Proposal Title
Revenge of the Romance: How romance novels transform the nerd stereotype
Start Date
13-4-2018 5:10 PM
End Date
13-4-2018 6:10 PM
Proposal Type
Individual Presentation
Abstract
The character of the ‘nerd’ has been prevalent in popular culture, usually represented as a man whose intelligence and lack of social skills keep him from achieving his ultimate desire: obtaining an attractive girlfriend. Since the early 21st century, the concept of the nerd has expanded to discussions of toxic masculinity and entitlement, often seen in such arenas as the culture of the tech industry and the Gamer Gate phenomenon. My paper addresses the central question of how the modern romance genre includes these character archetypes and incorporates them into the romance genre. Specifically, in my paper, I will use the scholarship of Carol Thurston, Jennifer Crusie-Smith, Lynn Coddington, and representations of masculinity to analyze the nerd character in the contemporary romance novels Romancing the Nerd by Leah Rae Miller (2016) and Nerd in Shining Armor by Vicki Lewis Thompson (2003). I will use these case studies to illustrate how a feminist reading of romance novels interprets and redefines the highly gendered concept of the nerd, how the genre provides a space for character transformation, how these texts redefine the concept of the ‘nerd’ in terms of the self, and to examine how the nerd character is a product of gender performance.
Revenge of the Romance: How romance novels transform the nerd stereotype
The character of the ‘nerd’ has been prevalent in popular culture, usually represented as a man whose intelligence and lack of social skills keep him from achieving his ultimate desire: obtaining an attractive girlfriend. Since the early 21st century, the concept of the nerd has expanded to discussions of toxic masculinity and entitlement, often seen in such arenas as the culture of the tech industry and the Gamer Gate phenomenon. My paper addresses the central question of how the modern romance genre includes these character archetypes and incorporates them into the romance genre. Specifically, in my paper, I will use the scholarship of Carol Thurston, Jennifer Crusie-Smith, Lynn Coddington, and representations of masculinity to analyze the nerd character in the contemporary romance novels Romancing the Nerd by Leah Rae Miller (2016) and Nerd in Shining Armor by Vicki Lewis Thompson (2003). I will use these case studies to illustrate how a feminist reading of romance novels interprets and redefines the highly gendered concept of the nerd, how the genre provides a space for character transformation, how these texts redefine the concept of the ‘nerd’ in terms of the self, and to examine how the nerd character is a product of gender performance.