Pages and Prejudice

Show Notes:My man, my man, my man… is trying to kill me.Adrie and Stitch are joined by pop culture critic and video essayist Princess Weekes to dig into the enemies-to-lovers trope across anime, fanfic, and romance publishing. They trace their earliest ships (Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Dramione, SwanQueen), argue about what modern romance gets wrong when it "mismarkets" itself as enemies to lovers, and debate what actually makes the trope work — narrative overlap, ideological reconciliation, and real stakes, not just banter.Topics: enemies to lovers, rivals to lovers, fandom shipping wars, fanfiction, omegaverse, dark romance, erotica vs. romance, historical romance, second chance romance, anti-hero tropes, Dramione, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Zutara, Kataang, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Spuffy, Fuffy, fandom discourse, cancel culture, thought crimes, ASOIAFReading Recommendations:Fiction:Broken Flames by MK AhearnThe Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte KnightleyXXX Buddy/Perfect Buddy by lash and dakiGame On by Navessa AllenThe Death Made Prince by Lisette MarshallThe Nightborn Duet by Carissa BroadbentThe Sweet Pea Mysteries series by Kathryn MoonThe Poppy War by R.F. KuangNon-Fiction: The Messy Politics of Enemies to Lovers by PrincessWeekesAnti hero, edited by Fiona Peters and Rebecca StewartPrevious Episodes:E69: Leave Room for My God Complex - Kink Panic and the New PuriteensE62: Ship War of TheseusE51: Fandom EtiquetteFollow & Support:Follow us on Instagram.Send inquiries to pagesandprejudicepod@gmail.com.Buy merch on Threadless or become a Patron to support the show!Hosted by:adrie rose (@adrierising on bsky, twitter, instagram, & tiktok)Stitch (@stitch on bsky, @stitchmediamix on instagram)Guests: Princess Weekes is an Assistant Editor at the Geek Girl Pop Culture Site, The Mary Sue and the co-host/co-writer of the PBS Digital Series, It's Lit. She got her Master's Degree at Brooklyn College in Literary Theory where she wrote about colorism in fairy tales and became inspired to write, The Johnson Bay Witches. A born and raised Brooklynite, when she isn't busy writing, she's busy contemplating cult-classic television shows that ended decades ago. The Johnson Bay Witches is her first novel.Music: ⁠⁠HOLY MOLY⁠⁠ by Shane Ivers

Show Notes:If I had a nickel for every time someone reduced the entirety of the romance genre to “smut,” I’d have enough money to be my own billionaire book boyfriend.Adrie and Stitch dig into the TikTok discourse around "smut," "fairy porn," and romantasy — a conversation that starts with why Adrie hates the word smut and ends with a rigorous taxonomy of romance, erotic romance, erotica, and pornography. Along the way, they trace the through line from Anthony Comstock's 19th-century censorship crusade to contemporary age-verification legislation, purity culture in fandom, and why women reading for pleasure has always made someone, somewhere, deeply uncomfortable.Topics: romance, erotic romance, erotica, pornography, romantasy, fantasy romance, dark romance, smut discourse, the Comstock Act, publishing censorship, age verification, KOSA, internet regulation, fandom purity culture, religious repression, women's literacy, feminist discourse, genre fictionReading Recommendations: Fiction:A Touch of Taboo series by Katee RobertSinner by Sierra SimoneFather by Loki RenardGuarded by the Snake by Layla FaeTraining the Receptionist by Juniper BellThe Bachelor Machine by M ChristianTHE GODWICKS by Tiffany ReiszThe Scheming Crown Prince’s Wicket Consort by Subaru Kayano We Can’t Do Just Plain Love by Mafuyu FukitaNao-chan NTR ~The Person I Fell in Love With Is My Childhood Friend's Father~ by YatomominThe Cold-Blooded Captain's Sadistic Love (audio)The Merciless Perfect Man I Started Dating Turned Out To Be An Infatuated Closet Pervert (audio)Non-Fiction:Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the Frenzy of the Visible by Linda WilliamsScreening Sex by Linda WilliamsReading the Romance by Janice RadwayThe History of Sexuality by Michel FoucaultThe Uses of the Erotic by Audre Lorde (part of Sister, Outsider)The Perpetual Disappointment of “If Only” Eroticism by Rien GrayPast Episodes:E24: Harlequin RenaissanceE29: Heaving BosomsE33: In Defense of SmutFollow & Support:Follow us on Instagram.Send inquiries to pagesandprejudicepod@gmail.com.Buy merch on Threadless or become a Patron to support the show!Hosted by:adrie rose (@adrierising on bsky, twitter, instagram, & tiktok)Stitch (@stitch on bsky, @stitchmediamix on instagram)Music: ⁠⁠HOLY MOLY⁠⁠ by Shane Ivers

Show Notes:Enemies to lovers, fake dating, one bed – go girl, give me… the entire story.Adrie and Stitch dive into the world of romance marketing — specifically, the increasingly common practice of selling books through exhaustive trope lists rather than traditional publishing shorthand. They trace how genre conventions evolved from Jane Austen to bodice rippers to the algorithm-driven Canva graphics flooding BookTok today, arguing that tropes are a powerful tool that authors and publishers are wielding with diminishing returns — and diminishing accuracy. Along the way, they unpack how societal shifts (birth control, women entering the workforce, divorce becoming normalized) have always driven the emergence of new romantic conventions, and why the current moment feels less like evolution and more like a race to the bottom of the SEO barrel.Topics: romance publishing history, trope marketing, SEO and algorithms, bodice rippers, category romance, Harlequin and Mills & Boon, enemies to lovers, forced proximity, only one bed, rivals to lovers, omegaverse, reverse harem, dark romance, mob and mafia romance, paranormal romance, YA romance, urban fantasy, transmigration romance, Korean webtoons, boys love, danmei, spoilers, fandom studiesReading Recommendations: Fiction:Be My Bad Guy by Kate Prior (enemies to lovers, billionaire boyfriend, almost too dumb to die)Luxuria by Colette Rhodes (primal kink, breeding kink, miscommunication, billionaire boyfriend, grumpy x sunshine, almost fated mates, marriage of convenience)The Death-Made Prince by Lisette Marshall (enemies to lovers, miscommunication, slow burn, he falls first)Marital Enemies (rivals to lovers x 2, transmigration, second chance romance, miscommunication.)Apocalypse Villainess: Survival of a Corporate Slave (zombie apocalypse, villainess, rivals to lovers, rewrite the narrative)The Husky and His White Cat Shizun by Meatbun (student-teacher, miscommunication, time travel, one-sided enemies to lovers)Non-Fiction:Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz Monster Theory: Reading Culture by Jeffrey Jerome CohenThe Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph CampbellThe Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler Past Episodes:E24: Harlequin RenaissanceE47: We Live in a SocietyE63: I Got a Pocket Full of Cheap BooksFollow & Support:Follow us on Instagram.Send inquiries to pagesandprejudicepod@gmail.com.Buy merch on Threadless or become a Patron to support the show!Hosted by:adrie rose (@adrierising on bsky, twitter, instagram, & tiktok)Stitch (@stitch on bsky, @stitchmediamix on instagram)Music: ⁠⁠HOLY MOLY⁠⁠ by Shane Ivers

Show Notes:Everyone hates alpha-holes until the hero is a 7-foot tall, genetically modified war criminal being held captive in a secret underground lab.Content Warning: This episode includes frank discussions of dubious consent, non-consent, and other fraught power and relationship dynamics. Adrie and Stitch dive into the world of prison romance — a subgenre of romance and dark erotica centered on men (and occasionally other beings) who are deprived of liberty, whether in correctional facilities, medical institutions, or otherwise controlled environments. They're joined by licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist Andrew Pari, who has pioneered work closing the gap between kink/BDSM communities and clinical psychology, and who just finished writing a book chapter on consensual non-consent. Together, all three push back on the discourse around dark romance as uniquely harmful, arguing that women's rape fantasies are neither new nor dangerous — and that curiosity, not condemnation, is the real antidote.Topics: prison romance, institutionalization romance, dark romance, dark erotica, omegaverse, transmigration romance, Korean webtoons, boys love, dubcon, CNC, consensual non-consent, BDSM, caretaker romance, kink psychology, sexual trauma, rape fantasy, heteropessimism, feminist discourse, fandom studiesReading Recommendations: Fiction:Cottonmouth by Naomi LucasReleasing Maladek by Victoria AvelineThe Warrior of Rozun duology by Zoey DravenJax: The Boundarylands Omegaverse by Callie RhodesPrison Breakfast by ZiddoI Met The Male Lead in Prison by Moon Sihyun and HyeseongUnder Grand Hotel by Sadahiro MikaFOG LAND by POGOI Failed to Oust the Villain! Non-Fiction:Women’s Erotic Rape Fantasies: An Evaluation of Theory and Research by Joseph W. Critelli & Jenny M. BivonaInside the Horny Dungeon of BookTok “Dark Romance” Music by Kieran Press-Reynolds‘Dogfuck rapeworld’: Omegaverse fanfiction as a critical tool in analyzing the impact of social power structures on intimate relationships and sexual consent by Milena PopovaFollow & Support:Follow us on Instagram.Send inquiries to pagesandprejudicepod@gmail.com.Buy merch on Threadless or become a Patron to support the show!Hosted by:adrie rose (@adrierising on bsky, twitter, instagram, & tiktok)Stitch (@stitch on bsky, @stitchmediamix on instagram)Guests: Andrew Pari is a psychotherapist and Founder of Sexual Awakening & Awareness, dedicated to bridging the conversation between traditional psychotherapy and kink knowledge by treating sexualized trauma through a sex-positive lens.  He is the creator of the concept of Curative Kink and has developed the first therapeutic model allowing for the re-experiencing of sexual trauma to create healing in an environment of safety and trust. A nationally recognized expert in trauma and sexualized violence, he’s developed sex trade policy and hosted worldwide online discussions on rape.  He recently finished writing a chapter on Consensual Non-Consent for the first clinical textbook on Kink Psychotherapy.  He adores his Russian Blue kitty, Finley, who keeps Andrew grounded in the important things in life.Music: ⁠⁠HOLY MOLY⁠⁠ by Shane Ivers

Show Notes:Maybe he’s hiding emotional trauma, maybe it’s Maybelline.Stitch and Adrie dive into the world of masked man romance — a subgenre of dark romance and erotica centered on men (and occasionally other entities) who conceal their faces. Stitch, newly obsessed with the trope, breaks down its defining elements: the kinks involved (stalking, primal play, sex clubs, consensual non-consent), the recurring character archetypes, and the surprisingly vulnerable emotional cores hiding beneath all those balaclavas. Adrie brings a fresh perspective as someone less familiar with the subgenre, offering examples from adjacent tropes — including a hooded shadow creature from CM Nascosta and a masked alien king — while both hosts discuss how these fantasies connect to real cultural touchstones like Scream and Nightmare on Elm Street, and Nosferatu. They also push back on the discourse around dark romance as uniquely harmful, arguing that these fantasies are neither new nor dangerous.Topics: masked man romance, dark romance, dark erotica, horror romance, monster romance, alien romance, romantasy, fantasy romance, omegaverse, CNC, dubcon, primal play, stalker romance, slasher romance, masked menReading Recommendations:Fiction:BJ AlexCaptured By The Masked Murderer: Okay, We'll Get Cozy... Just Don't Kill Me!Mask Danshi: This Shouldn't Lead to LoveRuling Sikthand by Victoria AvelineThe Princess & the Spy series by Lisette Marshall (temporarily unpublished)The Viridian Priestess series by Katrina CalandraTwo for Tea by CM NascostaSlaying the Vampire Conqueror by Carissa BroadbentNon-Fiction: Uses of the Erotic by Audre LordeFollow & Support:Follow us on Instagram.Send inquiries to pagesandprejudicepod@gmail.com.Buy merch on Threadless or become a Patron to support the show!Hosted by:adrie rose (@adrierising on bsky, twitter, instagram, & tiktok)Stitch (@stitch on bsky, @stitchmediamix on instagram)Music: ⁠⁠HOLY MOLY⁠⁠ by Shane Ivers

Show Notes:I am a freak and I am proud.Why are so many fans hiding their AO3 bookmarks, running private accounts, and apologizing for what they love? In this episode of Pages & Prejudice, Stitch and Adrie Rose dig into the culture of shame, guilt, and fear that has taken over fandom spaces — and why it's making everyone miserable. Drawing on cultural anthropology, Ruth Benedict's guilt/shame/fear society framework, and years of firsthand fandom experience, they break down how anti-fandom, call-out culture, and the concept of "guilty pleasures" are pushing fans to hide, self-censor, and turn on each other.Topics: fanfiction, AO3, guilty pleasures, anti-fandom, dark ships, slash fiction, fandom culture, kink shaming, fandom shame, fan works, pro-ship, fandom discourse, kirk/spockRecommendations:Fanfic:Alien Brothers by Helena SeabrightPodcasts:Searching for Soshern: The Forbidden Star Trek Fanfiction (Very Special Episodes)Follow & Support:Follow us on Instagram.Send inquiries to pagesandprejudicepod@gmail.com.Buy merch on Threadless or become a Patron to support the show!Hosted by:Adrie Rose (@adrierising on bsky, twitter, instagram, & tiktok)Stitch (@stitch on bsky, @stitchmediamix on instagram)Music: ⁠⁠HOLY MOLY⁠⁠ by Shane Ivers

Show Notes:Go forth and live your best trope!Adrie and Stitch sit down with Maggie North, Canadian author and anesthesiologist, to discuss her latest novel Fossil Feud — an almost second-chance, contemporary romance set against the world of citizen science and paleontology. They talk about the science and history baked into the book, why romance deserves more credit as an intellectual pursuit, what it means to write a protagonist who weaponizes her own rules to avoid being hurt again, and how a discipline built on unearthing the past became the perfect metaphor for love, grief, and the people we're always becoming.Fossil Feud comes out July 28, 2026!Topics: Maggie North, Fossil Feud, second chance romance, STEM, paleontology, Bone Wars, women's anger, complex female characters, heteropessimism, arrival fallacy, Jurassic ParkReading Recommendations:Fiction:Fossil Feud by Maggie NorthCherry Baby by Rainbow RowellAugust Lane by Regina BlackWill They or Won’t They by Ava WilderScot & Bothered by Alexandra KileyMistakenly Saving the VillainA World Without YouNon-Fiction:Losing Gus: The Cost of Commercial Dinosaur Actions by Kristi Curry RogersBittersweet by Susan KanePodcasts:The Bone Wars | History This WeekPaleontological Frauds | Strange AnimalsThe Great Himalayan Golmaal | The Rearview PodcastFollow & Support:Follow us on Instagram.Send inquiries to pagesandprejudicepod@gmail.com.Buy merch on Threadless to support the show!Hosted by:adrie rose (@adrierising on bsky, twitter, instagram, & tiktok)Stitch (@stitch on bsky, @stitchmediamix on instagram)Guests:Maggie North writes deeply emotional, strangely hilarious romance novels about introverts, STEM, Canada, and other overlooked, underappreciated things you’d love to discover. A doctor by day, author by night, she lives in Ottawa, Canada with the man she met in ninth grade, their kid, and a rotating cast of hypoallergenic aquarium friends. Maggie enjoys being autistic a lot more since her diagnosis as an adult. Her books include RULES FOR SECOND CHANCES, THE RIPPLE EFFECT, and FOSSIL FEUD.Music: ⁠⁠HOLY MOLY⁠⁠ by Shane Ivers

Show Notes:Follow us on Instagram.Send inquiries to pagesandprejudicepod@gmail.com.Buy merch on Threadless or become a Patron to support the show!Hosted by:Adrie Rose (@adrierising on bsky, twitter, instagram, & tiktok)Stitch (@stitch on bsky, @stitchmediamix on instagram)Guests:Another Bad Salad (@anotherbadsald on tiktok and youtube) aka the Bob’s Burger’s ladyIt’s not a phase mom, this is who I am!Adrie and guest Holly (anotherbadsalad) dig into the "manic pixie goth girl" — the pop culture archetype of the politically-charged, aesthetically-consumed goth girl in teen and animated media, and why her actual beliefs almost always get tossed aside in favor of her look. From Ally Sheedy's makeover in The Breakfast Club to Jane Lane vs. Daria, Marceline's emotional labor in Adventure Time, Debbie Hyman in American Dad, the Hex Girls, and the underrated Wendell & Wild — they trace how goth girls get fetishized, disposed, tied to trauma, and rarely allowed to just be. Plus: the racialization of goth aesthetics, the goth-to-supernatural pipeline, and why the Catholic Church is actually very goth.Topics: goth girl trope, manic pixie dream girl, media criticism, animated media, fetishization, teen media, Daria, Danny Phantom, Teen Titans, American Dad, Wendell & Wild, fandom, representation, goth aestheticsReading Recommendations:Fiction:The Vampire Kisses series by Ellen SchreiberLeech by Hiron EnnesTelevision:Chilling Adventures of SabrinaMTV’s DowntownO’GradyFilm:The CraftForbidden FruitsPast Episodes:E45: Once You Go AlienE49: A Thin Line Between Love & HateE54: Gay Twitches! Gay Twitches!Music: ⁠⁠HOLY MOLY⁠⁠ by Shane Ivers

Show Notes:Follow us on Instagram.Send inquiries to pagesandprejudicepod@gmail.com.Buy merch on Threadless or become a Patron to support the show!Hosted by:Adrie Rose (@adrierising on bsky, twitter, instagram, & tiktok)Stitch (@stitch on bsky, @stitchmediamix on instagram)Leave room for Jesus, but it’s a 20 year old virgin on tiktok.Adrie and Stitch dig into how purity culture is making a comeback — not just from the religious right, but from within progressive fandom and online spaces — and why the result looks eerily similar from both ends of the political spectrum. They explore the "SVU-ification" of media, the rise of kink-shaming in fandom, why nuance is dead on the internet, and how algorithm-driven outrage is producing a generation that can't sit with discomfort — let alone articulate it. From discourse about problematic romance fiction and RPF, to the harassment of actors for being straight, to the hot takes on God of War's Begtse, this episode asks: are we actually protecting anyone, or are we just doing purity culture from the left?Topics: purity culture, fandom discourse, kink-shaming, consent language, SVU, romance fiction, RPF, problematic faves, fanfic, AO3, Heated Rivalry, and more.Reading Recommendations:Fiction:The Planet of Kings series by Lee Savino and Tabitha BlackThe Alpha Horde series by Milana JacksCold Sweat by Vera Valentinebasically anything by Loki ReynardManeaterRoyal ReincarnationThe Mating of ElvesHolesome Romance Music: ⁠⁠HOLY MOLY⁠⁠ by Shane Ivers