[ Golden Gater Online - December 11, 1997 ]
Maria Pikoula
Staff writer
Students' time can be filled with study and work, leaving little or no time for romance.
But don't despair, if you want love, all you need to do is reach out and grab it ... off a shelf.
Aspiring romance authors promise to add excitement and romance to your life with their books filled with passionate alliances and explicit sexual images.
"These books are selling like hot cakes. They aren't pornography," said SF State psychology professor Norma McCoy. "These books are written by respectable authors such as Judith McNaught, Elizabeth Lowell, Karen Robards, who are national best-selling authors."
McCoy, surprised by the enormous popularity of romance novels, set out to examine the phenomenon of their rapidly growing success. She will analyze about 30 historical romance novels published between 1985 and 1995 that contain description of sexual encounters.
Although the romance genre may still be seen as trashy, it is developing into a hot market. Romance readers spent $1 billion in 1996. Based on statistics published at Publisher's Weekly, romance accounts for 18.3 percent of all adult fiction and outsells mystery by a 3-to-1 ratio. Total annual sales top $950 million in North America alone, and hardcover romances have increased nearly 50 percent in the last two years. Romance accounts for 53.8 percent of total mass market fiction.
"At any given time two to three romance books (paperback or hardcover) are on the New York Times Bestseller's List. Historical romances are very popular and is the quickest selling category," said Stephen Henderson, a bookseller at Crown's bookstore in San Francisco.
McCoy, who has read so far about 300 romance novels for her project, was surprised by the content of these books. "These books have explicit sex. In film, it is men's pornography. It is women who respond more to these books. Women's pornography is the written stuff rather than verbal," McCoy said.
The focus of the project will be to find out whether women of the '90s identify with the heroines' personalities and desires.
Through analyzing and comparing the novels with real-life situations, McCoy will try to answer basic questions such as, what a woman's perception of true romance is, whether these books are similar in nature with real-life situations and whether they represent the female fantasy.
For example, McCoy said women are choosy. She suspects that women want men who have the same qualities as Mr. Good guy in the romance novels.
"They desire Mr. Good who has power, status and who will commit to them," McCoy said. "My hypothesis is that I will find these characteristics in the books."
McCoy expects to find the women portrayed in the books, as women interested in sex, educated, stubborn and in control of their own lives.
"We are seeing women evolve in romance fiction the same way they are evolving in public arenas, like politics and the media," she said.
"Women who read these books like to fantasize as being like that," McCoy said. "Women have always fantasized. It livens up their lives because, for women, words elicit emotions."
McCoy, who earned her post-doctorate degree from Yale University, has been teaching human sexuality classes at SF State since 1963, and throughout the years, she has conducted researches on female sexuality issues.
McCoy said that more and more women romance authors are daring to include more explicit sexual scenes in their books.
"These writers aren't seen as less anymore," McCoy said.
"Romance books are one of the top six selling categories," said Jeff Suss, a bookseller at The Bretano's bookstore.
One can purchase a romance novel in traditional and nontraditional markets, either by jumping on the Internet, or going to book sales outlets. And it is no surprise that shoppers at Target, Wal-Mart and other big chain-stores throughout America can now toss a romance novel into their carts along with the milk and pasta.
McCoy said there is still a stigma attached to reading a romance novel.
"Women don't want to be seen reading such a book. They are still sensitive because people might think less of them."
[ Golden Gater - December 11, 1997 ]