Smart Women Read Smut

The romance genre has a bad rap. But is it just another way to hate on something women love?

BY: Giovanna Cicalese

With the growth of BookTok, a lot of readers have begun delving into saucy romance novels or back into smutty fanfiction. However, many readers, especially women, have historically been shamed for reading these types of novels because they are not considered to be “real” works of literature.

However, defining “real literature” is completely subjective.

“I feel like a lot of people assume that any book that was written like a 100 years ago is intellectual, which I disagree with,” said Alli Nikles, founder of the Temple University Book Club. “I don’t really like older literature or classic literature depending on who the author is. I’m not really a fan of that.”

For many readers, reading acts as a hobby or escape from daily life.

“I think that reading is, especially for me, more of a past time, and I’m not really doing it to learn,” said Nikles. “I’m just doing it to enjoy the characters and the plot and just get lost in a different reality. I don’t think it matters what you’re reading. I’m always changing what genre I want to read, depending on my mood.” feelings. It’s not just all about sexual pleasure.”

However, finding a novel unrealistic has seemingly led to a complete dismissal of the romance genre.

“I think that lots of people want to condemn romance as a lesser form of literature, like it doesn’t have as much weight as classic literature,” Judice said. “And I feel like that’s very unfortunate, because there’re so many amazing deep stories that are told in romance genre books that a lot of the world are missing out on because they believe that romance as a genre doesn’t have any weight for society, any nuance to be discussed.”

While some people do think that romance novels may not hold any societal weight, they have proven to be widely successful. In recent years, around 29 million readers have delved into the romance genre, garnering about $1.44 billion dollars annually.

Alongside literary success, the smut and romance genre has prevailed with popular adaptations lately, such as Fifty Shades of Grey, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, and The Love Hypothesis (the former two being major movie and television franchises, the latter soon to become a movie).

Judging the genres or types of books someone wants to read is shallow—an example of quite literally judging a book by its cover.

Jessen Judice, co-host of the podcast “Smart Women Read Romance,” has made a career out of discussing romance novels with her aunt, a romance writer. She finds that one of the main criticisms leveled at the romance genre is accusations that it is too unrealistic, that the characters or relationships are too perfect.

“A lot of criticism that I’ve heard is that romance is unrealistic— that the heroes in particular might be unrealistic—and I think that that’s a little bit sad,” said Judice. “Because mainly the things that we’re drawn to in romance are partners that really care about our main character and really want to understand them and care about

Despite these commercial successes, romance and smut readers are often no stranger to the occasional off-handed comment about their reading choices.

“I remember one of my family members saying, ‘Oh, you’re such a smart girl. I can’t believe that’s what you read,’” said Judice. “And I was just like, why would reading this type of story make me less intelligent than if I read something that was more outwardly acceptable?”

At the end of the day, many people, like Judice, who enjoy romance and smut have full careers and are intelligent people. The notion that reading romance or smut makes someone less intelligent is small-minded and completely discredits all the success of the romance genre and those who enjoy it.