As I read "Women Read the Romance" by Radway, I was repeatedly struck by how pathetic the lives of the Smithton women were. They read romance novels to escape reality; how horrible, wanting to escape ones own life!
I also noticed that the novels didn't really seem like that much of an escape. Even when avoiding the more "perverse" options, the women were reading stories about men who are cold to the women they love. They were ingesting novel after novel of dysfunctional relationship.
I understand that the happy endings make the struggle worth while, but is that what the women were imagining for themselves? The women of Smithton may have come from marriages that were less than perfect but did they imagine that their lives would somehow work out in the end, just like the novels? Did they think that underneath their cold exteriors their husbands were actually passionately in love with them and that it was all a big misunderstanding?
The novels may have given the women a temporary escape but they hindered them in the long run. Instead of realizing how deep-rooted their unhappiness was and doing something to change the situation, they let romance novels slowly eat away at their ability to control their lives.
Their position seemed to me like that of someone punished by the Greek gods. Like Sisyphus pushing a boulder up a hill for all of eternity or the Danaides washing away their sins for all of eternity. The women of Smithton perpetuated the situation they were trying to escape.
Like the Danaides, the women are not solely responsible for the perpetuation of their misery. The situation and the social norms the women are held to are also accountable.
For the story of the Danaides: http://www.greeka.com/greece-myths/danaides.htm
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