against.
Additionally, stereotypes that have been circulated in these books are of characters’, especially women’s, bodies: very frequently, the female lead will be a petite white girl, especially in fantasy stories. “Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yarros is one of the main suspects, and, according to Publishers Weekly, is the 4th bestseller among all books at the beginning of 2024: it follows a girl who hunts and provides for her family, and ultimately attends a college to become a dragon rider. While engaging in the most athletic and strength-demanding activities, she is still depicted as a skinny, short girl, which, to anyone’s standards, is unrealistic. The issue isn’t that there are some plot holes—which there certainly are—but more so that books like these perpetuate the stereotype of what a woman should be and look like, no matter who they are, and if you don’t look like them, then you’re ugly. While seemingly unrelated to the issue of sexual content, these problems that circulate the idea of an “obedient and petite” woman all derive from porn culture. Ultimately, due to the mass of young teenage girl readers, the results of these books are anything but good.
The stereotypes don’t end there: men are unrealistic as well. While I’m all for improving the general bar of what to expect in a boyfriend, or at least, a human being, these books have gone too far. Physically, men are always portrayed as insanely fit, charismatic, and tall—and while these are traits that do exist, summing the “perfect man” into strict parameters is negative for all parties. Because of the adolescent brain’s vulnerability to information, it gives teenage girls unfair expectations, and teenage boys’ insecurities when it comes to things they can’t control, such as height.
All things considered, the integrity of literature’s romance genre is clearly on the decline. Authors prioritize sexual content and stereotypes over genuine quality, and readers of all ages, unfortunately, eat them up. While this happens, they are simultaneously developing a porn addiction, refusing to read a book without any form of that content. This type of writing may be damaging to anyone at any developmental stage, but it is evident that this is most taxing on younger people. As sexual content has been more normalized in novels, it threatens to eliminate the true romance genre as past generations have known it. As obvious as it may seem, sexual content has continued to prove to be harmful, and with the normalization of it in novels, sooner or later, the romance genre that past generations have known will no longer exist. But, on the bright side, the genre isn’t entirely doomed–at least it’s not yet. Looking for a sad book? Turn to John Green’s “A Fault in Our Stars” or “Looking for Alaska.” Supernatural? The “Mara Dyer” series by Michelle Hodkin is phenomenal. Mystery? Reading “The Inheritance Games” series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes turns into the perfect combination of a “Knives Out” puzzle and, of course, a two-brother love triangle. There are so many great romance books with amazing, thought-provoking plots, but if you don’t dig for them at the bottom of the pile, they’ll never come through and get the recognition and fame they truly deserve.
