Yet when I go to Jazzercise class, I listen to the words of the pop songs, and ALWAYS the subject is love/romance/heartache...so, if all pop songs and indeed, most music has love/romance as the subject matter, why are authors held to different standards?
Is it for the same reason as teachers make less pay than plumbers, because one is male-dominated, and the other usually employs women? So since women read and write romance, it is less respected? But men who write "romance" for men, just call it "porn" or else have stories that involve the men doing great things, and just incidentally having hot sex scenes with all available women...think "Oh, James..." yeah, I'm talking to you, Bond-man!
So I say, let's demand our equal respect! I guess I need to be more proud and assertive about it, and say, "I write contemporary romance novels". No need to follow that up with, "Yeah, they're like cotton candy--sweet and insubstantial, but habit-forming." In fact, I'd LOVE it if some readers decided my books are habit-forming! Writing them has become a real pleasure for me. I hope reading them is good for you! ;-D