Iām not sure at what point you picked up this little Harlequin gay sports romance and confused it for āRacial Traumaā by Kenneth V. Hardy, the DSM-5, āThe Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Loveā by bell hooks, or āBorn on a Blue Dayā by Daniel Tammet, but boy, you have opinions about it.
1. As someone who has worked in advocacy environments for two decades, it has been deeply woven into me by equity denied advocates that we will never be perfect in our advocacy, but thatās okay. Write with love for the character when you write someone whose experience is not your own (ie ALL CHARACTERS). Rachel has been pretty clear about her love for both characters, despite expressing frustration when her writing wasnāt what she envisioned or how she wanted it to come out. Thatās life and thatās writing. No writer is perfect, but if we tell them not to include diverse characters and experiences in their writing, how does that exposure begin?
2. In the genre she is writing in, she brings attention, she doesnāt teach. It is not her job in this novel to explore the complexities of an equity denied athlete in hockey, except for the ways it consciously and directly impacts the plot. It is to the reader to bring your knowledge or to expand their knowledge to connect with the text. That is literary analysis. This isnāt non-fiction, it isnāt dramatic fiction, it is romance. The requisites for a Harlequin romance tend to follow specific tropes and be light enough for people to pick up and put down without too much brain power.
My point is, by all means, wish it was more. Take the work, research, and write a dissertation on the real impacts of race on athletes, on neurodivergence in identity, on the impacts of childhood trauma on mental health, on neurodivergent, anxiety, and disordered eating. But donāt turn around and shit all over a writer because she didnāt use her vehicle, that was designed for something else, for not doing it. If you donāt like it, put it down. There is no need to lambaste and tear down someone because you dislike what they created, OR because you feel like you know their creations better than they do.
Stop being mad at Rachel Reid for running sprints because you decided she should be running a marathon.
jbbartram-illu
jacobvanloon
dailybridgerton
romaincrisis
ellievsbear
janainaart
