Here we go boys and girls (okay, mostly girls) - I am stressing over writing, revising and tweeting (hehehe)! Yes, to tweet or not to tweet - that is the question! What I mean is in today's world of marketing, marketing, marketing and the new social media outlets that can make you - the author - more marketable - I am paralyzed by the prospect of what to tweet...Of course, I read the sage columns that say - tweet about informative tidbits and keep it light - in the initial stretch - before you hit them with the whammy! Buy my freaking book!
Oh...or is that what I read about blogging...mmmm...
Enough said on that point....
Onto the info 'bite' for today - let's talk sexy black men and why they aren't dominating the covers of more romance novels, and gracing the screen - TV, film, you name it - with those beautiful black bodies and smooth baritones! What keeps my brothers off the air and out of print?! And no - this isn't me complaining about the Hollywood elite who don't treat a brother fair.
I think it's because we 'older' women who love men of color (black, brown, white, or whatever) tend to stay way too mum about what we like. The teeny-bobbers do not hesitate to shout out their excitement over the Backstreet Boy types and the cutie pies on The CW, and the hotness that is Wolverine (By the way, I will take Hugh Jackman anytime, any day of the week, month, year or decade, ladies!).
So what am I saying here? It's time to get loud, girls. If you like it, let the world know! I will gladly point the way to the pretty, the strong, the chiseled, the beautiful men who are out there and the inspiration for my heroes (be they vampire, shape-shifter or your common run-of-the-mill humanoid!
And so to get the ball rolling - I'm posting one of my recently found favorite photos of a truly fine looking black man...
In the photo above, you'll find Brain White - Actor and Renaissance Man...enjoy.
Denny
MMm..I love black men too. I think the lack of black men on romance novels are two-fold: 1) Historically, Fabio started it, so the buff white guy with long flowing hair has been the ideal for a long time; black or white females included.
ReplyDelete2) In reality ( I know it's fiction but still..) I think it's hard to look at a good-looking black brother and think that he's the 'savior' type that dominate romance novels. Even though it's all fiction, at some point our brains are like...this is bs. What makes Mills & Boon and Harlequin legacies, is somehow they have injected a fairytale romance that has...even if it's the smallest, drop off your forehead, amount of reality...that this COULD happen that it is possible. So, women fall for it. and want more of that.
Although you don't say this exactly - you did send my brain into a tailspin (okay, not so hard to do:) filled with questions about the black man as the romantic hero - be it on the cover of a romance novel, in the pages of said novel, on the TV screen or in the movies. The take-away without doing a lot of research is that black men can be sexy, but romantic hero? Not unless you're Will Smith and the character's arc is rooted in comedy.
ReplyDeleteAlso, romance novels aren't only glitz and fluff these days. Fabio is long gone. Sure, the classic 'sweet romances' are still being written and read - but there is also a new age of readers of romance and writers of romance who love their stories gritty, sexier, more urban and more 'realistic' than the genre used to be known for. And why? Women aren't living in the dark ages. You are right - to capture the attention of readers (like herself, and I'm just speculating here) the story has to have more meat on its bones than boy meets girl, boy romances girl and whoops, the dog dies, they cry together and get married, you know? Anyway, I'm going to have to post this in the blog - it's too long:)...I'm also going to keep coming back to this - you've articulated something I've been toying with for a while - and that's a good thing:)!