Representation matters.
This isn't a wild take in any way. We as romance readers should - at minimum - demand that our beloved genre has a diverse cast of characters that is as varied as its readers. There are phenomenal authors who push this conversation constantly - Alyssa Cole, Jennifer Ashley, Beverly Jenkins, Courtney Milan and Sarah MacLean - just to name a few.
But recently I have been thinking about when that representation… goes wrong or is handled in a way that as a reader - I felt was actually worse than homogenous casting in a book. There are a few ways I think about this. And please know - that this is me processing and listening and thinking but in no way is meant as a manifesto that I Know All or am not continuing to look for and strive for more representative reading materials. A lot of this also came out of one highly anticipated book from this spring and I am still not okay with how it went down.
1. Representation for Quotas Sake.
As authors and readers demand a more diverse cast in their romance novels some authors do it naturally. The world is varied and so are their books. Other authors are less natural at this and their novels check boxes of Minorities (™) whether it is racial, neurodivergent or body type - to name a few. They have a character and then ADD in the representation versus building a character that is authentic in their representative nature.
2. Representation that is like a Wikipedia article.
This has happened to me a few times. Sometimes authors want to be diverse but the way they do it comes across as though they read one wikipedia article about a minority group and just unload it all in the beginning and call it good. This I find wildly irritating - there are SO MANY RESOURCES. Please - please listen and educate yourself so that you can inspire that in your readers. As readers - I feel like we need to call this out. I especially am uncomfortable when this happens with ND characters or characters who have a disability - please don’t just have a Character that has The Thing. Make it authentic or leave it alone.
3. Representation to stay relevant but doesn’t feel genuine.
Some authors have been around a while and have a rabid fanbase. (We all get that way - it happens.) But the genre has moved on and there are some really questionable old romances out there - we don't need to add to it. So when we have some more traditional - old school? - authors still providing us with entertainment sometimes they try to stay relevant without being actively representative. They seem to be more about saving face or about their book sales being compared to their more diverse competitors. I read a whole series of books with an incredibly basic and homogenous cast - the last book had every representation at once… and none of them handled well.
4. BONUS: Representation that doesn’t stretch to the cover models.
This may seem wildly shallow - albeit - it kind of is. But there are models of every size, shape, color and background - please use them on your cover and don’t have a stick thin model for your book about a curvy heroine. It does not help the cause.
Places to find representation done well:
Look out for #ownvoices or check this (not comprehensive) list on Goodreads.
Follow and talk to other bookworms and bookstagrammers that promote representation in what they read and review.
Follow authors who support each other in pushing the genre.
Review books that do this well. It helps support authors and costs readers nothing.
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