F
Genre: Historical: European, Romance
Theme: One Night Stand
Archetype: Cop/Sheriff, Doctor/Nurse/Veterinarian, Spy/Assassin
UPDATE: An updated version of Hello Stranger has been released digitally to all retailers, and updated copies should have appeared in digital libraries. The scene in question described below has been removed entirely from the book.
…
I had been waiting so impatiently for Hello Stranger to come, mostly because the heroine is inspired by the first female British physician, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. And I was so mad that it let me down. Why did it let me down? Because of a brief section I am calling: “The Bullshit” (we’ll get to what that is in a minute). Had it not been for The Bullshit, I would have enjoyed this book immensely, which makes me even more bitter about it.
Dr. Garrett Gibson is the only female physician in England. From her earlier interactions with him in a previous novel, she’s sometimes watched over by Ethan Ransom, a former Scotland Yard Detective turned spy, who pines for Garrett from a distance and wants to protect her. Ethan has a dangerous job, so he doesn’t want to involve Garrett in his life, but he’s also kind of in love with her, so instead he just follows her around like a making sure no one hurts her (even though she’s pretty capable of defending herself). This is Romance Hero Logic at its finest.
When the book opens, Garrett is attacked by a group of men intending to rape her, and Ethan jumps in to help her beat the stuffing out of them. Then he offers to teach her self defense more styled to street fighting versus the formal style of instruction she’s received in the past. She agrees and when they’re sparring he gets a boner and Garrett realizes she wants to have an affair with him.
Garrett can’t conceive of a world where she can have a husband and still be allowed to keep her practice but she also wants to experience sex and romance. So she suggests to Ethan that they engage in an affair and he’s all like “No, my life is way to dangerous to involve you in,” and then They Bone Anyway and Feels are Had.
Add to that a big conspiracy Ethan is struggling to unravel which makes for a good suspense subplot, and Garrett being the only person who can save his life
and that all sounds good right?
It is good. It’s a sexy romance between two working class people (not in a ballroom), with a cool, proficient, badass heroine and a great suspense plotline.
It’s got great writing. Take for example this sentence, describing how Ethan feels about Garrett: “The mere thought of her left him like a stray coal on the hearth.”
So this book should have made me really happy, but instead it pissed me off because of The Bullshit.
The Bullshit, you see, is a brief section wherein Ethan explains that he learned all about smexing from an unnamed woman of color while in India as part of his spy training.
Gently he murmured in the hollow space just behind her earlobe, guessing at what would excite or intrigue her. “In India, before a man marries, he’s taught how to please his wife according to ancient texts on the erotic arts. He learns about embraces, kisses, strokes, and bites that bring fulfillment.”
“Bites?” she asked dazedly.
“Love bites, darlin’. Nothing that would hurt you.” To demonstrate, he bent to her neck and nibbled softly. She made an agitated sound and arched toward him. “Tis said the joining of two who are well-matched is a high union,” he whispered. “And if they come so intoxicated by love as to leave faint marks on the skin, their passion for each other will not be lessened even in one hundred years.”
Garrett’s voice was wobbly. “Did you learn any of those erotic arts?”
His lips curved against her skin. “Aye, but I’m still a novice. I only know one hundred and twenty positions.”
“A hundred and…” She broke off as he let two fingers slide gently between the soft lips of her sex, teasing back and forth. After a convulsive swallow, she managed to say, ” I doubt that’s anatomically possible.”
His lips grazed the edge of her jaw. “You’re the medical expert,” he mocked gently. “Who am I to argue?”
She squirmed as one of his fingertips wiggled through soft curls and came to rest on an acutely sensitive place. “Who taught you?” she managed to ask.
“A woman in Calcutta. I’d never met her before. For the first two nights, there was no physical contact at all. We sat on bamboo mats on the floor and talked.”
“About what?” She stared at him with dilated eyes, her flush deepening as he continued to fondle the silky, intricate shape of her.
“The first night she explained about Kama…a word for desire and longing. But it also refers to the well-being of the soul and senses…the appreciation of beauty, art, nature. The second night we talked about pleasures of the body. She said if a man was a true male, he would use the rule of his will to cherish the woman, and fulfill her so thoroughly she would have no desire left for another.”
On the third night, she had undressed him and pulled his hand to her body, whispering, “Women, being of a tender nature, want tender beginnings.”
So let’s talk about how damaging this passage is.
- It’s basically the definition of Orientalism.
- The woman who Ethan describes has no name. She has one speaking line that exists in his memory. She is not a character, nor a person. She’s a prop. She is intended purely as a tool for his learning the sexytimes. It’s prime Bullshit: dehumanizing and racist.
- The fetishizing of people of color as inherently more sexual than White people is a big fucking problem. It contributes to the rape culture we live in RIGHT NOW in which women of color are even less likely to report or see justice for sexual assault than White women are.
I mean, let’s think about the anonymous woman above. She’s got no name as previously mentioned. She doesn’t really speak. She’s a nameless Indian woman who is full of sexual knowledge who is there to teach sex to the hero. She’s living in a country COLONIZED BY WHITE MEN. She’s not a person. She’s a thing he gets to fuck. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.
And while all racism is Bullshit, this is especially Dangerous Bullshit because it perpetuates that idea that women of color are nameless, identity-less beings that White men get to have sex with because they’re just so sexual in nature. Ethan then takes his sexual knowledge from this woman of color and brings it to his White one-true-love. This woman’s culture and knowledge exist only in service to the White hero.
So why is this woman even there? For sex. She’s just there for sex, not as a person or a character. There’s no focus on her thoughts, her feelings, her voice, her body. That is rape culture targeted at women of color.
So yeah, I would have liked this book immensely, except for the giant turd in the middle of it that made me rage type a thousand words. I look to romance for depictions of women enjoying healthy, fulfilling relationships, not racist stereotyping.
Update 1 March 2018: a note from Lisa Kleypas
In my life, I’ve had a lot to learn AND unlearn. All I can say is, I’m sorry. Thank you for helping me to understand the lack of awareness I had about this issue. Obviously I would never want to hurt anyone by perpetuating an offensive stereotype, especially about women from a culture I respect so tremendously, and I feel terrible about it.
I will make changes to the book immediately, so all future editions will be culturally sensitive and mindful of how every single character is portrayed. Thank you again for making me aware of this and teaching me something I needed to understand, both as an author and as a person.
Sincerely, Lisa
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Thanks!
@LyndaX you say “Given that this novel takes place in Victorian England, it is not an insult, nor an example of racism to show Indians as being more open about sex than the English.”
Actually, It is insulting and it is racist. Several commenters above have explained why, and so did Elyse. You use so many classic derailing techniques it’s almost painful. You are, of course, free to decide that this doesn’t matter *TO YOU*, or that it wouldn’t be a failing grade *FOR YOU*. But it is for Elyse, and it is for many others, including me.
Ok, I am a health care nerd, but here goes. I have a character in a historical romance I’ve been working on who is on her way to being a doctor. If this scene happened – which obviously I would write differently- my character would be disturbed by her lovers bragging about his experiences with prostitution and – my main point – she would be afraid of getting syphillus or whatever was the disease at the time. A woman Doctor character could pause here and say what? Really? And it would make us love her for it.
Honestly, I’d probably have rolled my eyes at the mention of the hero learning sex from an exotic woman in an exotic faraway land, bacause it is and has been so standard for so long, as if you don’t get to learn anything more than the missionary position if you never leave the shores of Europe. But I admit I wouldn’t have gone off like a grenade for it, until it was pointed out to me how far it goes.
So, okay, waiting for a future edition instead of reading it now then, I think.
Thank you for making this point and calling it to Kleypas’s attention. I’m relatively new to the romance community and dove head first into her work only to be severely disappointed and put off by some of her most famous novels, especially where she plays fast and loose with consent. I’m particularly thinking about the library scene in “It Happened One Autumn” where the hero forces himself on a reluctant and DRUNK heroine. Her books have made me question my enjoyment of Euro-centric historic romance and after some soul searching of my own, I’ve found that I just don’t enjoy her particular brand of historic romance.
Thank you for all of the hard work you do and excellent reviews that are helping make the romance fiction community better.
I’m so disappointed that this happened at all but glad to see a quick response and genuine apology from LK! It’s a shame no one at Avon questioned such a problematic passage in the first place. I will be keeping my eyes peeled for a future revised edition.
I got my copy from the library yesterday and I haven’t had a chance to start it yet, but I’m beyond relieved that she apologized and will revise it. I follow authors on social media, and I absolutely adored her “Hillary, you are a romance novel heroine” essay. She got all sorts of crap from anti-Hillary readers on Twitter and was much more gracious than I would have been. Glad to know that she also has the humility to recognize and learn from her mistakes. This certainly shows how you can be “progressive” in one area but have a blind spot in others. It’s an important reminder to us all.
@LyndaX, and the other commentor who seems to be so very happy to tell people to sit down and how they ought to feel? People are calling out problematic stuff that we are tired of seeing. It is 2018. Authors should do better. We should expect Sensitivity, cultural awareness, and research to go in to these stories. We should expect better representation for people of color in these books. We should expect editors to catch this. Anything less is unacceptable. I, too, am very glad of Lisa’s apology, a lot of people could learn some valuable lessons ins in how to apologize and not say ‘so sorry that you feel this way.’ –
I am also a WOC, so I have to say thank you to Elyse for calling BS. I listened and gagged when I first heard that Ethan had learned the fighting style from a guru, then rolled my eyes when he talked about learning sex from the nameless Indian woman.
I was surprised when I learned that Ethan was Irish because now we have an Irish hero who is essentially working for the colonialist who oppress his people. (Also, it always bugs me when people who are raised in a country somehow still retain their parent’s accent. Newsflash: it doesn’t happen. You have the accent of the country where you are raised with at best, a hint of your parent’s language.) So kudos to the people who also commented about this, too.
I also agree that I really wanted Garret to be a badass and not need Ethan to come to the rescue. She has always come across as so competent in the other books. I really wanted her to take no shits.
Thank you to Lisa Kleypas for being open and offering a genuine apology, it makes me like her more. I hope the audio version is also fixed.
Thank you to SBTB for being the site where a trashy book reading feminist can get a good review!
Whew… so glad I just ran through all of the comments. My perspective on the novel, Ms Kleypas and Elyse’s review just keep changing. As they should!
The beauty of living in 2018 is that we are finally having these discussions. I agree with many commenters that I would have glossed right over those passages had I read this, and I’m thrilled that this site exists to call attention to those things for me. I am beyond thrilled that this community can have a respectful conversation about it (with the author’s perspective and apology no less!) without the vitriol that seems so commonplace online lately.
I would venture to say that sensitivity to race, culture, religion and sexuality is constantly evolving for all of us. It’s deeply personal, and I’m so grateful to have read through this discussion to add to my own understanding
When revisions are made, I will seek out smartbitchestrashybooks for their take on the changes, and if that reviewer approves the changes, I will buy the book. Thanks for the initial review and thanks to the author for responding so quickly.
This is kind of why I stopped reading those romances about sheikh being nabbed by feisty white women. As somebody who is Moroccan and lived in the Gulf for 10+ years I found them ignorant and sexist. While multiple wives are a thing there it’s seen under a white imperialistic light in those novels, I could sit and lecture on the legal aspects and logistics of a woman sharing a husband with other women but I honestly don’t want to. The reality of sheikhs is that they are as sexy as you’re average billionaire, many of them are pretty old and have too much money. This trope of Westerners learning about hedonism and sexuality from invading the East is unfortunately still too prevalent. Not to mention when the opposite happens, you have the sheltered Easterner who comes westward and is taught about freedom and civilized living. I just want to smack someone.
@ Joanell
Yes! It always always squicks me out! I also get preoccupied with a lack of adequate birth control. All those rakes, but no illegitimate kids? Right. Sure.
@ ML
My brother speaks with my grandparents’ accent despite having English as his first and only language. They taught him to speak. He’s 30 now and it’s faded but it’s still present enough that people ask what kind of accent he has.
I just saw her at an author panel this week and she was so excited about this book. It’s a shame that no one who read this book prior to publishing noticed anything wrong with this passage.
To be fair, I’m not sure I would have read it as racism but more gross because men can spend time with all kinds of women but ‘gentle ladies’ have to be virtuous and naive.
I’m glad this was raised as an issue. I’ll pay better attention in the future.
@LyndaX – you know what, I agree with you that the trope of the hero having learned all his sex-god powers from an unnamed White woman who is probably a prostitute is also problematic and dehumanising and various other nasty things. It bothers me whenever it comes up. It also leaves me wishing I got to read THAT woman’s story.
BUT.
BUT.
BUT.
This doesn’t mean that it’s not five thousand times worse when the unnamed woman is a WOC, because it IS five thousand times worse, for all of the reasons highlighted by this review and its comments.
I caught up with this conversation as I stepped out of a seminar in my history Ph.D program. Though I’ve come to academia from a backwards path of writing historical romance and blogging about history, being plunged into the actual discipline forces me to take a closer look at not just the past, but how we use/interpret the past–and how this use changes over time.
Many may respond to this convo as an attack on Lisa Kleypas, consider it “PC run amok” or “outrage culture,”…yet when outsiders critique the genre using outdated stereotypes (Fabio, bodice ripper, etc), Romancelandia is quick to chart the reasons behind early romance and boast about its change over time. Why then is critizing the ways in which romance has not changed over time met with resistance?
Why are stereotypes rooted in colonial and Jim Crow imaginings of POC, “non-Western,” and other historically marginalized peoples consistently reified across romance into the 2010s?
What is the personal stake a reader holds in these types of narratives?
It is particularly troubling and interesting that the claims about historical accuracy and research are often used to counteract this conversation. Because historians always look for interventions in the archive, official records, and previous writings on a particular topic. IMO, if an author of historical fiction of any stripe produces work that could have been written in 1995 as just as easily as in 2018–that is shoddy history. Therefore, expectations to do better by the past should hold just as much weight as expectations to do better about women’s agency and sexuality. Otherwise, what is the point of historical romance?
Thank you for bringing that scene up. As a mid-20s WOC, I’m trying to figure out what I should be calling out and whether I’m being too harsh/too picky/missed the point completely. I get really confused about scenes like this and keep doubting my own reactions so thank you for helping me validate myself. [My first reactions was “they couldn’t teach him to fight in England and had to send him to ninja and sex school in India instead? If they took out everything related to India in this story it’d still be the same book, so what was the point?”]
ML @ 48 and Michelle @ 52: I’m a heritage Korean speaker with English as my dominant language (unaccented). When my parents sent me to Korean school as a kid, they taught standard Korean accent and dialect. I ended up with my parents’ southern accent and my K-school standard dialect which my cousins find hilarious. Both my siblings speak standard accent and dialect so I don’t know what happened with me xD
Last Friday I wrapped up a review/comments of an extensive sensitivity guide for editors and authors working with a major NY publishing house. Change is on the way, folks. It’s slow but it’s coming. Attention is being paid.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if after revising this book (in a thoughtful manner) Lisa then used her star power to change things? Imagine if she spoke about her experience at RWA National. If she demanded that editors receive professional development, too, so they could spot such problems. If she demanded sensitivity readers. She has the clout. She would be taken seriously — especially if she said she’d seek another publisher who would help her become more woke.
Thank you so much to Elyse for calling attention to ‘The Bullshit’. It’s 2018, that is unacceptable. I mean, we’re all wading through the toxic sludge of cishetero white supremacist ableist patriarchy and goodness knows I have messed up painfully on occasion. We’re all learning together – if not about racism then about some other issue. I really appreciate Lisa Kleypas’ handling of the situation, and will look forward to the book being revised so I can purchase it.
I think we need to dare to work towards a better world, and I think that part of that is responding to being told we’re being ‘Bullshitty’ by saying ‘thanks for telling me, I’ll fix it’ instead of pearl clutching and fainting fits.
@Michelle and @Jikie
Fair points. My husband’s cousins, with 1 parent raised in Ireland and 1 raised in England by Irish parents, have degrees of accent from almost none to what is your accent? But most of the people I know, including myself, have little to no carry over from their parents if they are raised here. In my admittedly limited experience, the influence tends to be subtle, so that people aren’t sure of the accent or I guess in @Jikie’s experience, comes out wonky – a weird mix of accent and dialect. But It just doesn’t make sense to me in the context of the book. Ethan can and usually speaks with an English accent, but then slips into Irish when she wants to make him more romantic.
Maybe it got under my skin so much because he is working for the English whose treatment of the Irish creates years of civil unrest. The way he talks about the treatment of the Irish makes you think that he would not, in good conscience, work as a British spy, especially if he slips back into the Irish accent that he considers his own. It just makes no sense.
I agree with LyndaX.It did not bother me because the Indian woman was part of his training as a spy, no more no less. I thought she was talked about respectfully. And yes,I’m a sorry excuse for a Caucasian woman, I suppose. What about the training with seducing men?
After reading all of these comments, I’m a bit troubled that this book was rated an “F” solely because of those pages. I’m not trying to take away from any POC’s experience of racism, etc., but an “F”, really? After all of the Harlequin Presents I’ve read about sheikhs, etc., this was a minor infraction in comparison. Yes, I get it that we’re now in 2018, but this knee jerk reaction still bothers me. (I’m a 54-year-old white woman who has been reading romances for over 40 years, for what it’s worth.)
Anon: Without wishing to take away from LK’s extremely good response, do you think she’d have reacted like that, including forcing the publisher to change the text post publication, for a B+ review (‘shame about the racism but never mind’)?
If we want to change the culture we need to start with making racism unacceptable. Not one consideration to be set against a hot hero and fun trope use; unacceptable.
Anon: Without wishing to take away from LK’s extremely good response, do you think she’d have reacted like that, including forcing the publisher to change the text post publication, for a B+ review (‘shame about the racism but never mind’)?
If we want to change the culture we need to start with making racism unacceptable. Not one consideration to be set against a hot hero and fun trope use; unacceptable.
F all the sheikhs too.
@LM: I wish Kleypas had explored more about Ethan’s feelings about working as a British spy as a person with Irish heritage. Despite my 100% pro-American education in the US, I still get, what some people might consider, irrationally angry about Japanese colonization of the Korean peninsula. If I get so worked up over it from a culture removed, why isn’t Ethan worked up over it when he’s living it? There’s so much to unpack there and even hints of it would have given much more depth to Ethan. Unfortunately that’s not the type of novel that Kleypas writes so I’d probably have to find a different author to get that story.
I’ve been thinking about your comment a lot in regards to Ethan switching language/accent and its starting to bother me too. Code-switching can function as a builder of intimacy but I’d also expect a lot more code-mixing from him while in conversation with Garret since he’s comfortable with her if he’s that familiar with the language. Just my opinion. [And now I’m starting to wonder if I’m thinking about this too hard or not hard enough…]
Apologies for the double post.
I’d like to pick up on @LyndaX’s comment: “Given that this novel takes place in Victorian England, it is not an insult, nor an example of racism to show Indians as being more open about sex than the English. Practically the whole world was–outside of England and her influence.”
Suleikha has already spoken about this re India, but can we just take a moment to observe this isn’t true of England either? The Victorians *weren’t* piano-leg covering prudes who never had sex except in the dark. Here is a book by a historian of sex on the subject.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21899408-the-victorian-guide-to-sex
This isn’t to say it wasn’t a grossly patriarchal society, with all that entails, but for example it was widely believed that the female orgasm was necessary for conception, and there were any number of marital guides which told men how to ensure their wives felt sexual pleasure.
This is relevant because while we present majority-white Victorian England as a non-sexual, prudish environment, that both removes agency from Victorian heroines, and pushes writers to exoticise sex in the way LK did here. And that is *not necessary*. Just consider how much fun it would be if a doctor heroine had strong views on the importance of the female orgasm and knew her way around a vibrator, seeing as those were a Victorian quasi medical invention. No need to sexualise other cultures; no need to create some poor sex worker as the hero’s sexual education; bonus historical accuracy.
@Anonymous: You’re “troubled” by a single letter (F) but think the person who wrote that one letter is overreacting to racism being shoved in her face.
“I’m not trying to take away from any POC’s experience of racism, etc.,” “this was a minor infraction in comparison,” “Yes, I get it,” and “knee jerk reaction” are straight from the Handbook for Dismissing, Minimizing, and Gaslighting the Marginalized, as is centering your whiteness as if it’s ever done anything but improve your quality of life. We all know these plays, we know the status quo they’re intended to preserve, and we’re going to do whatever we must to dismantle it, the very least of which is assigning the letter F to The Bullshit when we see it.
@KJ Charles Entirely concur about the blanket characterisation of ‘the Victorian woman’ and the idea that they were sexless, prudish, ignorant. But the Victorian vibrator thing is increasingly being considered to be historically very dubious: ; Fern Riddell, whose book you cite, has also critiqued the myths about Victorian doctors and their alleged treatment of hysteria. What would be entirely historically plausible would be involvement in promoting birth control. Alice Vickery, a working-class woman who was one of the first generation of women after Garrett Anderson to qualify in medicine, lived in a free union with Charles Robert Drysdale, and they were both founders of the Malthusian League, the first organisation in the UK devoted to advocating contraception. Campaigned on a wide spectrum of other causes to do with sexual morality and women’s rights.
I’m also bothered by the ‘only female physician’ ‘there can be only one’ trope: because Garrett, later Garrett Anderson, had the example of Elizabeth Blackwell, who qualified in USA but practised in UK, and was entered on the Medical Register before they changed the rules to exclude non-UK degrees, to encourage her, and put a lot of effort into promoting the entry of other women into the profession. But there’s a whole lot there that just doesn’t mesh with what is actually known about the first couple of generations of British medical women. (But I am a massive pedant on this topic.)
Monique, when you’re talking to a stranger, how long does it take before you introduce yourself? A few minutes? Less?
Can you imagine spending three days with someone and not asking their name? How could that be respectful?
Please don’t try to brush this aside. We all need to do better.
I feel that giving this book an F is a major overreaction.
The following comment is for anyone and everyone who has or would like to stop by and tell us that Elyse’s F-grade is “uncalled for,” an “overreaction,” or in some way a problem for you. Please read very closely.
I do not care.
This is a review site. Reviews are reader opinions. This review represents Elyse’s opinion of this book.
The scene was racist, it was extremely unacceptable, and it was for her a deal breaker in terms of her enjoyment of the book.
What you think of the grade is irrelevant and your comments that it’s somehow unacceptable are ludicrous. This is her opinion, her rubric, and her review.
If it makes you that uncomfortable to see racism called out in this way and to see a book penalized for it, your time would be much better served sitting with that feeling and asking yourself why you feel that discomfort.
As an Indian-American woman, I don’t have much to add here that Suleikha Snyder and others haven’t already written with more eloquence than I’m capable. But I am forever grateful for Elyse and SBSarah for being sensitive to this kind of issue, for the SB community that allows this discourse, for the power of the site and the community that can affect actual change, and for Lisa Kleypas for hearing the criticism and acting on it. That’s how to be an ally.
This discussion thread is very discourse heavy.
I don’t know how to jump in since I’m not skilled with extended discussion. But I do appreciate being able to discuss things and learn second-hand.
I don’t know how to learn about stereotypes from just absorbing discussion. I didn’t know what a dog whistle is now until I’ve this comment chain.
May I have some book recommendations about stereotypes? Spoonfeeding me is okay. I’m comparable to a beginner in American politics discussion.
Bravo Lynda X. You are absolutely correct. I have nothing to add: you’ve said it all for me.
This isn’t my sub-area, but speaking as a linguist:
Generally, you end up with the dialect/accent prominent in your speech community, particularly that of your peers. So for instance, your parents might speak perfect Puerto Rican Spanish, but you were raised in NYC, so you speak NYC Spanish. Since your first environment is probably your parents and family, though, you might end up with some obvious influence from your parents’ Puerto Rican Spanish — so you’d speak NYC Spanish, but people might be able to guess your parents were Puerto Rican rather than Mexican.
You can end up with some odd exceptions that are highly context-specific, and sometimes personality-driven — like, maybe you personally identify really strongly as a Puerto Rican, but your younger sister is adamantly American; it’s very likely that your Spanish would sound more like your parents’ than hers would. Or, if you’re an isolated kid without a relevant peer group, and your grandparents taught you to speak, you may very well end up with an accent that shows a lot of influence from theirs.
I haven’t read this one, so I’m not sure how realistic the depiction of Ethan’s situation is, but if anyone has the details I’d be happy to weigh in.
I believe Ethan’s training allowed him to speak convincingly with many different accents. When he spoke in an Irish accent it wasn’t entirely clear if that was his native accent, or something he was able to “turn up” to fit the situation. He’s described as being able to move fluidly through different groups in order to infiltrate them
@Nicholette (and also Lynda X, and Jill X, and anyone else who is interested) I haven’t read it because it’s not released yet, but there’s a book that’s coming out in September called “How to Be Less Stupid About Race” that might address some of what you’re interested in. It’s by Crystal Fleming who is a sociologist and a professor at SUNY Stonybrook. She’s also angry and extremely irreverent and funny. Check out her twitter feed (some of the longer threads) for a sense of her writing.
In terms of older classics on the topic, you might want to read at least part of Edward Said’s monumental book “Orientalism” which was actually the book that gave the word its current meaning. (Before 1977, when Said’s work came out, it was a word used to describe a field of study in academia in the US and Europe. Said’s point was that the field of study had some SERIOUS issues, and his critique was trenchant enough that the field sheepishly changed its name, though not perhaps its practices.) “Orientalism” is a scholarly work, and it’s pretty long and heavy going, especially if you’re not familiar with the work of the 19th C authors Said cites (he was really a scholar of literature), but I think it is still interesting.
Angela Davis’ “Women, Race, and Class” is another early classic. It’s basically a collection of essays, from the early 1980s. Some have aged better than others, but absolutely do not miss “Racism in the Woman Suffrage Movement” and “Rape, Racism, and the Myth of the Black Rapist” which trace some very uncomfortable truths about the way feminism developed in the US.
If you’re a European, you might also be interested in Crystal Fleming’s first book, “Resurrecting Slavery: Racial Legacies and White Supremacy in France.” In terms of Europeans writing about similar topics (whom I know mostly from newspaper columns, blogs, and twitter), I would recommend Afua Hirsch (in Britain), Quinsy Gario (in the Netherlands), Rokhaya Diallo (in France), and Antumi Toasije (in Spain).
Sorry most of these sources (except the Said book) are Afro-Centric. That’s my field of research, and I know less about Asia. But I’m sure that if you do some googling you can find many authors from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh who write about these issues in English, both in relation to the United Kingdom and the US.
Given the interest this discussion has generated, perhaps we ought to have a rec league of non-fiction sources dealing with race and racism in both the past and present for other people who want to have a reading list?
Anyone claiming that English people just didn’t like sex and Orientalism is perfectly legitimate thing to be included in any romance novel published in 2018 might be interested in this really great thread by Courtney Milan: https://twitter.com/courtneymilan/status/969352251251789824
@LyndaX and sundry
Would Ethan getting his sexual education from a nameless white sex worker be problematic? Absolutely. She’s a woman, not a prop. But in a book full of other white women, getting their own stories and motivations, she wouldn’t be the de facto representative for all white ladies. But there’s only one woman of color in the book, so the fact that she’s a lazy stereotype is doubly insulting. The same with the “guru” he trained with.
@MoniqueD Ethan wasn’t learning how to sex for his job, he was in India to learn how to fight.
Frankly, I’m about halfway through this and I’m finding it to be sort of lazy in general. There’s so much potential to turn well-used tropes on their respective heads but not much follow through. And I’m finding Ethan to be inconsistent.
But even if Lisa Kleypas’ apology is primarily motivated by money (which is a extremely cynical and uncharitable view IMO), it is still really commendable. I’ll continue buying her books, because the net result is less racism.
@Rebecca I would like to have a rec league for non-fiction. I’m not a sociology expert like Crystal Fleming, but I’m used to picking up culture through learning in online forums. I’ve picked up an interest in superheroes lore through a cool guy in a fandom forum with an edited signature.
A goodreads reading list would be nice as a plan B option; If SB Sarah and team get busy and they can’t make a rec league.