Romance fiction is a billion-dollar industry, and a genre that explores the intricacies of sex and gender because of its focus on human beings and their relationships. Within this genre, the sports romance – a subgenre which emerged in the twenty-first century – is particularly fascinating but problematic in its consideration of sex and gender due to the gendered nature of sport itself. Despite its popularity, there has been very little academic research into sports romance, so this creative thesis is an interdisciplinary study positioned at a junction between popular romance theory, and sport and sociology, drawing on the academic work of scholars such as Pamela Regis, Catherine Roach, Jayashree Kamblé and Eric Anderson. By employing qualitative research methodology involving the close reading of three mainstream sports romances and three queer sports romances, this creative thesis analyses which gendered stereotypes are repeatedly deployed in mainstream sports romance novels, and how and to what effect these stereotypes are challenged in queer sports romance novels. I have approached this creative thesis from a dual perspective, as both a queer athlete and an author of sports romance fiction. My research has aided me in developing my romance writing in order to produce sports romances that are more innovative and nuanced in their consideration of sex and gender. This creative thesis includes an exegesis and a selection of original chapters of my own queer sports romance novel, provisionally titled Ready to Roll.
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This thesis explores ways in which mainstream sports romance novels can reinforce heteronormative ideas of gender and sexuality and how queer sports romance novels can challenge these ideas. By performing a close reading of a selection of mainstream and queer sports romances and undertaking analyses of the handling of various recurring themes, I investigate how successful the queer sports romances are at challenging binary gender stereotypes. (6)
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The mainstream sports romance novels I have selected for this study are From Lukov With Love (2018) by Mariana Zapata, The Not-Outcast (2020) by Tijan and Icebreaker (2022) by Hannah Grace. The queer sports romance novels selected are Edge of Glory (2017) by Rachel Spangler, She Drives Me Crazy (2021) by Kelly Quindlen and Catch and Cradle (2021) by Katia Rose. (6-7)
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Sport is a markedly gendered activity because gender segregation is central to most sports. (8)
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The gender-typing of individual sports is evident in mainstream sports romances. In cases where the heroine is an athlete, there is a tendency for her to participate in aesthetic sports such as figure skating or gymnastics. She is feminine and lean, and therefore beautiful. This is the case in Zapata’s From Lukov With Love (2018) and Grace’s Icebreaker (2022). The heroes of the sports romance tend to play contact sports such as hockey, football or boxing. They are strong and “manly” and therefore, desirable. (9)
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[In Quindlen's She Drives Me Crazy] Scottie’s feminism regarding sport is more reminiscent of second wave feminism, which was occupied with the rejection of typical femininity, while Irene’s stance is more in line with the third wave idea that women should be free to do and present however they like, feminine or otherwise. Scottie’s attitude towards “feminine” sports does not appear to reflect the beliefs of the author since they are countered by Irene’s. Instead, it is evident that Quindlen is using the two girls’ athletic differences to comment on the devaluation of “feminine” sports as well as the assumption that lesbian athletes must always be masculine-presenting. (12)
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Professional able-bodied male athletes possess what many would perceive as perfect male bodies, that is, bodies which are large in every sense of the word; tall, muscular and generously endowed, and therefore, virile and sexually desirable. A prime example of this is the hero Cut Ryder in Tijan’s The Not-Outcast (2020). Tijan first introduces the reader to Cut through the heroine Cheyenne’s physical description, comparing his past physique with his present: “He’d not been built in high school. He’d been a lean guy, and that made him fast on the ice … Watching him in college, then throughout the NHL, he had morphed. He was all man now … He was standing there and he was virile” (Tijan 37-38). In this scene, Cheyenne intrinsically links Cut’s leanness with his boyishness, determining that it was not until he became “built” that he could be considered “all man” and “virile” (37-38). (13)
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Size discrepancy is deployed even further in Grace’s Icebreaker (2022) in order to elevate the hero (Nate) above the villain, male figure skater, Aaron. (14)
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There is less emphasis on the athlete’s body as a sexual object in the queer sports romances than in the mainstream ones [...] the athlete’s body as an object of desire is a mostly heteronormative quality deployed to fulfil the romance fantasy for the (mostly) cis-het female reader. With the heteronormativity removed, the body is secondary to the inner workings of the mind, and the story focuses more intently on the athlete as an athlete, instead of as a sexual object. (15)
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The athlete’s relationship with food is a common theme in the sports romances selected for this study, with some delving deeper into the issue while others make passing comments which perpetuate a stereotypical difference between male and female athletes’ diets. (16)
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Even in lesbian romances, traditional gender roles can occasionally be seen emerging. A familiar dynamic between lesbian love interests is the butch/femme relationship. [...] While none of the queer sports romances selected for this study deploy a strict butch/femme dynamic, the heroines in Spangler’s Edge of Glory (2017) possess certain traits which could stereotypically align with masculinity or femininity. (21)
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In all three of these mainstream cis-het sports romances, the athletic achievements of the characters occur off the page, between the conclusion of the main story and the beginning of the epilogue. Despite sports being an integral part of the characters’ identities, all three epilogues frame the career-defining athletic achievements as secondary to the heteronormative HEA: monogamous, heterosexual marriage and the fertility of the female characters. By the beginning of the epilogue, the hero and the heroine are married or engaged, and either have children or are pregnant, with the birth or impending birth of the child effectively ending (or at least halting) the career of the woman athlete. (24)
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None of the HEA endings for the queer sports romances selected for this study (or perhaps more accurately in this case, HFN endings) involve marriage and children. Crucially, none of these books include an epilogue so it is impossible to know the future outcomes of the relationships. Perhaps they did marry and have children later in life, but the authors chose to omit this from their stories allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions. (26)
Here's the abstract:
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