Jae

Sapphic Slow-burn romances

character isn't hollywood beautiful

Character isn’t “Hollywood beautiful” (Sapphic Reading Challenge #47)

This week’s Sapphic Reading Challenge features sapphic books with a main character who isn’t Hollywood beautiful–they don’t fit the beauty standards that Hollywood imposes on women, where only characters who are thin, toned, young, and have perfect hair are portrayed as beautiful. 

For this reading list, I’ve picked books with protagonists who don’t fit those standards. They might have love handles, like Denny, the main character in Wrong Number, Right Woman, or consider their nose to big, yet they will always be beautiful in the eyes of their love interest.

body-positive romance

WLW & Lesbian Body-Positive Romance Novels (F/F Fiction Crossword Challenge #25)

This week’s F/F crossword puzzle features a really important topic: body positivity in romance novels. The romance novel industry is especially guilty of abiding by Hollywood’s standard of beauty. It’s rare to find plus-size characters in f/f romance novels (or any romance, for that matter). Most of the main characters are portrayed as slender, with perfectly sized breasts, and if they are a bit chubby, their goal in the story is probably to lose weight. I hope that going forward, there’ll be more body positivity in romance novels and that women of all shapes and sizes will find themselves represented …

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