Sometimes, it seems as if all romance roads lead to parenthood. Ending a romance novel with an epilogue, one which depicts the hero and heroine years later, their happiness and content signaled by their production of offspring, has become so common that readers have given a name to the trope: the babylogue.
Given genre romance's roots in the comic mode (in the Northrop Frye Anatomy of Criticism sense), the babylogue makes sense: comedy focuses on the reform of, or integration into, society, the success of which is typically symbolized by the marriage that occurs at a play or novel's end. An epilogue showcasing that married couple's fecundity simply extends the symbol, providing proof that the newly formed society is already thriving and prospering.
Is this why romances featuring heroines who have had abortions, or who contemplate having an abortion, are so very rare? The question occurred to me while reading Ros Clarke's latest contemporary, Flirting with the Camera. Though it is a novella (a form about which I've expressed my reservations), Flirting has much to recommend it, especially its plus-sized heroine, Hattie Bell, who is incredibly comfortable in her body, and in her sexual appeal. What really made me stop in surprise, though, was a scene in which Hattie tells Tom, the photographer with whom she hopes to work and to whom she is very attracted, about her "tawdry love affair." Her year-long relationship with an office coworker ended when Hattie found herself pregnant, and her lover informed her that he's married. When Tom asks her what she did, Hattie says: "He gave me some money and told me to deal with it. So I did" (55).
Clarke uses Tom's response to signal to the reader how s/he should respond to Hattie's matter-of-fact, but for a romance story, very surprising, declaration:
She was staring at him fiercely, daring him to pity her. Or judge her. He wouldn't do either. He could only admire her courage, then and now.
"And you're telling me he didn't break your heart? You're a strong woman, Hattie Bell.
"He didn't and I am. Thank you for noticing." (55)
Hattie isn't lying here; though Tom senses "the layers in her voice. Bravery concealing the old scars of fear and hurt" (54), nothing Hattie says or does suggests that being duped by her former lover, or terminating a pregnancy, has broken her, emotionally or psychologically. A difficult and painful life decision, yes; a choice that makes her ineligible for future romantic partnerships, decidedly no.
The Centers for Disease Control report that in United States in 2009, for every 1,000 live births, 227 pregnancies were terminated. The majority of women terminating their pregnancies were in their twenties. Many of these women, like Hattie, are likely to engage in romantic relationships and marriages in the years after their abortions. Their experiences, however, are notably lacking in our current romance literature.
Can you think of any romance novels that feature heroines who have had abortions, and who are not judged/scarred for life by the experience? Or a romance in which a couple works through the decision together about whether to continue an unwanted pregnancy, or terminate it? Can you imagine a romance novel in which a couple chooses an abortion, but still remains together at story's end?
Photo credits:
"I had an abortion": The Phoenix
In The Girlfriend, second in a series by Jennifer Armintrout writing as Abigail Barnette, the couple works through options and she has an abortion early in the story. Readers walk with her through the whole thing including the procedure itself. The couple is working through other serious issues (he's gravely ill), but stay together, have great sex, and grow closer. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18274962-the-girlfriend
ReplyDeleteMust read that now.
DeleteThe closest I've found is A Stranger's Baby by Judith Arnold in which the heroine contemplates having an abortion for a good portion of the book. And an HP in which the heroine was forced to have one by her evil folks. Against that are hundreds, if not thousands, of books in which abortion is used as a moral shorthand and the heroine/hero is furious that anyone would ever even think they would be so loathsome as to contemplate such a thing. (*retch*)
I was going to suggest The Girlfriend too. I haven't read the whole thing but I did read the beginning and thought the abortion issue was well handled. The heroine is a little conflicted but not destroyed by the decision. She recognizes the hero might have conflicted views about it too (largely because of his serious illness and thoughts of his mortality), but she knows she needs to make the right decision for her because it's her body. And the hero is completely supportive of her right to make that decision. I thought it was very realistically portrayed.
ReplyDeleteI am going to look into The Girlfriend and Flirting With the Camera. This is an excellent topic. It really is hard to find fiction that portrays abortion in a positive light. I haven't read the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 comics yet, but I think I heard that Buffy has an abortion, and that it's handled very matter-of-factly.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine anything with angst potential in BtVS being handled matter-of-factly!
DeleteThanks for the rec, Nicky & Jen. I'll be interested to read it!
ReplyDeleteHere are the books I have listed as dealing with abortion. I am not sure of the take on it.
ReplyDeleteCrash and Stranded by Pepper Pace. I recall in Stranded, they were Stranded and it didn't take. She was practical about it but he was nutty. And Empty Net by Toni Aleo.
Thanks, Nawordcat, for the recs!
ReplyDeleteI can't suggest any novels, but I do know plenty of couples who fit the criterion. My roommate in college had one before Roe V Wade. Her boyfriend paid and I went with. It was not as horrible as I feared, but I still sat by her side and checked her every hour on the hour all night long for excessive bleeding and fever. My plan was to call my mother (a nurse) in case anything seemed to be going wrong for advice. Her deeply religious parents knew nothing about her situation. Six months later I was a bridesmaid at their wedding. I will always appreciate 'Dirty Dancing' for its realistic approach to the subject.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, isn't it, that a situation many of us have faced ourselves, or have friends or acquaintances who have faced, is totally absent from the romance literature...
DeleteJackie, this thread has inspired me. I will make it happen within the year. I know just how to work it into my next release. I am part of a group called WORD (Women Organized to Resist and Defend). This is a plot line that needs to be written. We won't go back.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Please let me know when it comes out -- I'll definitely want to take a look!
DeleteI read the prequel to The Girlfriend, The Boss. At the part of the story where they have the "condom talk", it seemed Sophie wasn't ready for a baby, and it was clear Neil wasn't, as the father of a daughter the same age as Sophie. In the reviews for the Girlfriend, a few people were distressed by the abortion she ended up having. I was too, and I felt bad for being upset. Sophie was really well written and I felt "who am I to question her?" Then I felt "aren't romances supposed to be happy?"
ReplyDeleteI also read "Flirting for the Camera" and I think my personal feelings (distress and conflict even while I support abortion rights) ruined it for me. I just couldn't believe she was chill about it, I guess because I wouldn't have been.
This might be why romance authors don't write about it much, because they think it will distress those of us who are into the idealized, babies-ever-after style romances. Some of us were told that if we had an abortion we would never be able to have babies, and I think that misinformation contributes to the distress some women feel.
I'm sure this isn't rational, but I wanted to share.
Thanks, ShayShay, for sharing your perspective. I can understand how being told that having an abortion would lead to infertility could really sway not only your rational thinking brain, but your emotional brain, too.
DeleteARE romances supposed to be all happy, all the time? Or is it that the ending has to be happy? How much unhappy are you/readers in general willing to accept, and still feel a book is a romance? Or is it that certain types of unhappy are more of a problem than others?
I know what I like are romances where it seems like the good things to come will sweep away the old things and start all over. And a lot of romances are good because they start off sad, and then the hero comes in with his loving arms and unlimited bank lol. A lot of the romances I've enjoyed seem silly in retrospect because the "black moment" was so small (*gasp* you're getting a job in LA? But I want to stay in NYC! Let's break up and cry for a few weeks), but I enjoyed them in the moment as simple escapism. So I don't know. I'm an aspiring writer and I'm struggling with it too.
DeleteAs far as how much unhappy can fit into a romance, I'm thinking that The Boss/The Girlfriend (on my payday TBR) are more like novels with romantic/erotic elements. Sophie has great chemistry with Neil, but usually in romances, the romance itself is the conflict. These books are dealing with a lot of real-world drama, which I can deal with sometimes (can you say labile emotions?). I wonder if classifying them differently would help customers. I hate to see a book get a bad review just because it wasn't what the reader was expecting.
OK I'm way late to the party but it just occurred to me to come back and check on this topic because it's one I feel pretty strongly about. I would throw it out there that an abortion doesn't have to be a big "unhappy event". For some women it is, but for some it's not that big of a deal.
DeleteAnd even when it is, romances deal with unhappy events all the time. I just read a romantic suspense where the heroine was beaten and raped in the story. I'd say that's pretty damn unhappy, yet it was definitely a romance (and had a very happy, satisfying ending). Abortion is a thing that happens in many women's lives (especially in the context of romantic relationships, and especially to 20-something unmarried women, which so many romance heroines are), so it seems strange to me that it is virtually never mentioned. Obviously there are types of romance that stay away from all unhappiness and make the relationship itself the source of all conflict, but there are tons of romances that don't do those things, yet they can still clearly be classified as romances. Abortion rarely even comes up as a part of the backstory of a character. Geez, we see piles of abuse victims, orphans, widow/ers, etc. and those aren't too heavy for most romance novels/authors. But abortion is a huge taboo.
Yes. Do you think it's because readers are ok with a heroine who is a victim, and overcomes her victimhood, but a woman who pursues an abortion is seen as a victimizer? Selfish? Acting too much on her own behalf, rather than acting on behalf of another?
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ReplyDeleteJackie, absolutely. I think LOTS of people have the idea that an abortion is a super careless, selfish act. That if a woman was more diligent about birth control, or about not being "slutty", she wouldn't be in that mess in the first place. So for a lot of readers, I think it's seen as evidence of a character flaw or, at best, a shameful mistake. I suppose those aren't qualities people want to read about in a romance.
ReplyDeleteBut honestly, I think the bigger issue is probably that there is such a huge and aggressive anti-abortion contingent, especially in the US but in lots of other countries as well. I strongly suspect abortion in a story is seen as a bit of a liability. Note that Jenny Trout self published The Girlfriend. Could she have gotten that book published with a major publishing house? Obviously there are lots of factors that go into whether something gets published, but I can't see any publisher being excited about such a detailed abortion sub story. And when is the last time you saw a TV show or movie that featured an abortion as a story line? Those kind of stories get so much virulent push back that I suspect studios/executives see them as not worth the risk.
Jackie, I'm writing a Harlequin KISS where there's an accidental pregnancy that's discovered about half way through. The hero & heroine discuss the options and decide that an abortion would be for the best. The heroine backs out after seeing the heartbeat, but to me the idea of the H&h not even contemplating it (she's a high powered workaholic lawyer, he's not the fatherhood kind) didn't seem at all realistic. Will be interested to see readers' reaction!
ReplyDeleteLucy:
DeleteThanks for sharing. I'd love to hear more about readers' reactions, once your book is published.
Did you ever consider having the heroine go through with the abortion? Can you imagine writing a Harlequin romance in which a heroine does?
Not for this story. As they discover the pregnancy half way through I don't think there's enough wordcount to deal with the consequences of an abortion and still have an HEA. Maybe also I'm aware I'm writing an Harlequin and am being cautious. The heroine having the abortion is definitely a storyline I'd pitch to my ed (not sure what she'd say though!) and I think the KISS line would be a good place for it. In my April release my hero once cheated on my heroine - another touchy subject for many readers - so boundaries are definitely being pushed.
DeleteWould be very interesting to hear if the KISS editors would go for a story with a heroine who chooses to have an abortion, either before the book started, or during the book, with her hero. The KISS guidelines list under possible themes "consequences of one-night" -- I could totally imagine pregnancy being the consequence of a one-night stand, and the h & h gradually coming together as they work out how to reconcile their differences about what to do about it, and that decision being abortion... Let us know if you end up pitching such a storyline, and what the result of your pitch is, OK?
DeleteWill do!
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