Why do the bestselling male-to-female (MTF) transgender romance books seem to be the only romance genre that has little or nothing to do with actual romance?
“Romance” being two people meeting, liking each other, falling in love and eventually going off to live happily ever after, after first having some huge problem to overcome, of course.
We wondered about the lack of romance as well.
After all, isn’t this the way romance novels are supposed to work? Yet the romance in bestselling MTF fiction categories doesn’t seem to work this way.
If you look at the top selling books in the Amazon Kindle transgender romance genre, very few the stories there have anything to with a traditional romance.
Looking at the story descriptions of the books in this genre, the first thing you notice is the trans character in the books doesn’t seem very happy about being trans. Being trans here is not an “and” to their life, it seems to be their whole existence.
The main reason people transition in these books – or present female if you will – is due to the trans character being forced, blackmailed, reluctant, overpowered, or they woke up in a female body one morning with no explanation.
The last example, the “body swap” genre, is highly popular. Sometimes men are transitioned into wolves or other animals, and some men even become trans because of aliens (!) (And how come that phenomenon is never addressed on the show Ancient Aliens?)
Worse still, some books in the Amazon Transgender Romance bestseller category have nothing to do with trans at all, but are pure “man on man” (M/M) sex. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, to quote Jerry Seinfield.
I’m not complaining – hey, to each their own – but is anyone writing transgender books that actually have true romance in them?
No forced, reluctant, blackmailed, or their body swapped out?
How about a trans character who loves being trans?
Well good news! There are books like that. And this is exactly why the Matriarchy Press was founded: to showcase actual, real-life romances with trans characters who like being trans.
Yes, I understand that a lot of people have shame issues when dealing with their transgender selves, and they need to feel forced or reluctant or blackmailed as a way to cope with these feelings.
Perhaps being forced or dominated or humiliated takes away the responsibility for needing to be trans. Maybe, hopefully, some day in the not-to-distant future being trans will be accepted and normal, and we can be rid of these shame issues once and for all.
But if the trans community first can’t be healthy about trans, how will the non-trans community hope to understand us?
The good news is there is a lot of great new research now that gives us a lot more of reasons people are trans, and maybe now trans can be dealt with in a much healthier way. We know so much more now.
Gay people came out of the closet pretty rapidly starting in the 1970s, and even still, fifty years on, being gay is still a problem in some parts of society, but the gay community has made a lot more progress being “out” than the trans community.
Part of their success was losing the shame. They replaced “shame” with “pride” and it worked. It’s time for the trans community to catch up.
But how does the trans community “catch up?”
One way to start is by showing loving relationships – romances – involving trans and the people who love them. This would be a great way to start. This would be healthy for trans and non-trans people alike.
After all, everyone can relate to romance, but not everyone can relate to being dominated, forced, blackmailed, sissified, humiliated, or having their body swapped with an alien.
But that’s okay, if you still need that, there’s room for everyone.
If you like, check out the Love Wore a Tux series from MatriarchyPress.com . It’s all about a trans romance between two loving and healthy people. Two people, one of whom happens to be trans.
And, if you like the series, please Tweet, Facebook, or whatever about it.
The sooner we start bringing true romance to trans fiction, the more trans will be understood.
That’s the plan. Thoughts?