Whoa!mance: Romance, Feminism, and Ourselves

Whoa!nus ft. Shelf Love: Shame Shame We Know Your Name "Lady of the West" By Linda Howard

·50 min·5 clips

Linda Howard opposed diversity efforts in RWA and queer romance inclusion, complicating her legacy.

This episode is part two of a collaboration between the Whoa!mance podcast and Shelf Love, focusing on Linda Howard's 1990 Western romance novel 'A Lady of the West.' Hosts Morgan and Isabeau are joined by guest Andrea. The discussion opens with personal reactions: Morgan stayed up until 3 AM reading, captivated despite reservations, while Isabeau discovered a newfound interest in Westerns. They analyze specific sexy scenes, including Ben and Emma's horseback wrestling leading to an erection, and a later dry-humping encounter against a hitching post. A surprising moment involves young Celia watching Ben and Emma in a barn, then immediately initiating sex with Luis, which the hosts critique for its heavy-handed symbolism with a kitten. The conversation turns to author Linda Howard's real-world controversies, including her opposition to diversity initiatives in the Romance Writers of America (RWA), queer romance inclusion, and self-publishing. This leads to a broader debate on consuming problematic media. The hosts explore whether feeling shame over enjoying such books is productive, arguing it prompts critical self-examination and societal awareness. They compare this to editing Georgette Heyer's anti-Semitic stereotypes, warning against erasure. Insights include how romance reading sharpens awareness of dehumanizing language in news, and parallels between Howard's bleak worldview and Cormac McCarthy's Westerns. The episode concludes with Andrea's sexiest scene pick and acknowledgments.

As heard by us

A candid romance conversation about what shame can reveal when pleasure survives a book's ugliest ideas.

A Lady of the West becomes a test of what romance readers do when a book's pleasures sit beside ideas they know are ugly. In this second part of the Womance Shelf Love collaboration, Isabeau, Morgan, and Andrea stay with the tension of still enjoying Linda Howard's novel while…

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Why you'd press play

You want a romance conversation that can sit with pleasure, racism, shame, and enjoyment without pretending any of it is simple.

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