This essay was inspired by Carrie’s review of Roomies, a book I enjoyed despite it prompting a rant from Carrie. Her review is a great read, in part because it caused me to examine my own reading, specifically how much my own tastes have been affected or changed by current political and social issues.
I have been doing a lot of self examination, especially after a recent shopping trip to a bookstore.
I wandered the shelves, looking at all the different books, and I realized that romantic suspense has been shut out from my reading interests.
And I realized why: I want no part of the “guy with a gun” pictured on the covers.
Reading trends and personal tastes are in a constant state of flux; as the world changes, so do our opinions on tropes. In Carrie’s case, a modern marriage of convenience story that included an immigration workaround for White people negated her enjoyment of the romance. When people of color are consistently targeted by ICE agents, I can understand why the specifics of that plot would leave a reader with a very bad taste in their mouth.
And that’s exactly how I feel lately when I see a man with a gun, poised and at the ready, on a romance cover.
I don’t envision being safe from danger or feeling protected.
I envision every newscast from every shooting that’s happened recently – one after another.
It makes me angry.
It makes me feel frightened.
It makes me want to cry.
Those feelings have nothing to do with a reading experience I actually want.
I grew up around guns. I’d say my relationship with them is well-informed, coming from a place of experience and education. I received a BB gun as a Christmas present at the age of seven. I can clean them, load them, and store them safely. I competed in marksmanship competitions while in high school. Firearms are a large part of my family identity and were also a source of bonding. My grandfather collected them and made his own ammo. My brother inherited part of my grandfather’s substantial collection.
But while I respect guns and proper gun ownership, I can’t ignore that there is a widespread problem with how guns are sold, modified, and used. In the wake of the Parkland shooting, which occurred in the county where I was born, and with the mass shootings that have already happened and the others that are likely to come, the last thing I want is more guns.
I don’t want more guns in my community.
I don’t want more guns in schools.
And after a recent book shopping trip, I realized: I don’t want them on my romances.
I’ve been trying to figure out why a gun-toting cover model bothers me so much and I think it comes down to how threatening and upsetting I find the image now, and how much guns are tied to White masculinity, and how much that really grosses me out.
I am a White woman and come from a White family. My brother has his concealed weapons permit and is in the military. The notion that he may be pulled over and shot by a police officer for having a gun in his possession or even just the idea of a weapon in his possession has never crossed my mind. I have that privilege. Many, many others do not, because a White man with a gun is seen as either a protector or, in the wake of a shooting, as pitiable, as someone with mental health issues who was failed by the system. For anyone of color, that is not the case. They get a whole different set of labels – racist ones like “terrorist,” “thug,” etc.
For the sake of this argument, I’m going to be referring to romantic suspense, as this is a trend I see most often for the subgenre, though I do realize it’s not mutually exclusive. Other romances and thrillers use this imagery as well.
In a typical genre cover involving a firearm, the hero is typically the one in the protector position on the cover. He’s front and center, with or without a heroine clutching his biceps. He’s tasked with guarding his love interest and is often some sort of security expert, or works as a bodyguard, is in the military, or a member of law enforcement. While the hero may be trained in various protection tactics like negotiation or martial arts, there is almost always a gun involved. The weaponry is a shorthand symbol for power, authority, and, let’s be real, sexual prowess as well. I immediately think of the joke, “Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?” Guns are extremely phallic.
Seeing a man on the cover with a gun, to me, used to be code for, “look how strong I am. I can protect you, keep you safe, and will probably pop a boner from all the danger we’re in.” The cover was effective shorthand representation of what I’ll find inside the book: action, suspense, and most likely that dude and his gun.
However, my reaction to that cover imagery has changed drastically, in part because my awareness of reality interferes with my ability to accept the image as standard marketing. If I were a romance heroine in a book or out on a date with an actual person, knowing that a man I just met has a weapon on them would make me extremely nervous. (Sarah asked while editing this essay with me if I’d still feel unsafe if a member of law enforcement had the gun. And yes, I would.)
But I know I’m privileged to have that reaction. People from marginalized communities don’t have the luxury of feeling safe in the presence of law enforcement, or even merely nervous.
Then there’s the fact that right now, a gun is relatively easy to acquire. Because so many people who should not have access, such as domestic abusers, manage to get them through proper channels with little interference, I no longer equate gun ownership with being a law-abiding member of society. The idea of a man with a gun doesn’t make me feel safe. It makes me feel afraid.
There’s also the issue of race. Most men on the cover of romantic suspense novels, especially those that are wielding a handgun, are White. We’ve seen what happens to men of color when they are even suspected of having a weapon. White men with weapons are “vigilantes” and “isolated loners.” If they commit a crime, they’re “mentally ill.” But men of color are treated as suspects or terrorists by default, facing incarceration or murder by the same individuals who are supposed to protect communities.
I’m gun exhausted. I’m sick of seeing mass shootings in the news. I’m sick of zero changes being made at the expense of our safety. I’m sick of having these debates every three months or three weeks. And I don’t want romance to be a reminder of the cycle of gun violence in which we are permanently stuck.
I’m not averse to stories about the effects of gun violence, to be clear. I recently enjoyed The Ones Who Got Away by Roni Loren which is a romance between adults who were victims of gun violence as teens. The series follows several of the mass shooting survivors and, so far, the emotions and lingering trauma felt terribly real. I’m reading the second book now, though I had to set it aside after the Parkland shooting. The reality of gun violence overshadowed my ability to read the story. I’ll undoubtedly pick it back up, but I’m also dreading it, because how long until another mass shooting in real life means I’ll have to pause again?
For those who enjoy or write in the genre, keep doing your thing. You should read what you like, but for me, I sense that my aversion to pistol-packing heroes gracing romance covers is only going to worsen as America’s gun problem persists. I react with repulsion and disgust at the image of a White guy with a handgun on a cover of a romance now. It’s not effective marketing. It’s a reminder of the immediate and increasing threat that guns pose, and how little is being done to change that. So when I see that image, I look elsewhere.
What about you? How do these covers make you feel?
I like my military(especially SEAL) romances as much as the next person, but in real life I want nothing to do with guns. Don’t wanna own one, don’t wanna see one, don’t even wanna be in a house that has a gun in it.
You are right to be nervous about people in law enforcement with guns, the domestic abuse/murder/suicide statistics are pretty alarming.
This is really interesting. As an Australian who finds the gun culture of the US strange and unsettling, I’ve never been attracted to those romances featuring the guy with a gun on the cover. I’ve read a few because I’ve met the author on-line, but in general, I would never pick up one of those books. I am a cosy mystery fan from the Golden Age of Christie, Sayers and Marsh. Almost always non US writers. I have read and enjoyed Perry Mason and Nero Wolfe, but they aren’t as gun-centric as the suspense and intrigue titles with those covers.
I’m repulsed by men with guns, and it doesn’t matter a bit why they have them. I used to work in proximity to cops and prison guards, and they’re a flirty bunch. Going to work afraid for your life if you don’t rebuff a man with a gun with enough “it’s not you, it’s me, I’m absolutely awful and you’re better off without me, I’m gross, I’d ruin your life” is bad enough without getting into an alone situation with one. I can count on one hand the times I feared for my safety because of mental patients and inmates, but it was an everyday occurrence with the “authorities” who were ostensibly there to ensure safety. “I don’t need you to like me because I can kill you anytime I want” as a mating strategy really doesn’t work out well for women.
Earlier this week, I was writing about laser tag at a kid’s birthday party. For the sake of verisimilitude, I looked up some videos. The maniacal glee on the participants’ faces as they charged into a room clutching realistic-looking guns to shoot their friends made me physically ill, so I’m not even referencing “play” guns now. I can’t in good conscience have my good guys participating in “whee bang bang fun.”
For those who might want to take more action, may I put in a plug for Moms Demand Action? They’ve been doing a great job raising awareness of gun safety and pressuring for common sense measures like taking guns away from domestic abusers and people who make violent threats.
“I’m gun exhausted.” Preach, sister. So sick of the guns.
Thank you for this.
[Slight trigger warning.] I went through a trauamatic event when I was 11, where I had to talk a relative out of using a gun on adult family members. (It’s pretty much why to this day I prefer to be up during the night and sleep during day hours.) So I make ZERO apologies when I say I greatly dislike the damn things and wish they’d never been invented.
I was also a volunteer teacher’s aide at the time of Columbine. I don’t think I could go back to working in a school again between what I went through and after all that’s happened in U.S. schools since then.
That said, I don’t think I’ve ever bought a book with guns on the cover? I don’t mind if there’s a gun in a story or in a show/movie, but if the premise revolves around a body count and very little on plot or character development, it gets a big ol’ nope from me.
Thank you for such a thoughtful essay. You helped me name the revulsion I’ve been feeling more and more lately to several things I used to be able to enjoy less critically.
This. I realized recently this is exactly why my tastes in television have changed. I used to be a faithful watcher of NCIS, Criminal Minds, Hawaii Five-O, etc., but lately I find myself far more likely to watch British/Canadian/Australian crime/mystery shows. Of course there are all kinds of reasons to watch Miss Fisher, but I am also choosing Midsomer Murders, Shetland, the Murdoch Mysteries, the Inspector Lynley mysteries, Father Brown, etc. And guns and gun violence are at the very core of my choices. With American shows, even ostensibly cerebral ones like Criminal Minds, there will always be a gun battle. Always. The good guys will always go after the bad guys with guns ready and often blazing. But with the British/Canadian/Australian shows, gun violence by the police/good guys is rare. Yes, the bad guys may still use guns, although still not nearly as much as even the good guys do in American television, but I think I saw Tom Barnaby shoot a gun once (to return fire while protecting someone) in 13 seasons of Midsomer Murders! Mysteries are solved, innocents are saved, and bad guys are caught through brains and persistence, rather than by guns “solving the problem.” So refreshing. So reassuring. So sane.
This is very interesting. I think the current climate in the US is affecting a lot of what I read, in sometimes unexpected ways. I haven’t been avoiding the “guns on covers” books, but I read “The Thing About Love” recently by Julie James, and I was struck by the portrayal of the FBI. (This book has a high heeled shoe destroying a lollipop heart on the cover, no gun.) I was struck by how honorably the FBI hero and heroine were portrayed. I have read Julie James in the past, FBI agents are a common career for characters, but I think this is the first time it struck me as, wow, the FBI are the good guys. I think before the last presidential election I would not have even had that thought pop into my head, because of course the FBI are the good guys. I totally understand not wanting to buy books with guns on the covers. I can’t remember the author, but I know a romance came out recently about the survivors of a school shooting, and I thought “nope”, I can’t read that right now. I read romance to escape, and there are some topics that just won’t do it for me. It makes me wonder if this is happening to enough people that sales trends are changing.
@Herberta: Thank you so much for mentioning Moms Demand Action!
Yes. This. Thanks for articulating it so well.
Thank you for putting into words a subtle little feeling I’ve not been able to pinpoint. I used to love (LOVE!) CSI, NCIS etc, but these days I just … can’t. The high drama, the angst, the characters I come to care about in high risk situations every week – and guns being a huge source of that risk. I don’t want to deal with that in my fiction.
Also, must agree with Fiona M: as an Australian, I just don’t ‘get’ how tightly the US nation identity is tied up with gun culture. We don’t hear about every mass shooting over there, but there’s enough.
I love this site because while we do embrace the trashy books, we really bring the SMART! Great essay, Amanda! Great comments, everyone.
BTW, love me some Midsomomer Murders as well as original Caroline Graham novels they are based on
This summarizes so well what I’ve been feeling about so many of the contemporary romances out there and why I can’t read them, especially the subgenres of military romance and romantic suspense. I used to love the Suzanne Brockmann series but I can’t read military romances anymore. Even stories where the hero is a veteran suffering from PTSD are just all too real and while I’m so glad their stories are getting told and there is an audience for them, I just can’t. I’m more likely to read non-fiction or literary fiction tackling these subjects instead.
And on the larger issue of outside politics affecting what I’m reading, I just started reading Penny Reid’s Winston Bros. and loved the first few chapters and then suddenly there is a casual mention of skinheads who the hero basically tolerates being around for the sole purpose of irresponsible dirt racing? Really? Not to mention a casual slam of Catholics in another chapter. Everything else about the hero and heroine I found charming and I think I may still finish it just to get to Cletus’s book which people seem to love. But I’m having serious reservations about this series that I haven’t seen raised anywhere else and I’m surprised.
I was a victim of a violent crime, and I’m pretty pro-2A. I can understand why others would have a problem with it though. I really appreciated reading this perspective.
Amanda and I have been working on this essay for awhile, and we kept delaying publication because of yet another shooting, which is a terrible irony in itself. I’m gratified by the conversation we’re having. I know I have had the same reaction to seeing men posed on the cover of books with handguns, but Amanda articulated it much better than I could have.
A few have mentioned Moms Demand Action, and you can find them at https://momsdemandaction.org/. I am a member of that group, as well as Everytown for Gun Safety. Both send text alerts, and Everytown also does text alerts regarding specific legislation in my state. They also do supported interaction via text message as well. I was astonished at how easy it was.
For example, in November of last year, I received an alert about a bill before a Maryland House Committee and was asked if I would call my rep to oppose it. All I had to do was reply with the word “CALL.” I was connected to a recorded message that explained the bill, its name and number, and what message I should communicate to the staffer who answered the phone. It was repeated so that I could remember it easily, and then I was connected to my state representative’s office. All of this happened while I was walking to the grocery store.
So while I looked for a missing ingredient for dinner (hate that), I talked to a staff person, explained what I was calling about, and where I was within that rep’s constituency. I was done before I found the thing I needed (dried lentils, I think). It was so incredibly easy, and even though it was one phone call, I felt like I’d done something specific and helpful. You can sign up at Everytown for Gun Control.
I don’t have a text message service to address handguns on book covers, however. But I am relieved that I’m not alone in finding that marketing imagery increasingly offputting and threatening.
This is incredibly eloquent. Thank you so much.
I think the background and environment plays a huge part in here. I’m from Argentina and while we have crime like any others (some of them quite violent) there is no such gun culture, not like is portrayed in the US. the majority of the population doesn’t own guns nor we feel inclined to do so. We have no history of frequent mass shootings, not like you read or see for the US. I think I never thought about the covers being triggered or I haven’t been triggered because they still feel like *fiction* to me. I can read the book as an entertaining plot, put down the book and walk into real life without feeling anything else about it.
I can see why it doesn’t for people that live in a society that is currently immersed in it.
I’m urban Canadian and I’ve never actually seen an unholstered gun. I have only seen holstered guns on police officers.
Rural relatives have mentioned their locked up shotgun that is used for scaring wildlife.
I think my sister’s ex-husband who lives way up north hunts.
I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t understand how a culture can be so focussed on having guns. It’s weird.
I don’t feel less free for not having easy access to guns, just safer.
It’s fantastic to have a place to read content like this.
In the past couple of years, anti-racism activism has become more and more of a focus for me. And as that has happened, I have found myself rejecting certain romance novels because of racial stereotypes, white femininity overdose, and a type of white male that I now see as a faithful vector of white supremacy.
And so it is that I am grateful that there are writers out there, often women of color, who are writing romances that are grounded in a reality that only lends credibility and substance to the romance conventions I love so much.
Having read this I had to go back and scroll through my kindle titles & see what sort of covers the romantic suspense books I own have. Only 2 had a guy with a gun. The rest had a man or a couple embracing in ‘moody lighting’ which I suppose signals danger somehow. One series did use crosshairs as the letter O in the series title. Whether I subconsciously chose them because there was no gun I can’t say. Kit Rocha’s Gideon’s Riders books have man with gun but they are multi-racial men and the women are armed as well but it’s a dystopian romantic suspense so the author can envision whatever she wants for that world. I can’t say whether it’s make or break for me at this point because I haven’t come across a book I want with a gun on it except Kit Rochas and like I said, dystopian is a special category for me.
Not a big fan of guns personally though I have a gun safe full of them thanks to my husband & father. We have target shooting days with friends & I’m fine with that & a decent shot with my .38 S&W pistol but I’d be happy if we melted them all down for scrap. DH used to open carry, back in the early 2000s until I sat him down & explained how frightening & intimidating that is for people. “Sure *you* are ‘good guy with a gun’ (though seriously what ‘good guy’ needs to display a gun for all to see, sounds more like low self-esteem guy to me) I know you are that way but those people in McDonald’s don’t know that. Most of them are thinking “what sane person does that?” and are looking for exits in case today is the day you decide to loose your shit” He was offended but he saw the point & stopped doing it. White male gun culture is out of hand.
I’m a teacher and a mother as well as a reader. You can imagine my opinion as a teacher who has to herd seven year olds into a dark corner and keep them silent for intruder drills. You can imagine my feelings when I take my child to a play date and say, “Where do you keep your guns? Are they loaded? Are they locked up?” because in my rural area it’s not DO YOU HAVE GUNS in your home? It’s WHERE.
I’m gun exhausted and I’m ignorance and posturing exhausted by the constant refrain I hear of someone ‘trying to take away our guns so only criminals have them’. Nope. Nope for guns on covers, in books, in my house, in my life.
I’m from the South Side of Chicago, where guns are a daily problem thanks in large part to nonexistent rules and regs in surrounding states; I have hunters in the family, and I’ve lost loved ones to guns (not in Chicago); I work with the public and worry every day about the possibility of, you know, a guy with a gun. I have also been harassed and assaulted, like most all women, and am the daughter of a survivor of violent crime—though some of the violent crimes committed against her were by, you know, the very sorts of guys on these covers: cops and military personnel.
There is, to me, nothing romantic about a guy with a gun, especially not on the cover of a romance novel. It’s scary, it’s affirming a certain type of patriarchy and masculinity that, I think, we can all see is deadly. And it’s honestly scary AF.
So, tl;dr: I really appreciate this piece. Thank you for continuing to have hard conversations around our favorite fun genre.
Couldn’t agree more. I understand making a protagonist a person who carries a gun in the course of their work. A lot of people do. There are, after all, TWELVE branches of armed personnel just at the Federal level, never mind all the state, county, and city law enforcement personnel. And a suspense plot makes more sense if one of the protagonists has a legitimate expertise with suspenseful – code for “violent” – shit. I’ve even had a police officer as a protagonist in my own work.
But I don’t want to see a gun. I don’t want them near me. I don’t think they’re sexy, and if I were on a date with a guy and found out he was carrying a gun, I would be looking for the nearest exit and telling lies about an appointment I forgot. I think the people who most want to carry guns are nearly always the people who absolutely should not be allowed to.
OMG – Yes this… I just don’t think this is a great image to have on a cover anymore. And in the library I work at – titles with these covers do not go out as often as books with similar story lines.
Nicely put essay and I grew up in a gun owner’s household too.
Thanks for putting this out there.
I loved this essay.
I used to *love* crime shows a few years ago, but lately I’ve found that they make me anxious, so I’ve quit watching them. The same with true crime podcasts, I *can’t* listen to them. I’ve realized that I’m more likely to see someone like me (I’m queer and disabled) as the victim, rather than the hero, and a character (usually the victim) being transgender is more likely to be a “shocking” plot twist, rather than treated with respect.
I’ve been wanting to read more mysteries, since I love trying to figure it out along with the heroes. But I’m also so, so sick of violence that I go right back to my favorite cheesy paranormal romances. I’d love to find mysteries that aren’t super violent, or that revolve more around art heists (just to give an example) rather than murder that keeps being described in more and more graphic detail.
I’m perturbed by the emphasis on gender in the post. I respect that Amanda’s triggers (no pun) are her own and that she is responding to real-world tragedies where men are statistically more likely to be the perpetrators of gun violence, but I also remember (mainly because there’s an ad for the sequel currently running in the sidebar) that two months ago she loved the cover for The Devil’s Revolver, which prominently features a woman brandishing a gun. I can’t see women who wield guns as “empowered” while men who do so are “toxic.”
I don’t see a “white man with a gun” problem, but a cultural problem. When guns and violence are glamorized in movies by the same movie stars/directors who advocate complete gun control while being protected by armed bodyguards, there is something wrong. Same with fictional television where violence is glamorized and the news where we are avidly given all the details about the shooter but not the victims. And don’t get me started on those video games who provide more glamorization of violence and blood. And to tie back to Amanda’s thought-provoking essay, it’s all this, plus book covers with a buff man and a gun where you know someone is going to die or at least be pushed around by an alphahole. I simply don’t buy products or entertainment that glamorize violence. Kids don’t receive violent games from me as gifts and are not permitted to download them in my home. If no one buys a product, it goes away. I admit there are a couple of romantic suspense writers I help keep in business, but their heroes use their minds first to try to solve problems. Little time or money is spent on violent entertainment by this American consumer. I am just a drop in an ocean in what has been a sea-change over my adulthood.
Thank you for this essay. It articulates feelings that I have been having. I’m a military baby and I spent several years of my childhood on American military bases in Europe. I would walk to school while armed soldiers walked to and from their jobs. I, a child of color, had the privilege of being an officer’s daughter so soldiers at gates would nod politely. But, they had guns and I was always apprehensive around them. I knew the soldiers were there to keep people on the base safe (my family was stationed close to the border between East and West Germany), but I never felt safe. However, returning home didn’t make me feel safer.
Guns on romance book covers never entice me to read them. They don’t make me think the hero is there to protect the heroine. They promote fear and the myth that guns make the man a better man.
For me it’s a strange thing. I don’t like books with modern “guys with guns” on the cover and never have. Mostly because they’re portrayed as boringly macho guys I just don’t care to know. I’m married to a vet, and the Soldier aspect (when they are soldiers) isn’t romantic to me, it’s just depressing. I know how much War hurts real people.
But on the other hand, give me other media (tv, movies, comics) with space pirates with blasters strapped to their thighs or western gunslingers or some heightened reality characters holding weaponry and I have no problems. (This even works if it’s “modern” but sort of an altered version of modern. Justified, for instance, worked for me just fine.). I don’t know if this makes me a hypocrite or not.
Thanks for once again proving that romance encompasses all the issues, not just love. I’m squeamish and have never liked this craze for guns nor graphic violence in my romance escapism reading, so I am right on board with this rant. But thanks @Deborah, too, for mentioning that a woman packing heat isn’t empowered, she is getting ready to violently kill someone. I can’t believe that some US citizens have sunk so low that all too often a gun is the norm for problem solving. Just stop it. Stop supporting the gun culture! Yeah, I know, we all get to read what we want. But I am glad we also get to speak out when it makes us uncomfortable. Also, thank you for helping us challenge ourselves to be the best readers we can be. It has made a difference in how and what I read.
I completely understand this reaction. Since I read everything on Kindle, I rarely notice the cover, but I’m pretty sure a gun — especially an explicitly sexualized gun — would be a turn-off. (In contrast to Amanda, I grew up in a gun-free environment — I don’t think I’ve ever even held one — and to my knowledge none of my liberal urbanite friends owns a gun.) I also rarely read romantic suspense — feeling tense and apprehensive is not why I read romances.
I read something a while ago about the proliferation of billionaire romances, and how a trope that had always been around became ubiquitous and exaggerated in the aftermath of the economic crash. Not only do readers want the hero to be financially secure (the traditional doctor/lawyer) but to be epitome of financial success and the security that represents. This got me thinking about the proliferation of romances featuring heroes who are not just military, but special forces (rangers, green berets, and of course, SEALS). I wonder if that’s a similar phenomenon triggered by 9/11. It seems as if readers don’t just want a hero who can keep them physically safe, but one who is the next thing to a superhero. Or maybe we should blame it all on Suzanne Brockmann. 😉
Thank you for this essay. Guns are fetishized in the US, and it needs to stop.
So much truth in this essay and in the comments.
“I don’t want romance to be a reminder of the cycle of gun violence in which we are permanently stuck.” God, I hope it isn’t permanent.
@Molly, have you tried Harrow yet? Aussie crime drama, just as much character arc and stuff as procedural crime-of-the-week; it’s got dark stuff, being a crime drama, but not a ton with guns and the lead fella never uses a gun. (The cops aren’t default perfect, either. The most villainous character is even a cop, …) I absolutely loved it (esp from the second ep on.)
My favorite weekly-crime shows these days are Elementary, Flashpoint, and Rush (also Aussie.) The last two have finished (and sadly Rush didn’t get a proper ending) but they’re all worth finding. Elementary very rarely involves guns, and the leads almost never even fight anyone, let alone fire a gun. The whole basic plot of Flashpoint (Canadian) was trying to find ways NOT to shoot the “bad guys” and when someone (anyone!) did get shot it was a HUGE deal. (And the show had a really sweet, wonderful romance between two team members!) Rush was similar, tho the characters were a bit less romanticized/perfect…but I loved that, too. Flashpoint and Rush were both shows with “guys/girls with guns” but they just didn’t feel at all like the stuff we have such a glut of in the US.
And IMO it’s crazy to me that Elementary is on the same network as the shows being called out the most in this thread, the NCISes, H50, Criminal Minds, etc.. I had to drop (as best I can; they still come on in my home when I don’t have the remote or am insanely bored) all those shows long before the our modern gun horror truly got going, due to the horrifyingly casual way the deaths of random “baddies” (and some victims, tbh) are treated. I honestly cannot recall if it was H50 or NCIS:LA but I absolutely lost it one time when the characters freakin CRACKED JOKES while LITERALLY standing over the body of a guy one of them had just shot dead. So much of those shows are just written like violent video games, where shooting someone hardly matters unless they’re deemed “important” by the plot somehow. It’s completely mad to me and I grew up on all kinds of violent films and tv shows, fictional guns and bodies all over.
For me now, it’s all pretty much down to whether it’s handled seriously and the characters are realistic and that kind of thing, rather than a binary guns v. no guns. But that’s me, and I certainly want more (in every medium) options for gun-free stories.
Romantic suspense used to be catnip to me, however I haven’t read this genre for ages – I think it’s more I’m over the Alpha Hero. Toxic masculinity. This is a very interesting essay and brings home a lot of my thoughts, even though I’m Australian and we have no real gun culture here – with social media, we see everything, feel everything, fear everything. We have right wing factions here trying to loosen our tight gun laws via politics, so the fear of ‘one day’ is always present, especially as a mother.
In books, I lean mostly to books that make me happy/smile/laugh, or when I want something meaty, I turn to historical romance/fantasy/pnr that has a strong female lead and I find a man of wit and strong character far sexier than a set of abs on a cover or the promise of a strong man to protect the little woman – all the eye rolls! I’m definitely more Team Peta the cake decorator from The Hunger Games, while Catniss saved the world.
While reading this I was just struck by how grateful I am to have found this community. The reviews always lead me to books I like but the commentary and essays like this are what keep me coming back. And then the comments section is always full of interesting perspectives (and not the saddening drama that so many other comment sections provide). So I just wanted to say thanks to the bitches 🙂
I really resonate with this essay. I’m a teacher in Florida- just a few hours north of Parkland- and one of my students was shot and killed this year by another of my students. It’s insane. Even a decade ago I remember trying to explain to my then-boyfriend (now husband) that I want no part of guns in any way whatsoever, and having to defend that choice. And I really don’t! I didn’t realize it til now but I always do avoid the covers with white men toting guns.
I don’t always think about these prejudices and where they come from when it comes to reading, so it’s always good to see someone reflecting on it and reminding me that our romance books don’t exist in a vacuum.
@Mary, thank you for sharing what must still be a raw and difficult topic for you. I’m sending you all the cross-country teacher love I can muster.
Thanks, Amanda, for articulating your point of view with such obvious thought and compassion while not shying away from stating your opinion. (And thanks to the community for responding in kind.)
@Crysta- thank you! Unfortunately as teachers we encounter these tragedies the more years we work. ❤️❤️
As an Australian my day to day is so gun free that romances with guns aren’t really real.
I do find myself more sensitive to cop characters and their behaviour now thanks to awareness of deaths in custody (and shootings in the US) and the way police are assumed to have done the right thing until proof is found.
What used to seem harmless doesn’t always