WRITING POWER

DYNAMICS
IN GAY ROMANCE
 Reality
V.
Writing
Walking
. the
Tightrope of

. . .
 Reality
V.
Writing
Walking the
Tightrope of

Reader
. .
expectations
The men in M/M (at least, the stories I don't regret paying for)
are on equal ground, no matter how wildly different their
respective backgrounds and circumstances might be. Even
when one of the guys is shattered and broken and in desperate
need of the other guy's confession of true love, it's always
some circumstance in his life that broke him, and not an
inherent weakness.

I'm not inherently weak.

I'm not incomplete.

And I want to read about characters that are like me.

~carvedwood
 Porn v.
book Covers
 Reality
V.
Writing
Walking the
Tightrope of

PERSONAL READER
.
KNOWLEDGE EXPECTATIONS
 Reality
V.
Writing
Walking the
Tightrope of

PERSONAL READER Romance

KNOWLEDGE EXPECTATIONS Tropes
 Romance Tropes
• Rich hero
• Older hero (than the heroine)
• Hero more powerful than the heroine
• Hero’s endowments are HUGE!!! (Like he’s smuggling a Dachshund in his
pants huge.)
• Attractive people (and giving someone a scar that just makes them appear
more dashing and dangerous does not get you out of this)
• Virginal heroine or at least not one who is overly experienced
• No Love triangles (Unless it is darn obvious from the beginning who the
hero and heroine are going to be)
• If hero or heroine has a previous spouse he/she probably cheated on the h/h
and the h/h most definitely didn’t love him or her. Oh, and the heroine? Her
previous spouse very likely had “issues” leaving her…well, you know…
untouched.
• Happy ending (yeah, that’s a biggie)

Devoti, Lori, “Killing the trope…or not?” Romancing The Blog

Power Dynamics
M/M romance, at least
the kind I prefer, seems
to be built on
relationships that come
off as more equal and
more real.
~jashelle1
 “I think under it women are fascinated by Gay
Romance and they are fascinated by the ideas
around REAL equality "in love" and REAL power
dynamics "in play" and how they are negotiated
and expressed in a "healthy way".

I mean Gay Romance for them is coded towards

"total in capitol letters EQUALITY" even going as
far as gender. They are not going to explore these
ideas in Lesbian Romance because that is sorta a
sexual threat to most of them so that means many
Gay Romance readers are Straight Women... UH
OH..”
~TeddyPig
 b.d.s.m

• The dynamic of the

unequal equal

• Soldiers/Biker/Warrior
Culture

• No Real Female
equivalent
Robert Maplethorp
I like reading about
men's reactions
because they're so free
of the traditional
hetero-expectation
framework. Dude, you
like that dude? Go get
him!
~Oddmonster
 M/M romance shows men at their
most vulnerable.

And a vulnerable man = a sexy man!

~Cat Grant