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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026

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I suggest /r/Romance_For_Men

I took a look at the top submissions, and I am now thoroughly horrified. What they keep asking for is literally Morning Glory Milking Farm, but in reverse. "Vince is a typical, down-on-his-luck millennial: mid-twenties, over-educated and drowning in debt, on the verge of moving into his parents' basement." And then he gets a job at Cambric Creek Morning Glory Milking Farm, where a muscle mommy minotauress gives him gently dominating handjobs.

Is this really what the romantic ideal for modern men looks like? Not Rose Sayer or Willie Scott or Princess Leia or Evelyn Carnahan or, um, Princess Fiona?

Weeds are always the first plants to colonize barren ground, and in their wake less hardy plants flourish. Thus as it is with gooners and media.

But no seriously, very few authors are going to invest years of work to stake their mangum opus in an unproven genre-- and even fewer agents, editors, and publishes will support them. The modern flood of romantasy wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the endless twilight and harry potter smut fics. Monsterfucking is a necessary step on the tech tree.

I could understand gooners looking for harems, or, like the sibling comment said, Gor. But monster mommies?

An obsessive, devoted woman who's too neurodivergent to love another man isn't all that crazy of a love interest. Plus, "tall, hairy, curvy" are neither individually nor jointly particularly crazy as fetishes. Obviously there's an element of exaggeration in there too-- a book has to tell you "EIGHT FOOT WOMAN WITH BICEPS LIKE BOULDERS" to inspire a feeling that even approaches what you would experience in real life if a girl a little taller than you gave you a bear hug.

The dignity of Man is often exaggerated.

Well it is reddit, so of course it's going to be safe horny since everything else is highly illegal.

If you want Gor you're going to have to pay the actually-banned-book tax and find publishing houses run by schizo foreigners and ephemeral livejournal archives.

No wonder people just stick to Japanese media, where virile urges are just a normal thing.

Who said anything about Gor? I'm talking about a competent, but rough around the edges protagonist winning the heart of a refined damsel that initially finds him uncouth and vulgar, while he finds her cold and snooty. Not teaching her the freedom of submission.

It's rounded down to the same thing by the current western zeitgeist.