154 Popular Culture Review
Romance fiction is internationally popular . No doubt , whatever any feminist epistemology purports , women who read romance fiction will go on reading it for a long time to come . There are actually worse fantasies out in the world of fiction than romance . As Daphne Clair writes , “ A smoking . 45 and six corpses at his feet is a male fantasy . A woman will settle for one live hero as hers . And if she places a dainty foot upon his neck , it is only to invite him to kiss it ” ( Clair 1992 , 71 ). IRF must be given similar latitude in presenting stories for the women who read them .
Wayne State University Matthew Kapell and Suzanne Becker
Notes
While both authors read multiple IRF works , including all those listed in the appendix , we both benefited greatly from suggestions and insights of multiple readers of such works , all of whom , it is certain , were far more knowledgeable in this topic than we . 2 The vast majority of those readers who spoke with us did so only on the condition that their names not be used . All refused to be recorded . This particular reader told Kapell , “ Why should I trust you ? You ’ re a liberal-humanist academic , aren ’ t you ?”
Works Cited Almquist , Jane . “ In My Opinion : A Clergy women ’ s View of Inspirational Romance .”
Romance Writer ’ s Review . August 1999 .
Claire , Daphne . “ Sweet Subversions .” Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women : Romance Writers on the Appeal of the Romance . Jayne Ann Krentz , ed . Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press , 1992 .
Ellis , Kate . “ Gimmie Shelter : Feminism , Fantasy , and Women ’ s Popular Fiction .” American Media and Mass Culture : Left Perspectives . Donald Lazere , ed . Berkeley : University of California Press , 1987 .
Firestone , Shulamith . “ The Culture of Romance .” Feminist Frameworks : Alternative Theoretical Accounts of the Relations between Women and Men . Alison M . Jaggar and Paula S . Rothenberg , eds . New York : McGraw-Hill , 1993 . Hall , Libby . “ ROMstat 1999 ”. Romance Writers of America Report , June 2000 . Harrison , Nick . “ Spinning Spiritual Tales that Sell .” Publisher ’ s Weekly . August 17 ,
1998 . Hensley , Dennis E . “ Janette Oke : 15 Million Sold , and Counting .” Writer ’ s Digest .
September , 1998 .
Foucault , Michel . “ Review : Enqu te sur la Sexual it ’ e .” Aesthetics , Method , and Epistemology : Essential works of Foucault 1954-1984 , Vol 2 . James D . Faubion , ed . New York : The New Press , 1994 .
Modleski , Tania . Loving with a Vengeance : Mass-Produced Fantasies for Women .
Hamden , CT : Archon Books , 1982 . Oke , Janet . 1979 . Love Comes Softly . Minneapolis , MN : Bethany House Publishers . Rabine , Leslie W . “ Romance in the Age of Electronics : Harlequin Enterprises .” Feminist
Studies . Spring 1985 . Radaway , Janice A . Reading the Romance : Women , Patriarchy , and Popular Literature .