In an essay for Catapult, writer and editor Kayleigh Hughes tackles the complex reality of the romance novel industry, wherein content can be simultaneously triggering, objectifying, empowering, and brave:
As time went on I felt more like a party trick and a robot. At the end of the workday, I wasn’t able to clear my mind of demeaning language and abusive situations from the stories, and when I slept I had fitful dreams, mostly about my mom dying and horny men turning into wolves and women with bruises.
It is a confusing life to live, and one that is worth paying attention to as mainstream media maintains its genre-wide ignorance and disapproval of the form.
