#catherine m. roach

[respectingromance]

Goddamn, I love my job.

Romancing the Academic by Catherine M. Roach

[katiedidn-t]

Romance fiction is porn, but it's a particular type of women-oriented feminist porn with a telos, or narrative goal. Romance fiction is teleological, building and driving toward this climax of the narrative. This narrative goal, I argue, is the happily-ever-after moment best encapsulated in the hero's declaration of love. In other words, the moment where one most sees romantic fiction as pornography is, paradoxically, not in the sex scenes themselves... Instead, one sees romantic fiction as porn in the happily-ever-after ending, especially in that key moment of climax when the hero declares his love.

Catherine M. Roach (Happily Ever After, pg 101)

[katiedidn-t]

A feminist is a woman (or person of any gender) who dares in writing to explore thoughts, desires, and fantasies that run contrary to traditional descriptions of how a woman is supposed to be.

Catherine M. Roach (Happily Ever After, pg 99)

[katiedidn-t]

If feminist porn is first and foremost about highlighting women's sexual pleasure and about the politics of producing that pleasure... then no cultural production better matches this mandate than romantic fiction... Central to romance fiction, as to feminist porn, is the depiction not simply of sexual activity but of women's sexual satisfaction

Catherine M. Roach (Happily Ever After, pg 94)