Well, I guess one of the reasons is that the Italian-American mafia is a thing and well established too in the US. I don’t really blame authors for choosing the US as a setting, since it’s more familiar. I just cringe hard when the LI is Italian from Italy but they don’t resemble the way an Italian speaks, behaves etc at all.
And well, just because you don’t get to see crimes in NY doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. I live in northern Italy and I (like everyone else here) have the perception that mafia-like crime is non-existent, but thanks to articles and research I know that isn’t true. It’s not like we live dealing with crime every day. Some people do, but most of us never come across it.
But anyways, you’re right. It’s the same stuff over and over.
As someone who learns Italian, my face turns like- when I see that the author has just found sum badly translated Italian from Google translate, and actually has incorrect work order n lots of errors w it bc that’s just how little research these lazy authors do.
Oh yeah, did I mention that mafia leaders are also s*x predators? Again, who would be in love with such a nasty aspect of a guy?! I’m 15 years old—how are so many young teens (except for a few like me) greatly influenced by this?
YEAH. All you need to realize how bad it is, is to learn basic grammar and some sentences. When you start learning a language, you automatically learn something about the culture as well.
And oh the misspellings I see. You never know, your name might be Giuseppe but poof it magically becomes Giussepe. Bruh. And at first you think it’s just a typo, but nope it’s repeated.
Also basic stuff like: go to a restaurant and order mac n cheese––lmao no. It’s not a thing here. No one eats it and no one serves it. This is very minor and who cares, but it happens with everything it’s hilariously painful :'D
Chain Reaction, Deep Attraction and any other Mafia themed stories are not bad to me because they were written terribly.
Most of these stories are about the romance between the MC and the Mafia Leader LI. Fine. But what about the dark parts of the mafia? Why doesn’t anyone talk about the k-lling of the innocent? The human and/or s-x tr-fficking? Creating and leading a dr-g empire that harms millions of innocent people annually? Most people keep saying, “It’s just fiction.” Mafias are not a fictional thing like dragons. They are real, they cause harm, create stereotypes that harm people that are from places where mafias are commonly from (i.e. Italy).
If you want to write about a mafia leader, make sure you write out about everything that a mafia leader does, write out what they encourage and make stronger. Acknowledge how the MC getting married to the Mafia Leader will be in danger (and I’m not talking about external danger. Do you really believe that people who are in power of unethical and illegal industries are good people?)
Why does no one write about the MC learning about the business? Why don’t they learn about how their LI gets the money?
Chain Reaction, Deep Attraction aren’t hated or disliked because they’re badly written, they’re hated because they lie and glorify about the reality of the Mafia lifestyle and business.
If you want to love and write about Mafia stories and want others to do the same, how about writing stories about the Mafias as they actually are, and not as how you want to believe they are.
Millions of people have died because of mafias and people here are acting like mafia stories being “just fiction” justifies reading and supporting them.
Write about a spy defeating the mafia because of what they do, I - and I am sure many others- would happily read that story.
An example of a story that didn’t glorify the mafia but still wrote about them: femme fatale by Mette M. just to add, I’m sure there are many other stories like this one that might be more enjoyed by readers but this was the only one off of the top of my head and is highly known .
In all honesty, I read the INK version of Deep Attraction a while back (so the LL version might have improved). Again, while it’s not the writing essentially, it is the themes, glorification and romanticisation that I dislike.
Simple: They are toxic.
The usually always have the Toxic LI, thats the leader of the MaFiA and is a complete asshole to the MC because, He’S bEeN tHrOuGh So MuCh, but the MC doesn’t care because he hot. There are very young impressionable kids that see this and say toxic=sexy.
They also lowkey glamorize Gang/Mafia life. They make it seem so fun like your kidnapped/saved by the Hot gang leader and his hot gang friends and they give you free will and protect you, and you even fall in love with the leader. Like that’s not what happens. Usually, gang/mafia leaders don’t care about anyone or anything and will hurt people to get their way, even if its their own people, so they definitely won’t care about anyone they kidnapped. Plus if you’re kidnapped by a mafia/gang, there would be a very little chance of you getting out alive, let alone fall in love with the leader.
Adding on to the “they don’t care about anyone or anything.” This includes family members, and in worse cases, their female partners (assuming that these mafias are traditional). At best they’re (the wives, sisters and moms) ignored and told to “stay quiet about matters that don’t concern them”, and at worst… I think we can figure out what would be the worst thing. I can assure you, respect and care are not on that list.
Lately it’s somewhat become a trend for wives to carry on their husbands’ businesses while they’re in jail, here in Italy. So, they’re not innocent. None are. Because you can’t get married to a mafia boss–or just anyone in the mafia and not know what you’re getting into. You associate with them, you’re guilty too. Especially if you have the choice not to do that.
This is more so about the toxic masculinity present in many mafia stories, not the misrepresentation of the mafia
Can I just say that I am so glad that you made this topic? I used to not be able to see misogyny and toxic masculinity as easily as I can now and you asking other people’s opinions on why they don’t like mafia stories is great! I’m hoping that you and others who don’t see the problem are starting to see why people are against them. I remember watching and liking Episode stories but, when I go back and read them, I’m appalled by how they romanticize toxic masculinity!! Even more by the fact that I was able to sit through it and be completely fine. We live in a world where previously restricting women, their actions, thoughts and behaviour was the norm and it’s still around. It’s going to take a lot for that to change so I completely understand how people aren’t able to see the toxic masculinity present in such stories and how authors can accidentally include it - we were used to it at a point! But it’s great that we’re able to shed some light onto it and show others where the problem lies.
And on that note it is very much possible for mafia stories to not include toxic masculinity or misrepresentation of the mafia but because we are so used to a set structure or formula for mafia stories, almost all authors write them the same way. When more people start setting a new tone for mafia stories, who knows maybe they won’t be that hated
Oof, I sincerely doubted that they were innocent but focused more on how they most likely still enjoyed the benefits of being married to a rich person, regardless of whether or not they were safe in their marriage. Thank you for pointing that out, I’m not surprised at the trend but hadn’t thought of it.
That makes that worse, to me. What if an MC chose to enjoy the riches of their mafia-leader spouses? Like, they had realised what they got into, didn’t want to accept it and remained “ignorant”. Or were being ab-sed and decided to cope with it by becoming just as cruel as their spouses in terms of leading the mafia.
Yes, it makes it worse. Because they’re the ones benefitting from all the business without moving a single inch. One might argue they’re not involved, but every member of a mafia family knows stuff to some extent.
In all this, MCs (or rather, authors) blissfully ignore this. They just pretend Mr bad boy mafia boss LI is rich because he owns clubs. Damn wow. Suddenly his mafia activities are actually legal. He just happens to kill people once in a while. Oh, and bad people at that.
when I see that the author has just found sum badly translated Italian from Google translate, and actually has incorrect work order n lots of errors w it bc that’s just how little research these lazy authors do.
