Literature in the media has been popularized for centuries. Reading can come in all different kinds of forms and themes, like nonfiction and fiction. Obviously, people have different tastes in what they read, such as romance, fantasy, science fiction and drama. Although reading has been considered a very educational experience, as well as good for you in general, a certain community may have taken it a bit too far.
The said community is called BookTok. BookTok is a trending hashtag among platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and even YouTube. It has become a community where people can share their book choices with others around the world, some of which may be a bit dark. Dark romance has become rather popular within the community, but how far that genre in literature has gone has caused quite a stir. Usually, when you think of romance, you consider it warm, tender and affectionate. With dark romance, you find it emotionally tense, violent and rather abusive.
That form of literature, for some reason, has grown as the biggest hit for teen girls and young adult women, who are the majority of this community. Dark romance promotes toxic and abusive relationships, making them seem like the norm. Obviously they got backlash for these promotions, especially from victims who have faced these situations. People should not normalize non-consensual actions and violence as romantic, for it can cause younger generations to glorify assault.
This community has even gone as far as harassing people who spoke out against BookTok’s harmful results. A TikToker with the username Kallmekris is one of those victims. She is known to have suffered trauma that made her react negatively, with good reason, to the community’s behavior. That being said, it resulted in harsh backlash and even threats towards Kris. A lot of people have disagreed with her views, saying “it’s just books” and that she’s being dramatic. In her fans’ opinions, however, she is not.
For some reason BookTok has made some of the worst books popular through their platforms. Not only are the tropes usually based on overused themes, but they’re also just sloppy and dull. Colleen Hoover is the best example of those things. Her books have become popular throughout 2020, and for all the wrong reasons. One of her more hated-than-loved books is “Ugly Love.” Readers have considered it repetitive, toxic and just an unbelievable plot line. Just like any of her other books, it has romanticized an unhealthy relationship.
Within these books, there has been a very common theme: stereotypical heterosexuality. It usually consists of a man who has more testosterone than the word masculinity itself, and a woman who plays a role that is submissive and weak. It, for some reason, has been found as attractive to the female population that reads those books, making another negative impact on the views of relationships. On the opposite end of romance books, queer-based ones have seemed way healthier than the dark romance books that consist of a hetero relationship. Queer romance books obviously have used trauma and violence within their stories, but they use it in a normal viewpoint of it being negative, not romanticizing and not making it the main plot of the book.
Readers can read what they want, whether it’s a popular novel from BookTok or an education-based book; reading is still good for the brain. As long as you’re actually learning something useful or, at the very least, find the book enjoyable, all that matters is that we keep literature alive for the right reasons and not harm our basic views on how romance should be conceived.
