TBH most of the popular “romance” stories dangerously toe the line between sexual tension and borderline rape culture.
I can’t be the only one that’s a little put off by how some authors and even artists choose to have the female lead look so … so terrified and scared in covers and/or art scenes? Why is the male LI always pushing up against her, pinning her to the wall? Why is she always backing away, why is the fear on her face translated to sexual yearning?? I know some girls like that, so why don’t you have her expression or body language depict that she is ACTIVELY into it instead of looking so uncertain and scared?
Episode is rated 12/13+, yet contains a shit ton of stories containing the glamourisation of mental/verbal/emotional/physical abuse, sex-suggestive themes and inappropriate covers/titles in every section. One of their current guidelines is that authors are not allowed to promote the use of alcohol, but one of the scenes in the first episode of The K*ss List shows the MC drinking alcohol as a HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT.
And they don’t promote/buy stories with positive themes. Instead of that one story where the woman has a healthy relationship with her partner, they feature the one about a creepy, unrealistic bad boy mafia gang leader who harasses the MC nonstop until she finally goes on a date with him. Another annyoing ass thing is when the MC’s LI gets jealous and goes into a fucking rage or freaks out just because she had a chat with another guy, even though said chat wasn’t sexual in any way.
That’s all I have for now but if I have anything else to write I will update.
But don’t you know jealous and possessive LIs show that they care??? Nothing more endearing than a man that freaks out every time you look in the direction of another dude
It’s not always predatory when it’s depicted like that. For instance my new story is called into the fire and First chapter cover art is the guy putting his hand on the wall behind the girl who looks uncertain (only so many animations to choose from to express the look you’re going for the most) and it’s not a he’s pushing him self onto a girl who is scared or uncomfortable it’s that he’s “from the other side of the tracks” and apart of an organization that is at “war” or “against” her fathers organization (not gang, or mob related) and it’s forbidden and they aren’t suppose to like each other. So she’s more or less perplexed about choosing love or her fathers honor. But like I said only so many animations to chose from
There’s nothing that irritates me more when a LI gets jealous of me w/other guys but then has the audacity to flirt/be with other girls, TF’s that about bruh? Hypocritical much?
I agree. A lot of times I dont think they’re scared of the LI, they’re scared of the feelings they are having or some type of consequence that may come with falling for this guy in front of them.
The thing is that potential readers won’t be able to get that context beforehand. So even if certain stories are the exception because the MC in them isn’t actually meant to look afraid of their LI, we have no way of gaining that information before seeing the image. All we see is somebody being cornered and looking scared. I think it can be tricky figuring out what will give off the wanted effect (for any cover really) but imo a lot of stories could benefit from not using pin animations for the cover unless their counterpart is visually into it - coy smile with a raised eyebrow, whatever way works.
For example, I just dipped into the app - emphasis on how this particular one is from romance - and plucked a wide cover from it:
Summary
Seeing it makes my skin crawl, regardless of whatever actually happens in-story.
There are quite a few trending stories I’ve seen that do involve violent/aggressive LIs who repeatedly frighten the MC, but the story narrative positions that fear as romantic conflict rather than somebody she needs to get away from ASAP. Part of our revulsion at covers that make the LI look predatory comes from that, I think.
There’s one where the female lead (I assume the MC) looks extremely frightened and the male lead LI has his hands on her face / neck almost if he’s going to snap her neck. I’m pretty sure it’s a vampire story so one could argue that vampires have a thing for necks but aggro lusty vampires aren’t any better than aggro lusty bad boys. Also the one you showed was a romance / thriller and somehow that wigs me out. I mean, plenty of thrillers have LIs and I think that’s generally fine. But putting the story in romance at least implies that some kind of aggressive suspense is paramount to the formation of the relationship. I admit that may not be a fair assessment, though.
A couple of the covers in that section were actually very sweet and cute looking and though I don’t really want to read them based on my personal preference, I at least got the impression the relationship doesn’t rely on anger and aggression or controlling tendencies in order to develop. Not saying they don’t lol, but at least looking at the covers doesn’t hit me with a sense of repulsion.
I’m pretty sure I know the cover you mean, and yeah, wasn’t a fan of that one either. Anytime you give the LI a wild grin and have him hold on to MC with a possessive grip while she is like , I feel… not comfy.
False advertising imo. LIs with these covers in my experience are still positioned as dominant, possessive, etc. in the story narrative, even though the cover makes them look sweet.
I think it’s part of this weird thing where authors keep introducing kink to young readers and adjusting them to it, like…? At worst, these male love interests are shown to be deranged, violent killers. At best, MC is calling them daddy and the LIs are positioned as dominant “real men” with the author shoving in as many sexual innuendos as they can past censors. But I think most trending romance plots or sub-plots fall somewhere in-between and tbh it’s disheartening to see.
Well, I do indeed believe that lmao. And I certainly haven’t read enough of them to know otherwise. I wonder if that is almost more insidious than the straight up revolting covers that sexualize terror. I mean, those immediately get my hackles up but at least I’d know it’s something I’m, uh, not interested in and am really concerned about. But at least I’m not drawn into a false sense of security? I guess. Sort of like when you’re given the “nice” guy love interest and he’s actually just a Nice Guy™️ LARPING as a decent human, whereas the bad boy at least admits he’s a huge jerk.
Yeah, I think too people have huge misconceptions about both kink and sex tbh. Like intimacy (both sexual and emotional) is replaced by non-negotiated kink, and the related assumption is that “vanilla” - is boring and for losers (?) despite the very real possibilities for both intimacy and sensuality to be present, enthusiastic parts of vanilla ~sexual activity~ I mean, as someone who doesn’t care about whether or not characters bone, I wouldn’t mind there being less emphasis on sex overall and I would certainly like to see less interpretation of aggression as lust and painful desire lol. But if you’re going to imply there’s some power dynamic related kink in the relationship, just make your characters have conversations about it and always remember to show them expressing care afterwards. Characters could also just have hobbies but
But I also do wonder sometimes if people are writing what they know from some of their own experiences. I’m not going to get into a whole conversation where someone explains ~safe, sane, consensual~ aspect of BDSM or goes on a rant about how BDSM is not abuse Bc lul. But there are plenty of abusive doms who take advantage of vulnerable people who are used to having their parental issues sexualized (because a culture of abuse is normalized in our society). And so people see that, I think, and just assume that’s how things should or do work. And then they write it out for a bunch of 14 year olds and it’s like a never-ending cycle.
but aggro lusty vampires aren’t any better than aggro lusty bad boys. Also the one you showed was a romance / thriller and somehow that wigs me out. I mean, plenty of thrillers have LIs and I think that’s generally fine. But putting the story in romance at least implies that some kind of aggressive suspense is paramount to the formation of the relationship. I admit that may not be a fair assessment, though.
, I feel… not comfy.
