The Romance genre is a perennial topic of discussion online. Both writers and readers have opinions, and the only guarantee is that someone will have a "hot take" that has gone past hot to overcooked to burnt-to-ashes.
Romance is the money genre. It has a huge and hungry reader base, and current economy notwithstanding, they have a book budget to burn. It is also the one that gets the most criticism and outright hate. It's shallow. It's bad for women. It gives young girls the wrong expectations. It's not "real literature". It has people with bits touching other people's bits, and we just can't have that!
But along with giving readers something they want (a guaranteed happy ending and warm fuzzies along the way), every Romance novel is also social commentary. I'll note that commentary is different from critique. Some Romances critique social norms and rules, but not all. Every one of them is a study in who is worthy of love and what is able to be loved within a person.
I'm going to pick on Disney. The House of Mouse can take it.
We have all sorts of princesses. Blonde. Brunette. Redheaded. We've had a bit of color added to the lineup (how effectively is up for discussion). Little girls all across the US have grown up watching different Disney Princesses dance and sing their way to a Happily Ever After. My sister used to talk about waiting for her prince, and she's certainly not the only woman who did or still is. I pointed out to Teen 1, my college-age daughter, that I was never a Disney Girlie. I knew a prince wasn't coming for me, because princes came for slim, beautiful girls, and I was neither.* (I was actually a healthy weight, but it was the 90s. Anything over a 2 was too big. If we couldn't see our ribs, collarbones, or abs, we were hopelessly fat.) Disney had sent the social message loud and clear: only beautiful, skinny girls are worthy of love.
No wonder I'm a Don Bluth Girlie instead.
That isn't meant to garner sympathy or shame anyone who did identify with a particular Disney Princess. It is an example of how Romance stories, whether on-page or on-screen, tell us who deserves love. That is both the basis of the genre and the commentary on society found in every book or movie that centers on a romantic couple. Just as important as who is shown to be lovable is who isn't shown at all. For a long time, there were very few mid or plus-size female main characters in major romance books. Many subgenres still featured a FMC who is white, thin, and heterosexual, and the absence of anyone who is not those things sent a message: our society doesn't think they're as worthy of love.
Is Romance fun? Can it be fluffy and sweet and make you kick up your feet? Absolutely! But it's never less important than any other genre, because it's telling us who and how to love.
*I didn't find my prince, but I did find my Gomez Addams, and really, that's so much better.
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