Guest Rant: Academic Heroines in Romance

NB: Instead of focusing on a particular book or author, Guest Ranter Emerentia wants to discuss the trope of academic, brainy heroines! Also, feel free to recommending so good academic heroines in the comments. 

Emerentia spent her teenage years ignoring the protest “but you’re a girl!” every time she mentioned her interest in physics, and went on to become an astrophysicist anyway. When she doesn’t study black holes, she is passionate about diversity and inclusivity in the science community, and can also frequently be found reading (and nitpicking) romance and science fiction novels.

Dear Romance Author Who Writes About Academics,

I have a bone to pick with you. I like your books. They’re generally fun, witty and entertaining. They make me laugh or swoon and sometimes both. They give me an entertaining few hours.

But then you decide to make your heroine a scientist. By scientist, I mean “walking and talking collection of horrible cliches,” and suddenly I want to throw your book at the nearest wall.

Do I need utter realism in my romance novels? No. But I need to be able to empathize with the characters, and they need to be at least somewhat believable. The caricatures of women in academia I see described in your book embody exactly the stereotypes that, as a female physicist, I fight against every day in my real life. When I see the same stereotypes woefully exaggerated and glorified in books, it makes me feel so unbearably angry and sad and helpless that I can’t keep reading.

Representation in books matters. Books have the ability to shape our thinking and our ability to empathize with others. So here are a bunch of tropes that I can’t stand in a heroine who is also an academic. I’m not saying that none of them exist in real life, or that any of them are intrinsically bad, but the fact that all female academics I’ve seen described in romance novels so far basically exhibited the majority of these characteristics (and others) makes me think there’s something seriously wrong with how society views women in science.

1.) The heroine has four PhDs before she’s 25, and is clearly a “prodigy” or “brainiac.”

First of all, really? It’s either “Oh, I’ve never been good at maths, haha” (that pisses me off, too, but that’s a rant for another day) or “I’m so smart I did four PhDs and didn’t think of anything else, ever.” Nothing in between? Nobody who maybe started out struggling in school, but then ended up discovering a love for, say, chemistry, and persevered?

Here’s something that anyone with a PhD will tell you: intelligence alone is not a great predictor of success in academia. The main ingredients of a PhD are: (1) time, (2) perseverance. This is the thing that gets me with the four-PhDs-before-25 scenario: even in the best-case scenario, in science, a PhD will take between three and seven years (YMMV depending on subject). That’s a long time. And a lot of that can’t be cut short, because experiments take time, field work takes time, data analysis takes time, and writing papers takes time. Most of which is out of the PhD student’s control. Do we really have to settle for the lazy “she’s so super smart she could do it with her eyes closed with a snap of her fingers” method of heroine development?

2.) The heroine has “no time for anything outside of research” because she’s such a prodigy and brainiac that it never occurred to her to do anything else, ever.

Are most academics driven and often work long hours? Sure. “Publish or perish” is real. But the academics I know who are interested in a topic long enough to complete a PhD on it are generally also interested in other subjects – otherwise you wouldn’t see me writing rants about scientists in books! And if you make your character all about her research, how does that ever make for anything more than a one-dimensional stick figure? How can you ever actually add depth to a character when her defining characteristic is “does work”? How about also making a heroine an activist, or someone passionate about rock climbing, or running a cooking club for her friends? Literally anything that would show us she has a life outside of work and adds some dimensions to her character.

3.) The heroine is a virgin, because of course she is.

I have no issues with virgins, but somewhere on a blog, I read this comment about a heroine: ‘She has four PhDs, she has no time for anything outside work, let alone sex’. And that just made me sad. See also my point about “interests outside the lab” above, and yes, one of them could (and maybe should) be sex. I know there’s this idea that academics are all brainiacs who don’t think of anything other than science all day and all night, but seriously, we went through college just like everyone else. And not all of us knew at age four that we were going to cure cancer and henceforth did nothing but study microbiology all day and all night. It won’t diminish your heroine’s love for research or dedication to her work if she goes out on a date once in awhile. Many of my female friends in academia tell me they find dating quite frustrating, because apparently many men find women with PhDs somewhat intimidating. How about including that in a book for a change?

4.) The heroine approaches everything in life, including relationships and sexuality, as an experiment.

There actually is a tendency in particular among physicists to think that because they’re good at problem solving in one area, they’re good at solving problems in others (whether they actually solve problems in those areas or create more is a different question). This largely does not apply to daily life. I don’t approach cooking the way I do data analysis, nor do I set up experiments and control groups to figure out how the washing machine works. Honestly, it’s not nature, so doing experiments is stupid if you can just as easily read the manual or recipe or find a YouTube tutorial online. Your heroine, being super clever and all that, should probably know this.

I’m still waiting for the romance novel where the inevitable brainiac scientist virgin heroine has sex, hates it, and goes “Well, N=1 is not a statistically sound sample, and I’ll have to control for confounding variables, too,” so she goes out and has multiple sex orgies with a hundred different people in different positions. Then, of course, she performs multi-variate regression to figure out if she actually likes sex or not.

5.) The heroine is socially awkward.

The real trope here is “I study the universe/mathematical equations/bacteria/X so I don’t understand people.” There certainly are socially awkward scientists. I don’t at all pretend to be the most suave person on the planet. But that doesn’t mean we’re all incapable of finishing a whole sentence without stammering, or generally act like a grown-ass human being in the company of others. I suppose it’s difficult to write an interesting conversation if “intelligent” and “science!” are the heroine’s only characteristics and interests, so it makes sense in that case to describe her as socially awkward. But let’s call it what it is: a cop-out.

6.) The heroine dresses like a nun, has the worst haircut ever, and never wears make-up.

That’s one I have mixed feelings about. Because there’s a kernel of truth in some of that, but not for the reasons authors seem to think. In books, the heroine is usually too busy thinking about her world-changing science, so she doesn’t have time to think about trivial things like clothes or hair or make-up. I guess that makes for a good Cinderella-type story, and that’s a trope that seems to be universally popular (because women are only worth their looks, <insert eye roll here>). I’m sure there are scientists like that, but I also know a scientist who runs a successful fashion blog aside from stuff like, you know, figuring out how black holes work. I have another scientist friend with whom I trade YouTube links for make-up tutorials.

The sad reality is: appearances matter, and they matter all the more for female academics. I’m a physicist. I have to work quite hard to be taken seriously by men at all, so I’m actually very conscious about all of my appearance in a work context, all the time. If I dress too casually, will my students take me seriously? If I wear a skirt at work, will the visiting professor think I’m the admin and ask me to bring him coffee? If I wear this blouse at a conference, will my expertise in the subject wrote my thesis in be challenged even more often than it usually is? I wish I could just not care and wear whatever I want, but I can’t, not if I want to keep having a career. I feel like there are probably interesting stories and topics to explore here, but that sadly never happens, because that wouldn’t fit into the whole make-over narrative.

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of that trope is that on the one hand, it may seem modern and progressive to write a heroine who is smart and in a stereotypically male profession. But at the same time, any progress is negated by giving her a storyline that literally tells the reader the heroine’s worth depends solely on her looks and ability to attract a man. Yes, because that’s the real reason someone spends their entire twenties in higher education on abysmal pay.

I don’t want this to get any longer than it already is, so I’ll stop adding gripes here. My point is, there are lots of interesting topics and (romantic) conflicts to explore for a heroine who is in academia without making her a walking, taking assembly of tropes. Pop culture hasn’t been very good at this, so you have a real chance here to write something new and different. Please write a book with a heroine I can actually identify with, and who I don’t want to take aside, shake really hard and then spend some serious time mentoring. If you need advice on what academia is like, or what real scientists are like, please talk to us! I for one would be happy to help.

As I said above, representation matters. Representing female academics in this one-dimensional way, as hapless brainiacs with no life experience and no character traits outside of “does research” perpetuates harmful stereotypes, and those of us in academia spend a great deal of time and energy fighting exactly those cliches every day. While I don’t think a romance novel will be the deciding factor in a woman’s decision not to go into academia, it’s yet another piece in the larger puzzle of societal expectations about what professions women choose and how they conduct themselves in these professions. Please allow us to be real human beings in your books, so that for a change, I can enthusiastically recommend them to all my scientist friends!

Comments are Closed

  1. LisaC says:

    I’m going to recommend the All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness. The first book is A Discovery of Witches. Diana Bishop, the heroine, is an American professor & a witch who studies the history of alchemy & is teaching at Oxford when the book starts. The books are a mix of paranormal romance, mystery & history. One of my favorite series ever. The audiobook version is great – I usually listen to this series over reading on paper.

  2. Georgie says:

    Great rant, and all points that need to be made. I tried hard to think of books that didn’t fit the stereotypical mould you hate, and it was tough – which absolutely proves your point!
    I only came up with two – Courtney Milan’s brilliant book “The Countess Conspiracy” (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19507872-the-countess-conspiracy) and Earth Bound by Emma Barry (a “Historical” romance set in the 1960s – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29074345-earth-bound).

  3. As a female physicist and now romance novelist, I can only say “absolutely”.
    All those tropes highlight the author’s misogyny and lack of contact with scientists. Do some research, talk to a few scientists.

  4. Jill says:

    Cathryn Fox’s Pleasure Games series, particularly the first two. The third has a reporter heroine and a scientist hero rather than the scientist hero and heroine pairing like the first two. They are smart and funny.

  5. Tode says:

    Fellow female academic here. I’ve been thinking about writing to SBTB to ask you to commission this rant for a while now. So thank you! And so much yes. I would definitely pay 1st release prices for novels which explore the Intimidated-by-a-girl-with-a-PhD trope but nevertheless achieve a HEA. This one is very real.

  6. Nicole says:

    AAAAAH AGREE SO MUCH. The whole “four phD’s by 25” trope is my least favorite- way to trivialize the work of one phD, there, authors. That, and how unrealistic their science work actually is- most people I know aren’t at R1 schools, but are teaching and working their asses off to get some research in so they can somehow get tenure at smaller schools.

    I do have to say, though- Courtney Milan’s Hold Me ( http://www.courtneymilan.com/holdme.php ) is really good, and actually discusses stuff like personal style and presentation and the sexist assumptions that get made. I know it’s not everyone’s favorite Milan book, but I loved it, because of how it candidly talked about these things.

    But seriously, fuck those tropes. They’re not cute.

  7. Diana says:

    So much YES to this rant!

    I’m not a *scientist* but I am a programmer, and I like science-y stuff. Everything you said, resonates with me, too.

    And I want to add this pet peeve of mine:
    In this male dominated profession, I have some insight on how men think, and I guarantee that if a girl is hot, she can wear a sackcloth, she’d still be noticed. The trope when the nerd girl changes clothes and wears make-up and all of the sudden the guy notices her is all crap.

    On the other hand: I don’t wear make-up because I don’t really care to take the time to put it on and take it off, and I like comfortable clothes (usually I go to work in slacks and a decent t-shirt). I have female co-workers that do wear make up and wear dresses or nicer clothes. And yes, women that take an interest in their appearance will be treated better. It’s a fact of life, and whether we want to (or realize it) or not, we do the same: judge people on their appearance.

  8. Adele Buck says:

    Just finished an ARC of Kate Clayborn’s debut, BEGINNER’S LUCK. Scientist heroine and she is FANTASTIC.

  9. Jill Q. says:

    I have a friend who has a degree in astrophysics, loves fashion, and used to do illegal (shhh!) street racing in high school.
    She also is very southern deb, always knows the right dork to use and I have her on speed dial for etiquette questions.
    I’ve always wanted to make her into character, but I need a story great enough.

  10. Diana says:

    @Jill, I’m sure you meant ‘the right fork to use’, but ‘the right dork to use’ sounded so much more interesting! Like she acts in a particular dorky fashion with some friends, and then she’s a different kind of dork at school, and so on 🙂

  11. cleo says:

    I have a related side-rant about how romancelandia often seems to not understand how higher ed works or what being a professor actually involves, especially tenure-track. Granted, there’s a lot of variation in higher ed in the US, but a lot of romancelandia college professor heroes and heroines read like transplanted high school teachers.

  12. Hannah says:

    So much this. Nothing pulls me out of a story faster* than an accomplished, multiply-degreed professional scientist (or physician, or veterinarian, etc) in their 20s. Then again, an academic earning a living wage by 40 (in academia) is more or less a fantasy anyway, so…

    And it’s not just romance; it’s everywhere – Dana Scully somehow did college, medical school, a residency in pathology, FBI training, and was on the job by 25? Girl, please. I’d say it doesn’t matter but sciency role models for women aren’t thick on the ground to begin with; it would be nice if a few of them were even close to realistic.

    *the only other things that kill a thing for me as quickly are misuses of “lose/loose” and that one time Nora Roberts had a character admire a passing pelican in New England; I was yanked right out of the story with concern for what giant impending hurricane had dragged the poor bird up the coast, and how was he going to get home and oh god the winter will kill him…

  13. Lucy says:

    Another annoyed woman Ph.D.-haver checking in! I suspect that the first Ph.D. proves the heroine is socially awkward; the rest are to demonstrate she’s smart. Anyway! Though I had mixed feelings about the All Souls Trilogy, I second LisaC’s recommendation for their portrayal of academia/academics. I started out being irritated by the “Diana is so smart and has an Ivy League job and gets grants for her research!!” thing, but then there’s a plot twist that kind of explains this.

    One of my favorite novels ever is Gaudy Night which is, among many other things, about women in academia. Seriously, I carry this around with me like a talisman, but it shouldn’t be read before the first two books in the Harriet Vane tetralogy.

    Also, it’s not remotely a romance novel, but I’m currently reading Hope Jahren’s lovely — and, yes, romantic — memoir Lab Girl, about her life and work as a botanist.

  14. Ash says:

    Wow! Talk dirty to me Emerentia!: “Then, of course, she performs multi-variate regression to figure out if she actually likes sex or not.”

    But seriously, I agree that it’s really disheartening to read about female characters who are so cliched, spacey, and sometimes, so self-absorbed because the work they do is “so important”.. In reality, I’ve met sooooo many female academics who are super interesting… one moonlighted as a fitness instructor at the local gym (taught me to cross-country ski & kayak), most very sociable, supportive, warm, lovely to have a drink and get tipsy with…

    As a current phd student, I spend a lot of time on my research for sure, but I also go the opera/theater/ballet, dance around my room, travel, have long discussions about life over coffee with friends and research assistants who are fast becoming friends, hike, read non-academic stuff, cook, play video games…oh and I used to box and take dance classes 😛

    For me, Sherry Thomas’ Luckiest Lady in London’s Louisa is a good example of someone clever, interested, and engaged. She blossomed, but the learning didn’t come easy for her and I felt more connected to her than I have with other more “academic” characters, given that I only got into science after undergrad (but had an awesome fun-filled B-average undergrad :D).

    Others: The Mad Earl’s Bride, Talk Sweetly to Me (both novellas, but I probably have unrealistic standards for scientists in my romance!)…

    Underlying all of this is the flip side: Male scientists in romances can be rakes/players, billionaires, multi-dimensional characters who are not just wrapped up in their “scientific work”, and even if they are, they are the exception.. the norm for female scientist characters is what was wonderfully called out here.. Great stuff!

  15. Steffi says:

    Great rant!

    I work in a research institute in the physics field and all our female academics are pretty regular people … *gasp* I have yet to meet a socially awkward, logic obsessed prodigy that had three PhDs at age 25.

  16. Hannah says:

    @Lucy — YES. Gaudy Night is like the ur-keeper book for me. I re-read it once a year.

  17. Jill Q. says:

    Fork, not dorks! She does love dorks though

  18. kkw says:

    I have zero suggestions, and nothing to add, but I agree so strongly I had to say so.

  19. I’m an undergraduate in STEM and I’ve been surrounded by STEM all of my life, and these hit the nail on the head. I know lots of fellow female scientists who are plenty nerdy – but not socially awkward. Those aren’t interchangeable. And amazingly, women in STEM DO have interests outside of science!

    But I think my least favorite trope of them all is the prodigy – it’s unrealistic, stupid, and anyone with remote knowledge of science would realize how tough just ONE PhD is. Why do they have to be established in their careers by 25? It’s possible to be in grad school AND romance. It’s so frustrating to have a lack of… normal women. It’s okay to not have your experiments work. It’s okay to not get a clinical trial on a drug developed in med school out in 2 years after med school (actual thing I read in a romance novel).

    If they just talked to a scientist once…

    That being said, I second people who rec-ed Courtney Milan. She’s great with that stuff, and so is Penny Reid.

  20. Kate Johnson says:

    You might like Rhoda Baxter’s excellent Doctor January: https://rhodabaxter.com/my-books/doctor-january/ Both hero and heroine are PhD students; the author has a PhD in microbiology (and I think she did a SBTB podcast about scientific heroines a while back?). The heroine is questioning whether she wants to stay in science, for a lot of the reasons outlined above, especially the everyday sexism she encounters.

  21. Lostshadows says:

    @Jill Q. Depending on which definition of dork you’re using, those could be some very interesting etiquette questions. 😉

  22. “I’m still waiting for the romance novel where the inevitable brainiac scientist virgin heroine has sex, hates it, and goes “Well, N=1 is not a statistically sound sample, and I’ll have to control for confounding variables, too,” so she goes out and has multiple sex orgies with a hundred different people in different positions. Then, of course, she performs multi-variate regression to figure out if she actually likes sex or not.”

    PUT THIS BOOK ON MY KINDLE!!!

    Really though, great rant. I live in a university town and I see the reality of sharp, sassy, well-dressed women in the sciences every day. You ladies rock!

  23. Emily C says:

    Love this post, love your rant, and especially love all of the recs. Earth Bound in particular sounds intriguing as I love the mid-century setting and am fascinated by the space program after the release of Hidden Figures.
    Wanted to mention that there is a TV adaptation of A Discovery of Witches being developed and Matthew Goode has been cast as the hero… squee!

  24. Merrian says:

    My biggest bugbear with academic representation in Romancelandia is the often complete failure to grasp and apply research ethics. I think this relates to not understanding how academia works but is also fascinating to me as another way in which consent is mis-understood and applied. If trust is the heart of a romance story this means trust is tramped all over in how the story is plotted and the world built

  25. Make Kay says:

    I also want to give a shout out to Emily Nagoski, PhD’s books (written under pen name Emily Foster) with brilliant examples of scientists, physicians, etc. realistically and sexily portrayed and with outside interests. Fabulous books!!
    And yes, as someone in a STEM field, the pet peeves expressed above are my pet peeves too. Love this rant!

  26. Todd says:

    If she doesn’t have time for – or interest in – sex, where do all the little scientists/academics come from?

  27. Emma L says:

    Credentials: I spent 10 years at Cambridge, UK, getting my undergrad degrees and PhD (Biochemistry and Pathology). Whilst doing that I danced to a high-ish standard, played sport, continued my martial arts training, and generally had fun dating or being single as appropriate *grin*. The stories I could tell about some of the Cambridge drinking societies… I second all your rants.

    I also add this one (though it may be more in films than books, not sure) “super intelligent heroine (according to qualifications) turns into brainless idiot in order to further the plot and be rescued by the hero”. Now I have known some super intelligent people (particularly men), who have little common sense and do stupid things. But generally if you put an intelligent, scientifically trained, woman in a tricky situation then she will keep her cool and be sensible. Do they know how many scientists work with technology and reagents that could kill or seriously hurt them if something goes wrong or the scientist does something wrong?!? And yet the heroine crumbles at the first sign of stress? BAH!

    (Side note, I also hate it in films where they chuck in scientific terms to add “authenticity” and get it completely wrong. e.g. mission impossible II “we are just going to use this scanning electron microscope to look for viral DNA in this agar plate” – WTF!!. It is possible I get a tad irate at such things, and it is equally possible that my husband laughs at me… Just make up words if you don’t know what the science terms mean and you can’t use them properly! Grrr.)

    Thank you all for the book recs. I second “Hold me” by Courtney Milan. Love that book.

  28. Meredith says:

    Yessssss! Communication lecturer, here! (I’m in the US, so that means I teach at an R1 school in a full time, non-tenured position) I busted my bootie to get my Ph.D. by the time I was 30, and all of my friends in grad school had to find interests outside of school out of sheer self defense!
    When I read accurate(ish) descriptions of academia, I always look to see if the author is an academic. They usually are! (I believe the author of A Discovery of Witches is/was a graduate student?)

  29. dinazad says:

    @LisaC – oh, please, NOT the Harkness trilogy. The moment the heroine sees the hero she becomes a silly dishrag who lets him spirit her to his chateau in France, her family’s place, the past, wherever… without ever thinking about her academic curriculum, her family, her students, her friends, her work…. Or even asking what’s going on or why she should forsake everything and let him take her somewhere. She’s not really interested where somewhere or somewhen could be, as long as she gets plenty of tea and looong soaks in the bathtub. Seriously, that is NOT an academic, that’s a waterlogged idiot. Excuse the rant – but that woman gets my dander up!

  30. Molly says:

    I’ve been in academia for over 30 years, and I’ll my own resounding “yes” to the choir. One particular pet peeve for me has always been that a brainy heroine, in academe or out, is almost guaranteed to be a stereotypical “nerd,” as you say, a socially awkward, fashion mess with tunnel vision, and (of course!), a virgin, who just needs the right man to turn her into a beauty/sex kitten. But brainy heroes have a 50-50 chance of either being Sheldon Cooper or Bruce Wayne. Where are the brainy female versions of Bruce?

    Too, I think the “four PhDs by 25” heroine is also driven by the idea that still persists that romance only comes to (and is only interesting to read about in) women under 30.

  31. Meredith says:

    @dinazad: I agree about the books — I didn’t like that she dropped everything for the dude (I wanted more of her research!), but I felt it got a lot of things right before he showed up!

    @Molly: Bruce Wayne or Sheldon Cooper. Yes!

  32. Moose says:

    Okay also FOUR PhDs doesn’t make you smart, it makes you stupid. ONE PhD proves you can do research. If you have that credential, you can shift into a different field with a postdoc or just because you announce you’re going to and find a collaborator. More than one PhD, especially in cognate fields, announces that you’re incapable of setting your own research agenda.

    The exception is if they’re PhDs in literature and chemistry, but everyone goes for like Chemistry and Physics. NO. NO. You would never do this.

  33. Ket says:

    So here’s a question, maybe an idea for a post, or maybe it’s Bern covered before. I’m a mathematician with similar frustrations. I have thought about just writing my own romance novel as a do-it-yourself kind of gal. I know how to write 200+ pages. Writing a good piece of fiction – that’s a different question and I know I don’t know how yet. I hear about writing circles etc where people share their work. But I don’t know how to find a writing group for this kind of thing. Anyone want to point me in the right direction? Or anyone here want to start a STEM ladies romance reading/writing group?

  34. Emerentia says:

    Thanks for the comments and recommendations, y’all. It’s really nice and encouraging to see that I’m not the only one totally frustrated by these tropes. I’ll definitely check out lots of the books you’ve recommended. Thanks so much for those!

    @cleo: I have the same pet peeves about how little authors understand about academia works. And it would be SO EASY to fix (there are lots of us on Twitter, for example). Just ask! Academics love talking about research and/or moan about academia.

    @Emma L: YES! So much! Don’t make your heroine smart, only to then make her act like a brainless idiot. Ugh.

  35. Emerentia says:

    @Ket: I’ve been thinking the same thing. I would *love* to start at STEM ladies reading/writing group! That’s such a great idea!

  36. Sara Rider says:

    @Moose I want to hug this comment.

    I really appreciate this post and al the comments. For anyone interested, Abby Ryan did a great twitter thread recently on writing realistic STEM characters: https://twitter.com/i/moments/890383507326988288

  37. Priscilla says:

    As a Romance reader with a Ph.D. in a science who works in academia – OMG, YES! Totally agree. Thank you for writing this. Occasionally, when my career looks bleak (a grant proposal is rejected or my article gets a terrible review) I toy with throwing in the towel and writing romance with realistic science heroines.

  38. Carolyn says:

    The timelines for completion of degrees in Romancelandia drive me bonkers. I have a Ph.D. in English Literature, and I never met anyone in my field who took fewer than five years to complete the doctorate. As for doing multiple Ph.D.s, what is the motivation? In my experience, doing one will cure you of wanting to do more!

  39. SophieK says:

    Gotta somewhat agree with the author.

    I’m smart. Like genius smart. Like reading by the age of three, reading at college level by the age of eight smart.

    I went through a severe awkward phase and then ended up pretty, sweet and innocent looking, with giant boobs. At 46 I still look like I’m in my twenties, due to a decent skin care routine started in middle school. (Because, hey, if dumb girls can figure out the hair and makeup thing, then I have no excuse, right?)

    It is not men I have to prove myself to. No, they are easy. Having grown up a tomboy, all I have to do is take a little teasing, dish a little back out and they know their place.

    It’s not fellow pretty girls I have to prove myself to either. They have received enough crap that pretty girls are actually some of the nicer people on this planet.

    No, it’s smart women that I have problems with. Women who have bought into the “smart and pretty are mutually exclusive concepts.” (See my earlier point–if you are so damn smart, why can’t you figure out how to maximize your looks?)

    I have experienced derision and condescension from not only book smart women but feminists. And here I must point out that feminist does not equal smart, rational, or logical.

    I have seen this borne out on What Not to Wear many times. The frumpy dumpy smart girl ALWAYS gives voice to this view.

    So let’s not blame the author for speaking the truth here. Let’s not blame the patriarchy either, because this isn’t women competing over men. No, let’s blame the illogical, lazy, bitter women who can’t bother to figure out makeup and hair care and somehow blaming other women.

    I’ve been reading this blog almost since the inception, and you guys bash attractive women a lot. That’s not very smart, but it IS very bitchy.

    Do better please.

  40. Cerulean says:

    Yes! Add me to the list of a PhD academic who loves romance novels. And who hates all of those tropes. The one that bothers me the most is that some of these authors clearly don’t bother to talk to someone in academia, as the heroines are written as just lounging around during the summer, taking all this time they supposedly have doing nothing. There is a distinct lack of understanding of how academia works. I’ve had to educate my friends and family about how I don’t have “summers off” and how only 1/3 of my work is teaching, so if I’m teaching “only” three classes it means I’m still 150% busy. I’m not looking for 100% accuracy, as running those regression analyses doesn’t make for exciting copy 🙂 but a little more realism is greatly appreciated.

    I had an online acquaintance (a dotcomrade) who asked me to beta read her manuscript about a heroine with a master’s degree in anthropology (no mention of what subdiscipline of anthropology) who was leading a major dig. WTF? Completely unrealistic. And she was probably 21 years old on top of that. Gah.

    There are several romance authors who work in academia. Most people know Eloisa James is a tenured professor in English Literature. And Katherine Ashe is a history professor (at Duke University, no less). I know there must be more, plus I’ve heard of several PhD candidates writing romance while in graduate school. Both Eloisa and Katherine write historical romances. I’d love to see a contemporary romance with an academic heroine written by an academic author.

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