I’m very glad that I happened to get this book for my first LGBTQIA+ novel because it was actually a healthy relationship between two men. Media is still so heteronormative, and because of that I think that it’s really really important to demonstrate what a healthy homosexual relationship looks like.
Rachel and I have talked about it in previous episodes but one of the reasons why we established this podcast is because we want to address the issues that come up in romance novels like abuse, misogyny, and just depictions of unhealthy relationships. We’ve also talked about how damaging these unhealthy relationships can be to young people’s perspectives who are still learning what a healthy relationship is.
Now let’s say that a young man or woman picked up this book and read it. Rather than find an unhealthy depiction of two men falling in love they see a healthy adorable relationship which is great groundwork for them to understand what they should be looking for in future relationships.
Like I said before, the media is still so heteronormative so right now can’t we have a bit of an overabundance of healthy homosexual romance novels? Just so that people who are discovering their own sexualities can find healthy examples to help build their expectations for healthy relationships for themselves in the future.
Maybe I’m putting a lot of pressure on one little gay romance novel. But I think it’s important to create high expectations now so that we don’t have a plethora of trash in the future (like with hetero-romance).
This week’s title is a pun on The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
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