Writing Wednesday: Romance versus Rape. No where near the same thing.

Social media has been blowing up this week with the verdict in the Stanford Rape Case. With the stupid letter the rapist's father wrote asking for leniency for his son's "20 minutes of action." With the heart-wrenching letter the victim read out loud at the sentencing hearing. And with the recall petition for the stupid judge who sentenced the rapist to 6 months in county lockup because he'd suffered enough.

Really?

There is so much wrong with this situation, it's hard to know where to start, and likely you've all read all the same articles online that I have. I cried reading the young woman's letter. I loved the reporter/blogger who "fixed" the letter that the rapist's father wrote and posted it on Twitter. Emma Gray of the Huffington Post wrote a great article on the whole thing which you can find and read HERE.

The best meme I've seen so far is the one with two speech bubbles and no other images. (I'm a writer, I like things like that.) The one on the left says, "She got drunk. What did she expect?"The bubble on the right answers. Wait, I just found it again.

As a writer of romance novels, I have concerns about the content we're putting out there. The "Fifty Shades Effect" as it were where the media hoopla scratches the surface of an entire genre, giving people a skewed impression. How many people never read romance because they THINK it's trashy? How many people out there make assumptions about what's inside "those books" with the steamy covers?

As a reader of romance, I know that ROMANCE and RAPE are two different things entirely. Pretty much mutually exclusive. Even in erotica (real erotica, not the Fifty Shades knockoffs) there is mutual consent. No one is passed out and dragged behind a dumpster.

ROMANCE is about RELATIONSHIPS.

ROMANCE is about FINDING LOVE AND ACCEPTANCE.

ROMANCE is NOT about RAPE.