You say that like it's a bad thing.

Because men are special flowers and women are that damned "horde of scribbling women."

Barb, you saw the Brontësaurus commercial, right?

Why is a romance/love story written by a woman so looked down upon while a love story/romance written by a man is considered stunning work of sensitivity and a revelation?

Because a man expressing emotion (whether via the written word or spoken word) is considered an act of God, while women -- well, you know *women.* We're ALWAYS spewing all of our silly little emotions EVERYWHERE, because we're such emotional creatures who can't control our crazy hormonal fee-fees! Just because a woman writes a book full of emotions is no big thing, because it's just a different venue through which the silly little woman can spew forth her silly little feelings. A dime a dozen, women's feelings are.

But men's feelings! My god, more rare and precious than unobtainium! And should be heralded and treasured as such!

...or so I assume. But my fee-fees might be clouding the issue.

I would think a good part of it would be novelty and that gives it a marketing angle to play upon--oh hey, this is written by a man, that's different. Doesn't make it fair, but don't most things in publishing come down to money?

A dime a dozen, women's feelings are.

Can I have my $45,761,907.20 now, please? Thanks.

Barb, you saw the Brontësaurus commercial, right?

I did, Tom-- it's been making the rounds of all the writing blogs and twitterverse. I think what makes it so funny, aside from the spot-on parody of the children's toy commercials, is the fact that there's still more than a few grains of truth to how publishing works/thinks.

Because when a woman writes a romance, it's assumed that she's writing a wish of hers. When a man writes one, it's assumed he's not, and instead is attempting to tell the truth of the human condition.

Also, I've heard a lot of guys say that women can't write men, so the male characters in romance novels aren't realistic. (Because generalization is AWESOME).

People never tell me that. But I think "My, you have a good grasp of the male point of view," was code for "You're gross and swear a lot," Which now I'd accept as a fair cop, but I was much more insecure then.

Because when a woman writes a romance, it's assumed that she's writing a wish of hers. When a man writes one, it's assumed he's not, and instead is attempting to tell the truth of the human condition.

I think there is a more general favoritism toward male authors in regards to literary merit. What is the image of a literary author, after all, a man with some silver hair smoking a pipe. A woman writing a romance gets a triple whammy in terms of literary merit, female, a genre that isn't considered one of merit (along with others), and lumped together with a massive number of writers making it hard to stand out.