Boom! Sociology and Romance: The Link I’ve Been Waiting For

Since the urge first struck to write a romance, I have been shaking my head wondering where this came from. Generally, I am not a super-romantic sort of a girl. So, how did I end up writing and loving chick lit/romance/romantic comedies/women’s fiction? Good question and until now, I did not have the answer.

Then last night, laying in bed while trying to fall asleep, it hit me (like all my great ideas do) with a bang. The answer, was suddenly there like it had been there all the time. Fully formed. Boom.

So, you may ask, what does make an educated, independent sort who is not particularly romantic decide to write romance? Well, it is my background in sociology. Say what? Sociology? I know! How did I not notice before? You see, in university I majored in sociology. I loved doing research and particularly on sex roles, gender roles, feminism, images in the media, and all that fascinating stuff that involved the relationship between men and women as well as perceived images of men and women. Naturally, since I am fascinated with such issues, it has led me to…romance.

Really, when you break it down, the leap isn’t that huge. In sociology I studied sex roles and gender roles. In romance, what are you looking at? Well, sex roles, gender roles and the way they affect the relationship between the two sexes. Boom. There it is. Now I know.

Blogger Gets Published

Cool news!

“Blogger Christian Lander’s STUFF WHITE PEOPLE LIKE, a ‘study’ of
upper-middle-class white people, satirically exposing a culture that
prides itself on individuality and diversity, yet manages to express
these beliefs in exactly the same way (white people: Whole Foods, Wes
Anderson, Starbucks, graduate school, kitchen gadgets, Barack Obama,
Apple products, the movie Juno, expensive sandwiches, etc.), promising
two-thirds new material, to Jane von Mehren at Random House Trade
Paperbacks, with Jill Schwartzman editing, by Erin Malone at the William
Morris Agency (NA).” From Publishers Lunch (Publishers Marketplace)
March 24, 2008.

I thought this was a witty site and guess others have as well. Some of the comments on the site indicate that some people just may take themselves a tad too seriously.

Then again, the idea of someone’s website content being published in book form isn’t that new. For example, The Darwin Awards.

I am also curious about this deal:

“Marie Claire editor Sarah Wexler’s LIVING LARGE, weaving together
first-person reporting and original research to examine America’s
obsession with supersizing — whether its our cars, TVs, meals,
churches, or homes — and the real-world impact of our hunger for all
things big, to Yaniv Soha at St. Martin’s, by Emmanuelle Alspaugh at
Wendy Sherman Associates (NA).” From Publishers Lunch (Publishers
Marketplace) March 24, 2008.

This is something I will want to check out. I wonder if she will talk about how six foot fences are a slow, persistent removal from our neighbours and those that we will need to lean on for help if the economy really does take a nice little (HUGE) nose dive. Right now, we have the wealth to go it alone, but when we no longer have that, our separation is going to hit us hard. Who will we turn to? We are disconnected and turning away from our humanness and filling the void with consumer products and that only makes the hole bigger–thus the need for bigger products to fill that bigger hole.

On a lighter note, here is something fun for the writer inside: shirts! Check it out by clicking here.

As well, for a few hoots and giggles, check out Nathan Bransford’s March 31st blog entry on Mad Lib queries. If you don’t laugh, go get checked out, there is something broken. 

Ethnicity

My last post really got me thinking about ethnicity. As someone with a sociology background, how is it that I know so little about stereotypical ethnic behaviours, beliefs, etc? Maybe it was my focus on research and not the classes on ethnicity. Maybe I simply don’t think that way? Maybe I am small town Canadian and need to get out more?

To quote Max Weber (sociologist), ”The whole conception of ethnic groups is so complex and so vague that it might be good to abandon it altogether.” I hear you! What is the purpose? Is it just for identifying yourself as part of a group? Sure, I’m half Finnish, but I don’t speak the language, don’t know the customs, culture and have never been to Finland. So what does a Finnish ethnicity mean to me? At the end of the day, not much. On the other hand, being Canadian means a lot to me. I speak the language, apologise when I am in someone’s way and don’t have to take off my shoes at airport security when I am skipping around the few large provinces that we have.

Out of curiosity, I began snooping on the net for a cheat sheet on ethnicity and behaviours. And all I could think was, “I can’t believe I am looking for stereotypes to use in my writing.” It feels SO wrong! Yet, ethnicity probably does effect the way that some people behave–particularly those who reside in large cities and within their ‘ethnic’ areas such as Chinatown, Little Italy and the like. I know that the true Finnish like their personal space whereas true Italians tend to use their hands a lot when they are talking. Yet, beyond that, I don’t know a whole lot more that could be incorporated into a character. And I would need more to create a depth that is believable to make a character more real.

So are my characters going to suffer by being ethnically generic like myself? Possibly the answer is to think outside ethnicity and instead focus on small characteristics like one’s feelings on physical space, attitudes towards the body and that sort of thing and develop a character from there. In fact, that is likely what Linda Seger meant for someone to do when they thought of ‘ethnicity’ when developing a character–for her, ethnicity is probably a shorthand.

Anyway, on Wikipedia (a site I used to detest because people would use it for technical information, believing that it was all 100% accurate and wouldn’t double source the info) they have a list of ethnicities and it is HUGE! The discussion about it is pretty good too. The fact that there have been wars over ethnicities illustrates once again that this is not a light issue. One comment also mentions the fact that geography plays a great deal in influencing ethnicities–for which I would agree. Regional differences are probably more important than ethnicity.

And what about us Canadians? I guess we only get to be a nationality and not an ethnicity. Yet, I think and identify myself as a Canadian more than my ancient heritage. I think my attitudes, philosophies and behaviours are much more ‘Canadian’ than ‘Irish’, ‘Scottish’ or ‘Finnish’. So, I suppose I may have to rethink the whole ‘ethnicity’ part of my worksheet so that it makes more sense to me and gets me thinking in the way that Seger’s word ‘ethnicity’ was supposed to. But until then, it remains the same. If you have suggestions on an ethnicity work-around, drop a comment.