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Why Everyone Is Fighting About Romantasy [early access-updated link] (Patreon)

Published:
2026-01-13 22:00:10
Edited:
2026-01-14 20:32:32
Imported:
2026-11
Tags:

Content

Romantasy is a genre at the intersection of multiple conversations about female authorship, female readership, and the politics of literacy and taste. When various things are true at the same time, especially within topics of gender and pop culture, there is a messy nuance to play in that I can’t resist.

Note: Working on getting captions done for the YT release. If any issues are noted they will be corrected by final release xx thank you

Sources:

“Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution” by Sara Marcus

"Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves" by Sophie Gilbert

https://msmagazine.com/2013/04/09/margaret-thatcher-the-glass-ceiling-shatterer-who-thought-feminism-was-poison/

https://www.them.us/story/spice-girls-mel-b-scary-spice-sexuality-five-year-relationship-woman

https://www.boredpanda.com/book-author-calls-women-reading-romantasy-books-dumb/

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26321148

https://www.jstor.org/stable/3650426

https://www.jstor.org/stable/43308461

https://www.jstor.org/stable/41388858

https://bookriot.com/sexist-problem-in-fantasy/

https://fantasy-hive.co.uk/2021/07/biggest-challenges-faced-by-female-indie-fantasy-authors-guest-post/

https://www.tfrohock.com/blog/2016/3/15/women-write-romance

Files

Romantasy, Girl Power & A Third Thing

Patreon only

Comments

Michaeline Collins

I dont think I have clicked on so fast to a video lol

Michaeline Collins

Wonderful video thank you for the insight and aaaaall the recommendations. My TBR is huge now.

Jovan

I too have had to accept that I'm an elitist simply because people hate thinking. I just want to be a blerd!

Merween

Amazing video thank you so much!! I do love to see more rigor put into what even qualifies as feminism back in the conversation, without putting down self expression. A line very well thread (also THANK YOU for your take on that DoorDash story, I felt like I was going slightly insane reading reactions to it and you're the first I heard pushing back on this). Small point: I think there are some freezes at different moments of the video? I don't know if it's on my end, but I noticed them at 22:57, and 29:22, and I think it happened earlier in the video too but I couldn't find it. Anyway, thank you so much for that high quality discussion as always!

VillainInGlasses

As someone who is removed from the romantasy tiktok discourse, this was so enlightening! i look forward to rewatching it. also looking forward your Black Sails interview. That show is one of my all time faves.

Sarah H

Being a heterosexual woman is not a tragedy, being sexually attracted to men does not mean you are obligated to adhere to patriarchal gender roles, and it does not get in the way in female friendship. Unfortunately, popular culture tries to tell people differently.

Ilana Galpert

When I was 12, I read Protector of the Small by Tamora Pierce, and it hooked me on fantasy for life

Ilana Galpert

The outlander book series has the most racist depiction of a character I have ever read. It's in the later books. The character is a chinese man. It's vile.

Pterranodon

Yes! I'm so damn tired of the whole "Why is romantasy getting so unfairly scrutinized? It's b/c it's for women!" Like, yes, a lot of the ire can be misogynistic in nature but also... I go here. I read almost exclusively read queer / female authors. A lot of which are fantasies with romance! And I will ABSOLUTELY point out that a lot of the most touted books in the romantasy genre have reductive, poorly-written plots that are in service to even more poorly-written chemistry. EDIT: Absolutely gagged that I knew EXACTLY which creator you were talking about when you mentioned "What Fury Brings". You CANNOT have a society with an ethos that is so bio-essentialist at its core, yet have that same matriarchal society be like "but don't worry, we're TOTALLY trans-friendly".

Karin

What frustrates me is that I SHOULD love romantasy, I love fantasy and to this day my 36 years old ass has read more shojo manga than any other manga genre/demographic and yetttttt, I can't stand romantasy. And I blame publishers. I don't like the rethoric that if someone doesn't like romantasy mean they just hate what is made for womee! Trust me I keep the same energy for men, if there's no Dresden Files haters it means I'm dead. I also believe that a lot (not all) of romantasy readers are people of started reading again after years of not reading or just started reading for fun, and they haven't developed a more critical lens yet, as condenscending as it sounds. I won't pretend that I wouldnt enjoy these books if I hadn't kept on reading all these years.

Pterranodon

I spent the majority of my teen years OBSESSED with the Dresden Files. I finally hit the end of the backlog and it was a year until the new book came out. Tried rereading them in preparation and WHEEEW. Absolutely rancid and obnoxious through and through

Karin

I read the first six, it gets ever so slightly less bad, only because more male characters are introduced, meaning less female characters to over sexualise 🫠

Bobarisu

I cheered at the house of night slander LOL

Pterranodon

Stopped at Book 13. Dresden Files... The first series for me that gave meaning to the term "tit-first introductions". Also, introducing a CHILD in Book 1 to eventually go down the "sexy minor who is in also love with Harry" route was certainly... A Choice by Butcher

NotaManga

I never imagine book's characters, I just don't see anything while I read. But because of that I was never disappointed in any casting decisions.