and something struck me as the heroine's breast in the first story started undergoing a performative ritual that many heroines' bodies endure when they meet the one--why do authors, who presumably know that their breasts do not swell at the sight of a hot man, have their heroine's bodies perform impossible feats of physical and, theoretically, noticeable arousal?
We have talked about how genres can become normalized, but there are certain phrases, certain shorthands, that also become part of this unspoken and often unquestioned part of the fiction formula.
Why do romance and erotica authors have a woman's body undergo physical reactions that, let's be honest, don't really occur when a female is just looking/thinking about a male. I am talking about the breast swelling, breast tightening, and womb clenching moments that occur when the heroine is gazing upon her intended or is becoming aroused by him.
Is this some sort of odd authorial penis envy because men have a much more noticeable physical reaction than the heroines when aroused? Why do women undergo, what @jenthegingerkid dubbed, tittyrections? Are we readers that needy for our heroine's to outdo their would-be mate in performative arousal?
Having read my fair share of early romances, like historicals from the late 1970s and early 1980s, I can guess that the normalization of such reactions had already started to occur. It seems to have gotten worse, though. I have read some recently published titles, like the above mentioned**, that really started to give my womb and breasts a severe case of low self esteem. Let's just say that for my breasts to be tightening and my womb to be clenching, it does not mean that "fun times" are ahead.
Why do authors keep using this language and why do readers not find it peculiar that our, as women, normal physical reactions are not enough? We won't get into the perfect compatibility of the heroine and her discovery of multiple and simultaneous orgasms (which is at least possible).
**Which will be reviewed tomorrow.
