First off, let me state up front that I’ve never been a huge fan of the alpha hero. Call me crazy, but I prefer my guys to be civilized from the get-go, both in real life and in fiction. Doesn’t mean they can’t have issues, but let’s get real – a lot of these dudes could do with some serious couch time. And I don’t mean with the heroine. In my book – or books — “taming” is for horses, wild beasts and, on especially humid days, hair. Not men.
However, back when I was first starting to read – and write – romance, I picked up Susan Elizabeth Phillips’s DREAM A LITTLE DREAM. From the very first page, I was hooked…until I met the hero. Man gave me the creepy crawlies like nobody’s business. As he did the heroine. And rightly so.
But too late, because by then I just had to find out what was gonna happen. And long ‘bout page fifty, when Ms. Phillips switched into the hero’s POV, I got my first glimpse into the circumstances that had turned Gabe Bonner into a bear with a thorn in his paw. So I kept reading. And bit by bit, the growling lessened. By the end of the book, I loved the big lug. I also had me a brand-new autobuy author.
All these years later, SEP is still reforming her borderline butthead heroes, and I’m still falling in love with them. Why? Well, aside from a talent like no other during the Boy Loses Girl phase of her books for bringing her heroes to their knees, she’s a master at letting her readers see, early on, glimmers of humanity behind the brute…a little tenderness here, a spark of humor there, those generous dollops of honor, generosity and dignity that hint at more than simple wounded pride or macho entitlement.
In other words, she gives us hope that they are redeemable. Maybe not right from the start, but neither does she wait so long that that we’re shaking our heads at the last page and thinking, Nope, not gonna work. Six month, tops, before somebody walks.
So her guys may start out jerks (and her heroines, very often fluff-brains) but they don’t stay that way. They do grow. They do change. And that’s why I can read SEP’s alpha guys when others often send me screaming in the opposite direction – she not only gives her characters someplace to go, but she doesn’t wait until the last page to suddenly, and inexplicably, shove them there.
And she relies on some damn fine literary tradition in the process. Mr. Rochester, Darcy, John Thornton in Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South – not exactly your average game show hosts. Now, I noticed that, around the middle of the book, all three of these guys actually have enough on the ball to recognize, and be attracted to, the heroines’ good qualities. On their terms. Which means they still have many, many pages of growin’ to do before they really earn their ladies’ love. Shucking off all those putrid, suffocating layers of their old selves, until they truly become the men worthy of the women who made them want to change, is not the work of a moment.
At its finest, this genre glorifies healing of the heart and soul. Which is why I can only shake my head, dumbfounded, at the criticism that romance novels are worthless. What could be more worthy than stories in which love, to paraphrase AS GOOD AS IT GETS, makes our protagonists want to be better people? Even so, readers need to connect with, and believe in, our characters’ changes of heart enough to buy into their happy endings. Those grumpy gusses with their dark, brooding ways might send thrills up our spines (or make us want to slam frying pans upside their heads) but unless they at some point discover, or reclaim, their humanity, it’s pretty hard to root for their happiness – or to feel confident that the heroine hadn’t just made the biggest mistake of her life.
So…whether you adore or loathe those jerkface heroes, how long do you give an author to start showing you glimpses of the “better man” underneath? Or do you even care? And for those of you who could devour the badasses morning, noon, and night, do you still draw a line between redeemable and hopeless? How flawed is too flawed? What makes a hero’s “change of heart” work for you, so you can wholeheartedly buy into the HEA?
And last, is it just more fun to fall in love with a guy you hated first?
At least, in your fiction? 
I don’t ever like the heroine changing (taming, redeeming) the man. It feeds into the cliche that a man falls in love with a woman but a woman falls in love with what she thinks she can turn the man into. I never see these stories as love changing anything, just the woman manipulating the moron. (And of course, this goes back to my prejudice — expressed on several occasions — that so-called “alpha males” are sociopaths. My work in child protective services was hunting these creatures down, so I’m incapable of seeing one as a “hero.”)(And yes, I recognize that is a personal blind spot and that it precludes my enjoying many, many books others love.) Once I recognize the plot structure of heroine healing beast man, these books are automatic tosses.
by KeVin July 20th, 2007 at 6:27 amPersonally, I love to see an Alpha male show his softer side when affected by the heroine.
Coincidentally, I’m reading Dream a Little Dream at the moment. I think Gabe so far, is one of the hardest [in a hard of heart way] heroes I have encountered! Although, I can see a glimmer of hope here and there that pretty soon he’ll soften a little. Although, funnily enough, I don’t want him to soften too much.
Lynette
by Lynette Rees July 20th, 2007 at 7:58 am:neutral:I agree with KeVin. I’ve never seen a jerkwad change permanently in real life. They may seem to change for a while, but it’s only to get the girl into the sack. And every female I know who has gone into a relationship believing and/or hoping she can change the man has failed and been left miserably hurt not long after. So, you can just imagine how appealing this kind of hero is to me.:roll:
by Kimber An July 20th, 2007 at 8:12 amHmmm, I like some Alpha heros but he has to have a good reason to be an Alpha. Just some country bumpkin being a jerk isn’t enough. I want to see why fairly quickly. My beef is with the herione that is too stupid to live. If she does two stupid things before page fifty, the book gets tossed.
by Sara Thacker July 20th, 2007 at 8:59 amDream a Little Dream was the first SEP I read too. I have all her books now.
by mary beth July 20th, 2007 at 9:08 amAs far as alpha males go, it all depends. I think a combination of voice and motivation make SEP’s alphas work. She can tell an amazing story and I understand why her alphas act the way they do.
I grew up with an abusive father. I worked in a rape crisis/spouse abuse center. I’ve dated many a jerk.
None of the useless clusters of testosterone and insecurity noted above bear any resemblance whatsoever to the romance novel alpha male.
I’ve noticed something about romance novel alpha males over the years–they are always protecting something. Maybe it’s just their own sore spot at first, but they’ve got the protection thing down to a science, and they translate it easily to whatever comes to matter to them.
Here’s a little philosophy straight from the therapist’s couch: “No one ever really changes; they only become more fully what they really are.”
The romance novel alpha male does not suddenly don a suit of shining armor. The gleam just starts to show through the tarnish concealing the one he’s always worn.
by Kerry Allen July 20th, 2007 at 9:16 amBeing an alpha married to an alpha,
I cringe at the portrayal of the alpha
in romances
as an unfeeling, terrorizing jerk.
Oh, and don’t even get me started on the alpha as a “stock” character, that is pure lazyness on the writer’s part.
Think of it…
the basic definition of an alpha is a leader.
Do we follow leaders with no redeeming qualities?
Are leaders just like every other leader?
And sorry, but there’s no thing as a “lone wolf” alpha.
Leaders need someone to lead,
its as necessary to alphas as oxygen.
But I guess that’s the difference between real life and fiction.
by Kimber Chin July 20th, 2007 at 9:45 amThis is exactly why I like SEP’s and many other authors alpha heros work for me, even alpha “jerks”.
As to how long I give it–it depends on the story, characters and how much redemption is required. The alpha tolerance line is different for all of us. And what’s works within the context of a fiction doesn’t necessarily mean it would work in real life.
by Tara Marie July 20th, 2007 at 10:07 am“that so-called “alpha males” are sociopaths”
KeVin, I’ve seen many beta males try to act like alphas and end up with… well… not-so-nice results.
And an alpha unchecked will do damage.
Most of us have support systems
by Kimber Chin July 20th, 2007 at 10:14 am(for example, I’ve been coaching my 7 year old alpha niece for last few years to handle the stresses and responsibilities that go with being an alpha).
That’s why there are so many clubs like Young Entrepreneurs or Chamber of Commerce or… other leadership “communities.”
Everyone needs someone to tell them when they’re being a jack a$$.
“Everyone needs someone to tell them when they’re being a jack a$$.”
Btw…
by Kimber Chin July 20th, 2007 at 10:16 amThe heroine should really be that person.
Wow. Got some juices flowing here, did we?
(Although the first juice to flow was mine, when, yawning, I sat down to my computer to discover the post I’d scheduled for tomorrow had been moved up to TODAY. :shock:)
Kerry says: “The romance novel alpha male does not suddenly don a suit of shining armor. The gleam just starts to show through the tarnish concealing the one he’s always worn.”
See, that’s the point I was trying to make in the examples I gave (although I’m not sure that’s true, unfortunately, of all romance novel alphas). If I can see those gleams, the guys works for me. If I can’t — and fairly soon, although I am willing to give the author SOME time to let me hate him :wink:– then he doesn’t.
I also think there’s a difference (and maybe I didn’t make this clear) in stories about love making someone want to be a better person and those in which a woman believes *her* love can change a man. I completely believe in the first, but have far more problems with the second.
Love, all by itself, is a powerful force for good, on so many levels. Heaven knows we’ve all heard testimonies from people who credit that one person who believed in them — who saw the shining armor beneath the tarnish — with saving their lives, sometimes literally. Unselfish love for someone else very often can shake that person awake to his or her true potential, which in turn often unleashes that person’s own capacity to love in return.
But the kind of love that sees the true person underneath the dreck does not tolerate or enable or excuse the dreck, either. I do believe in reformation — assuming one isn’t dealing with a hardened psychopath, that is. But I also think it’s easier to believe in the reformation of someone who got somehow bumped off course, rather than someone who was never on the right course to begin with.
That’s why I (and apparently, lotsa other readers) love stories about guys-gone-wrong who find the one woman who can get their heads screwed back on straight. Darcy, Rochester, Gabe Bonner — none of them were bad, just misguided. Or hurting. A whole ‘nother animal, however, from the real life so-called men who are, for all intents and purposes, waaaay beyond redemption. In those cases, love is definitely not enough — as their women’s lives can attest.
And now, back to you.
by Karen Templeton July 20th, 2007 at 11:25 amI love manly men but I do think we live in a culture that encourages women to tolerate seriously abusive behavior as the norm. Romance novels reflect that at times. It’s interesting (and positive) that the romance fantasy has the woman always taming the man AND (usually) shows what a sweet guy he is, underneath it all, but is it possible that fantasy only reinforces the idea that abuse is normal and abusive men should be coddled and forgiven? I’m not pointing fingers at SEP or any other authors (I write about manly men, myself) but could it be that our culture leaves us a little brainwashed as to what’s admirable in a man?
by Deborah Smith July 20th, 2007 at 12:42 pm“is it possible that fantasy only reinforces the idea that abuse is normal and abusive men should be coddled and forgiven?”
This is an idea that’s been discussed in academic circles, specifically by Tania Modleski and Janice Radway, but I think most romance readers are capable of distinguishing between fantasy and reality. To paraphrase Modleski, we may enjoy reading about such men in fiction, but if we were confronted by some of them in real life, most of us would show them the door–and fast.
I think that the way in which extremely alpha males are brought to their knees at the end of the romance novel–through the power of the heroine’s love–can be an incredibly empowering fantasy. But real men don’t slay dragons, and most of us don’t expect them to–any more than most men expect the women they love to look like a Playboy centerfold model.
Of course, some people will always have difficulties distinguishing between fantasy and reality, but I think that’s the exception, rather than the norm.
by Kacie J July 20th, 2007 at 2:49 pmI loved this post, Karen. I enjoy the hero’s psychic journey very much, and as long as it makes sense, I’ll fall in love with him too. I’m talking about the fictional alphas with a beta center ;o)–not real life. In real life, that journey is rarely wrapped up in the real time equivalent of a few hundred pages, but I’ve seen something close to it.
I think the best romances are about individual redemption as much as romantic love.
by Ciar Cullen July 20th, 2007 at 3:37 pmI probably should have said psychological rather than psychic. I’ve been writing ghosts lately…:roll:
by Ciar Cullen July 20th, 2007 at 3:38 pmWell, left another post yesterday, only the site or Wordpress went all squirrely on me. Not only ate the post, but wouldn’t let me back in.
I just wanted to reiterate, though, that I see a huge difference between stories in which the heroine believes *her* love can change the hero (a dangerous path to trod, IMO), and those in which the hero’s love for the *heroine* brings about the transformation. The first rarely, if ever, works for me, the second turns me to J-ello every time.
by Karen Templeton July 21st, 2007 at 1:48 pmOne of my first big crushes as a teen was on a boy I started out hating. Then after all the romances I’d read, I figured I was missing the deeper, sensitive parts of his alpha-ness. We went out on two dates.
Ummm… I should never have second-guessed myself. He wasn’t an alpha. He was an ass. My husband’s a real alpha, and he’s the best. A real alpha doesn’t have to be an ass to get his point across, to lead, or let his strong personality shine. I write alpha males like that. =o)
by B.E. Sanderson July 21st, 2007 at 11:29 pm[...] Great article, Karen T! You know, the story goes my Mom couldn’t stand my Dad when they first met. I’m sure glad they got over it! [...]
by Domingo Delicioso #10 « Desperate Writer July 22nd, 2007 at 2:39 amThe love between a heroine and a hero is supposed to be a unique recognition that allows the hero to set down his burden, often a chip on his shoulder but sometimes other negative personality issues. Love gives the hero a reason to be his best self, because the heroine knows and loves that part of him that no one else has ever seen.
Well, that’s the theory. It isn’t changing the person; it’s giving the person a safe place to be who he is inside. Or maybe to develop a side of himself that he has never previously seen a reward in developing.
by Poison Ivy July 23rd, 2007 at 4:11 pm