well behaved women

I got my Women of Enchantment calendar today and lord, it is gorgeous. Late, but gorgeous, and the late is my fault, besides.


Unfortunately, my good mood was promptly spoiled when I tried reading one of the Amanda Quick books I got from the library on recommendation. The premise of the first one was an impoverished noble going after a young woman because of her money and becoming emotionally involved. She finds out he started pursuing her for her money and is understandably pissed.

That was, frankly, as far as I could go. The sheer condescension in the text was nauseating. Repeatedly her anger is patronizingly referred to as 'savaged pride' and she is manipulated, threatened and ordered about by her husband anyway, the text presenting this in the tone of someone disciplining a child for their own good. She is told by her aunt that she 'made her bed and now she has to lie in it', since they married hastily after being caught en flagrante delicto never mind the fact that he freaking deceived her. Then the author tries to justify the whole thing and present the heroine as being silly by going on about all the ways that the hero could use her money for good on his land so obviously her being upset over being USED is all just dramatics.

Then Quick goes on about how, well, the heroine wasn't using it so, you know, having the firm guiding hand of masculinity to put it to good use is needed, and she's just being silly by putting herself in the victim's role.

It's been a while since I wanted to slap an author so hard. Or really, just chop off her damn hands so she can't perpetuate this bullshit. I don't think this would have made me so mad if the text wasn't so goddamn condescending.