The study investigates how unplanned pregnancy is presented and discussed in seven contemporary romance novels. Three main themes were identified: contraception, abortion, and the function of a pregnancy narrative. Within these subjects, we listed several examples with the support of interdisciplinary theories from gender studies, film theory, literary studies, medicine, sociology, and psychology. The topic is an outlier in the genre, but it still addresses many issues important to young women reading contemporary romance, e.g., the consequences of casual sex, contraception, abortion, responsibility, and motherhood. Now more than ever, the representation of young women experiencing unplanned pregnancies is a highly relevant theme of romance fiction. We observed that romance fiction responds to female fears and desires surrounding pregnancy and motherhood. Pregnancy in these stories is not simply a marketing trope for readers, but a vital part of the narrative, which induces the issues and complications that are presented in this study and relays particular aspects of women’s lives.
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There are several tropes on the themes of pregnancy and babies that are closely related but still different, e.g., secret baby, surprise pregnancy, and unplanned/accidental pregnancy. The difference between these tropes may be small; still, they are crucial. The secret baby plot’s meaning lies in its name: The heroine gets pregnant, has a baby, and is keeping it a secret from the hero. A key element here is the surprise, which is usually defined by a scene in which the hero sees the heroine heavily pregnant and figures out that the baby is his. For our study, the unplanned pregnancy trope will be explored. In this case, the unplanned pregnancy is the central element of the plot, which progresses in line with the narrative and the couple’s growing relationship.
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In this article we argue that unplanned pregnancy and the linked themes of motherhood, sexuality, contraception, and the female body offer insights into contemporary expectations on young women’s lives. Furthermore, we argue that pregnancy in the romance novels has a narratological function, which drives the love story and creates forced proximity.
The structure of the article follows the progress of the novels. Initially we discuss and analyze the function of pregnancy in romance novels to give a general introduction to the theme of the novels. Three topics that stand out as salient in the material are then covered: contraception and responsibility, abortion, and the pregnant body. The final section discusses the development of love in the novels and how this is related to the pregnancies.
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The material consists of seven romance novels published between 2016–2022: The Goal by Elle Kennedy (2016), Awk-weird by Avery Flynn (2019), One Moment Please by Amy Daws (2020), Baby I’m Yours by Carrie Elks (2020), The Enemy Trap by Maren Moore (2021), Those Three Little Words by Meghan Quinn (2022), and One-Timer by Teagan Hunter (2022).
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One of the first topics to stand out in the selected novels is the central role contraception plays. In five of the novels, the couple used condoms, and in one of them the female protagonist was on the pill.
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Sex in much of the genre of contemporary romance has become a form of communication that is valuable and necessary for a romantic partnership. It is through sex that most female protagonists recognize their feelings
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Compared to real-life studies on contraception, we showed that the novels support the idea that men are expected to bring condoms while women are expected to be on the pill. However, our sample of romance novels contradicted the real-life studies on one important point, which is that men in real life often forgo using a condom unless their female partner insists upon it. This view was not shared by the male protagonists in the romance novels. They are adamant about using protection because heroes in romance will always put the heroines’ interests and safety first.
Moreover, discussions of abortion in the romance novels were fairly absent, and the choice to keep the pregnancy was almost always immediate. This, we argued, is due to abortion being a sensitive subject in the USA and is often avoided to not contribute to a polarized political discourse. The female protagonists’ main concern regarding their decision is their (lack of) support and financial stability. The decision can also be attributed to the notion that abortion makes a woman a bad mother, which was found in other works of fiction and film.
All the novels employ Parley Ann Boswell’s pregnancy narrative and have many similarities to Kelly Oliver’s term momcom. Pregnancy in these stories functions as the instigator of the story, the reason for the fictional couple to remain together and develop feelings. Related to this theme, the female protagonists’ pregnant bodies were also discussed. We demonstrated that the female characters are often self-conscious about their pregnant bodies, specifically feeling fat and alien, but also that enlarged breasts and bellies were sexualized. Furthermore, the couple’s developing feelings tend to be ignited by the sexual tension and attraction; the establishment of love is commonly consummated through sex.
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