In the UK, this week is Anti-bullying Week and today is Odd Socks Day. I’m aware of this because my day job is as a copywriter for a company that provides safeguarding or child protection training for education settings and organisations that work with children. There’s a bit of overlap today because I’m going to babble about bully romance.
Odd Socks Day encourages people to express themselves, celebrate individuality, and raise awareness and understanding about bullying in the UK. I’m showing my support by wearing odd socks. You, my dear followers, are the only people who will see them because I work from home. Count yourselves lucky that I’m sharing this with you. I just wish I had a more interesting sock collection to choose from.
While thinking about bullying, I automatically moved on to bully romances. It’s not my favourite trope at all, but they are very popular, particularly in young adult, and contemporary romance fiction.
What’s a Bully Romance?
A bully romance is where one of the romantic leads bullies the other romantic lead, but they end up falling in love. These stories are usually in an academic setting and feature teenage or young adult characters.
It’s a sub-trope of enemies to lovers, but the actions of the bully are more intense and often cruel, causing severe emotional distress. The power dynamics between the characters provide the story with huge lashings of angst. There is usually an epic grovel by the bully at the end when they try to make up for their mistakes and show they have changed.
Why do People like Bully Romance?
As someone who’s worked with children and continues to learn about some of the horrific trauma and harm bullying causes, you can understand why I’m not a fan of this trope. However, it’s fiction, and fiction is fantasy.
I know many readers can immerse themselves in the fantasy world created by the book they’re reading, but understand that this is not how things should play out in real life. I am not an exception. Check out this book review I wrote for one novel I hate to love.
I think the appeal of bully romances is that someone who treats someone badly can change and be sorry. In bully romances, the bully is usually not just sorry, but genuinely wishes to make amends. That’s where the grovelling comes in. Who doesn’t enjoy a heart-rending, emotionally traumatic grovel? But is it enough? Do bully romances mislead readers about what healthy relationships should be?
It’s bully romances where I feel the bully doesn’t change enough, or I feel the apology isn’t genuine, or the victim is too eager to forgive and forget that aggravate me. At least, make that bully grovel until their knees are bleeding and they are dehydrated from all the crying, please.
Anyway, how do you feel about bully romances? Let me know in the comments. You can also check out a couple of my reviews of bully romances below:
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