Suspicious-Shock-934 t1_j295ot8 wrote on December 30, 2022 at 3:34 PM

Not just books, forced romance in all media. I think it's a ham fisted attempt by corporations to include 'something for the ladies'. Sex is similar, but for shock value, or the teen and perv (pretty synonymous IMO) demographic.

Think of the last piece of media you consumed that did NOT have sex or romance somehow. Barring maybe kid centric content, and that'd a maybe, it's always there.

I think both CAN be useful plot devices or character expressions, but not in everything.

Lopeyface t1_j29dlwz wrote on December 30, 2022 at 4:28 PM

Well, you're not wrong. There's a lot of ham-fisted romance everywhere and I think it appeals not just to women.

Then again, real-life people are constantly looking for sex and romance in their real lives, so perhaps it's not that unrealistic.

Dazzling-Ad4701 t1_j29wht7 wrote on December 30, 2022 at 6:27 PM

I think it is unrealistic. How many hundreds of men/ women do you work or interact with over the course of a year? And not a shred of sex/romance in most of them. In real life it's so much less of a thing.

Alaira314 t1_j2arz20 wrote on December 30, 2022 at 9:50 PM

I've got a list of books that don't contain annoying romantic sideplots! Sometimes romance is mentioned, or side characters are involved in things, but the main character isn't allosexualy exploding all over everything like in most books. 😂 It's compiled from personal experience(occasionally I completely mentally melt down and demand suggestions for books that contain no romance from my friends/colleagues), and this is what I've got from my reading tracker and TBR(starred books are ones that were suggested but I haven't read, so I can't vouch for them personally):

Elatsoe, by Darcy Little Badger
Comfort Me With Apples, by Catherynne Valente
The Girl from the Well, by Rin Chupeco
Remote Control, by Nnedi Okorafor
From Below, by Darcy Coates
The Many Deaths of Laila Starr, by Ram V
And Then I Woke Up, by Malcolm Devlin
What Moves the Dead, by T. Kingfisher
Nuclear Family, by Joseph Han (I recall sex/romance is mentioned with regard to PoV characters, but they're not interested)
Gideon the Ninth, by Tasmin Muir*
Madam, by Phoebe Wynne*

My apologies if I've somehow forgotten a romantic subplot in one of these. To the best of my recollection, they're safe! Also, the fact that my tracker contains 68 books(not to mention the TBR list, which is unnumbered) and I still only have 11 items on this list, despite actively seeking out this type of material, just goes to show how uncommon these books actually are.

EDIT: Just finished Rust in the Root by Justina Ireland, and I can also add that to this list! The main character has a very slight crush on a secondary character, but it doesn't amount to anything and barely even exists.