The F-bomb, that is.

I read a lot of romance novels. At a rough guess, I’d say I read at least 20 or 25 a month. The vast majority of them are written by women. The vast majority of those feature a female protagonist. The vast majority of those refrain from using language stronger than the occasional “oh my God!” unless they’re dirty-talking in the bedroom. Most of them don’t use strong language at all. Most of the cussing drops from the lips of the male characters. Art imitating life, perhaps.

One notable exception is the occasional female protagonist written by a male author. This is a rare species, I admit, but the ones I’ve read in the last 6 months all seem to drop f-bombs with ease. I don’t know if male writers think women should have the freedom to swear or if these particular male authors simply can’t root all the profanity out of their internal dialog, but there it is. And every time I read it, I end up wondering, “Why?”

Is it sexy? Is it mature? Is it … I don’t know … sexy? (Wait, I already used that word. *shrug*)

I was just wondering.