Big Beautiful Men?
Posted by Shannon C. on May 26th, 2008 filed in musingsLook, Lisabea! A post!
Mrs. Giggles today has a post about some romance epub which is requesting stories featuring big, beautiful men.
Excuse me while I giggle for just a second at that one.
I can see someone writing slightly huskier guys, but given that nobody is writing romances about women my size even when they’re writing rubenesque heroines, I’m not thinking this is a trend that will be embraced. (All I’ll say about my weight is that I *wish* I were a size 14, because then I could buy cute clothes without having to sacrifice my soul to get them.)
Also, given the already present need of some epublishers to start pandering (that’s the only explanation I can see for the presence of all the older woman/younger men books coming out of EC), I just don’t think most readers are going to want that kind of realism in our heroes. If our fantasies run toward having some hard-bodied stud adore us and think we are the sexiest thing since sliced bread, even though we are really 45, overweight, and developing more grey hairs than non-grey ones, why would we want to read about some short, pudgy, balding guy? Even I, who would like to think of myself as… not a shallow person at all… would probably raise an eyebrow there, even though I am not in the older woman demographic of reader.
So no, I don’t think we’re going to see a trend in big, beautiful men, because there’s not really enough of a fantasy in it for the stereotypical romance reader. Or, you know, for me. But then, my fantasy man is any guy who is strong-minded enough that he isn’t threatened by me when I’m in opinionated bitch mode. Half the time the men I read about don’t strike me as being the sort that could deal very well with women who, y’know, think. Which is why my fave heroes are the smart asses. I could take or leave the body type, as long as I loved the mind inside said body. But then, I could just be weird.
May 27th, 2008 at 6:20 am
Ah. Peer pressure. It works.
Big guys? I’ve been watching video of gay bears dddooooooinnnggg eeeeettt for research for my book. Ick factor times 20. So, uh, I’m not into big men. Well, ok, fat men.
There’s this trend for older women/younger men, Sam Kane’s got one coming out (which we know will be fun, cuz it’s Sam) but that’s not my bag. I love teh older mens…who are HOT. It’s fantasy, damnit! Make it fantastic! And m/m….
June 1st, 2008 at 1:39 am
I fantasize about large guys and I would definitely buy a romance novel with him being the heroin
January 17th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
The first guy I dated was obese. He was a really lovely man, but he wasn’t the one. His sense of humour jarred, but I knew this other man who was obese who was really cute and a lovely good man (even though he was several years younger which I found difficult) I was getting up the nerve to ask him out when my husband came into my life and the much older balding bearded Englishman won the draw. I suspect the other guy would have been relieved to hear it (my husband says I’m eccentric) though I could be wrong. As a romance writer I haven’t yet had a really fat hero, but I suppose at some time I will (I don’t tell my characters what to look like they just are whoever they are and I have to put up with it) because let’s get real…fat men have hearts too! A man’s size has never been a turn off to me. It’s always been more important how he dresses or presents himself. If a man dresses well…who cares if he’s fat? I can’t be the only woman who thinks David Suchet’s Hercule Poirot is sexy (and he’s not buff!)but then he’s really smart and that’s very sexy. I married my dream balding bearded glasses wearing funny teethed Englishman. He’s a bit more padded now than when we married a decade ago, but I still think he’s sexy. We live in a world with a growing population of singles; how many of them are looking for “the perfect looking partner”? There aren’t many perfect looking people out there and there are NO perfect people! Some blame unrealistic romances for people’s unrealistic expectations and though that was rubbish in my case I can’t help but wonder how many people there are in the world who are lonely because their perfect partner is the “unperfect looking person” they pass every day.
January 26th, 2009 at 1:54 am
I found this while searching for romance novels featuring fat guys. There are a lot of romantic/humorous books about large women now. You can find romance novels about cowboys, cops, divorcees, handicapped men, vikings, settlers, Irish brogues, short guys, tall guys, red hair, gray hair, black, white, poor, rich…why can’t there be just one romance about a fat guy? It wouldn’t even be necessary to have his fat be sexy just that there is a fat guy who can find love. Just one example saying it is possible for someone to be attracted to a fat guy.
February 17th, 2009 at 12:23 am
[...] so far have been people looking for “big, beautiful men”, which I still maintain will not be the next big thing in romancelandia. But that’s not my favorite google stat so [...]