Women writing women: The representation of queer women in the romance genre

Romance as a genre follows a specific formula, a romantic storyline (The main plot describes individuals falling in love and trying to make it work with obstacles along the way) and an emotionally satisfying ending (the lovers who risk and struggle for each other are rewarded with emotional justice and a relationship by the end). Romance in film also follow a similar formula however where there are often nuances in literature that film doesn’t always reflect. This is purely down to finance.

Films that are financed for the mainstream often follow social norms at the time of production to ensure that they are profit making in the box office. When there are films that stray away from these norms, they are usually independent films, and rarely have big names attached to them. “Parallels between representations of heterosexuality within romantic comedy cinema and aspects of heterosexuality as constructed by Western culture suggest a reflective or supportive relationship between film and this central sexual identity. It is a fairly modest claim to suggest that romantic comedies are dependent for financial and cultural success upon the perpetuation of certain heterosexual formations and courtship rituals. However, heterosexuality is not a singular universal entity. As Diane Richardson asserts, there are many heterosexualities (1996: 2), and other identity formations also characterize the genre, necessarily contributing to the definition of sexuality it depicts. D. Soyini Madison criticizes the protagonists of such cinema, as being invariably white, nubile, beautiful, as well as "always heterosexual", resulting in the exclusion of those outside the "norm" they construct” (Kirkland, 2014).

Both film and literature have set a typical heteronormative formula that categorises homosexual relationships into heterosexual dynamics – “Although queer characters may feature, even in significant roles, the genre is primarily about heterosexual characters, heterosexual relationships, and consequently, about heterosexuality.” (Kirkland, 2014). If lesbian characters are represented, they are often put into a “butch” or “femme” category and follow heterosexual relationship dynamics where there are masculine and feminine roles. These can be harmful to those struggling with their identities and can have a severe impact on the wellbeing – as a collective, we have a responsibility to ensure representation is varied, authentic and nuanced. This is where we can look to those exceptions to the social norms to find the nuances of representation.

The evolution of women's voices in literature

One of which is Carol by Patricia Highsmith, previously published as The Price of Salt. This book is a pivotal moment in queer literature and filmmaking.

In 1952, Patricia Highsmith (author of The Talented Mr Ripley) published The Price of Salt, known for decades as the only homosexual book with a happy ending. This was Highsmith’s first and only overtly queer novel, yet this book has been widely spoken about. The book was republished as Carol in around 1990; “Although Highsmith wrote over 22 novels and numerous short stories and had many sexual and romantic relationships with women, The Price of Salt is her only novel about an unequivocal lesbian relationship, and its relatively happy ending was unprecedented in lesbian literature". (Wikipedia, 2026) and is known for its happy ending. The fact this is still known widely today as the most impactful lesbian novel shows the impact of Highsmith’s story. The book also became about a feature film in 2015, directed by Todd Haynes and stars Academy Award winning actress Cate Blanchett and Academy Award nominee Rooney Mara.

The novel was semi-autobiographical and the book, Devils, Lusts and Strange Desires by Paul Bradford describes “The relationship between Highsmith's lesbianism, her fraught personality - by parts self-destructive and malicious - and her fiction, has been largely avoided by biographers. She was openly homosexual and wrote the seminal lesbian love story, Carol. In modern times, she would be venerated as a radical exponent of the LGBT community.” (Bradford, 2023). The importance of this book is that despite being highly impactful, it was censored through its title, and it had to be published in the US before it was accepted in the UK.

Identity, relationships and cultural expectations

“Expectations of heterosexuality require not only sexual attraction and desires toward a different sex, but also gender conformity and attraction to people of a different sex who are also gender conforming (Eisner, 2013; Warner, 1999). Further, because heteronormativity requires strict adherence to these norms to exist as a social construct, people who violate any of these norms are stigmatized and marginalized as violating all of them (Warner, 1999). Thus, gender nonconformity can be leveraged as a visual marker of an otherwise private or unseen sexual minority identity: i.e., women and men who are gender nonconforming are gay or lesbian” (Pollitt et al, 2021). This is reflective in society through the assertion of masculine and feminine social cues and due to the history of social discomfort with LGBTQ+ individuals, those within the community will conform to these identities in order to appear more tolerable for heterosexual individuals and cultural institutions to accept.

For example, a study by the news association Pink News, which advocates for LGBTQ+ rights and freedom, shows that “82 percent of respondents drew attention to the stereotype that one woman in a female same-sex relationship is “the man” and one is the woman. Elsewhere, 75 percent of the participants took issue with the stereotypical image of queer women as always having short hair, and 74 percent said the media pushes a stereotype that they are “butch and manly.” (Pink News, 2019) and “83 percent said society tries to “sweep queer women under the rug” and 86 percent said queer men have better public visibility than they do. – this reluctance to accept different identities is suggested to be to do with comfort around LGBTQ+ women and that it is easier to accept queer men because it appeals to mass media. This delays the ‘coming out’ of queer women and prevents self-acceptance. The fact this is influenced by mass media marketing is a worrying notion and it lays the question about the representation of mainstream media and literature and whether the authentic voices are within more independent mediums. There is also the concept that we can only mimic the relationships we have seen and therefore we only have heteronormative examples to lead by. This is where sapphic (i.e. queer women) authors and filmmakers are important.

Female authorship and representations of women's inner lives

As we have seen from Highsmith’s book, censorship of queer literature involving women has occurred for decades. Women’s writing generally has always been undermined, with the likes of Virginia Wolf in A Room of One’s Own criticising the lack of access to education for women being the reason that women’s writing wasn’t taken seriously. Now, even hundreds years later, queer women are being undermined for their writing because it is not male centred and doesn’t appeal to the masses. Oftentimes, those that write lesbian or female, queer fiction identify in the same way and publish themselves due to publishing representatives diminishing them as unsellable. Alberola discusses how “if we consume culture to see ourselves reflected, imagine the situation of not being noticed nor included in any fiction—as if the self didn’t exist at all. With this essay, I understood that a lesbian writer is, before all, a lesbian reader” which is summed up well with the famous term ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’.

Conclusion: how we can reflect on previous examples to change the narrative

The importance of independent media and literature gives queer women space to explore their own fiction, which allows harmful stereotypes to be deconstructed and therefore queer women who are seeking representation are able to be viewed and portrayed authentically in ways that reflect the nuances of gender and sexual identity. We are influenced by the likes of Highsmith and Wolf, but we are given the space to build from that and reflect and represent in our own ways, eventually giving everyone freedom and a voice to be authentic.