The romance novel industry has been designing covers for a very long time. We've seen swooning couples, floating heads, headless bodies, photoshop overlays of couples and scenery, women in fancy dresses, and plain fancy font covers with inserts. The current trends of floating heads and headless bodies are an interesting oxymoronic mix.
On the last, I asked on Twitter about the headless body phenomenon known as mantitty.
The tweet read:
Why do romance novel covers crop mid-head or at the neck? Seriously, my art professors would kill me for those design decisions.
I was taught when drawing the human body you never cut off at a joint. Ever. It makes the body look truncated, misshapen, and distorted. If you're going to crop a body you crop mid bone section - mid thighs, mid arms, etc.
Two responses to my tweet were:
@qc2: 'cause the models are butterfaces.
@amhartnett: easier than finding models who match the entire look of char.? Let's the reader fill in blank face with their imagination?
Both responses point to the model as being a bad representative for the male lead. With all the models out there, there should be one that can represent the hero accurately enough.
The first response begs the question of what is handsome. Considering all the notions of beauty out there, one face might very well attract and repel the same amount of readers.
My guess is publishers are catering to the mass of readers instead of creating a cover that accurately represents the novel. I mean how offensive can a hot, finely honed male body be? Forget that 99.98% are hairless for those that love chest hair.
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6 comments ↓
I’m not complaining of the headless body trends…Not I!
I’ll be honest I think the romance industry is right on when it comes to beautiful covers. I can appreciate art & find them breathtaking. This new trend lends a certain mystery that draws many of us to buy the book in the first place. What if a book had a face shot of a blond viking but 50% of women are drawn to dark hair—there went alot of sales down the drain.
It’s also nice to picture the hero; as your interpreting the author’s description instead of having a pre-programmed image from the cover.
I find those male torso covers offensive. If a book marketed to men had a naked FEMALE torso, the feminists and conservatives would be rioting. What makes it okay to objectify males? Plus it makes the reader appear shallow, sexist and brainless!
I can see a few reasons, all of which make sense. But I agree it’s odd to see so many headless bodies or guys who only have a chin and nothing above it. Talk about airheads!
1. cover models may have more attractive bodies than faces.
2. models hair/eyes/etc may not match the characters, so this avoids having a blond hero on the cover when the story has a brunette.
3. a lot of the same models are used over and over and this prevents that from being so noticeable.
I think it fits the whole idea of reading a romance novel. I don’t find it offensive that books have half naked men or women on the covers. It plays on the idea of fantasy and if I wanted to picture somebody real then it would be my husband. It needs to be seen objectively and without facial features in order to appeal to to a large group instead of zoning in on only a handful of people. As for feminists…I’m a strong minded, willed, opinionated, studying, working and passionate woman and if I don’t get offended at those covers maybe those who do should stay away from romance novels! Anne, no offense but it seems like you’re trying to justify reading these books by which covers are put on them instead of embracing the fact of what they represent which is our own sexual liberty and fantasies without limits. Enjoy the books.
Speaking of covers E M Lynley, I love the airheads on the cover of “Sex, Lies & Wedding Bells.”
Guess I’m going to have to take out those crafting scissors after all. Mantitty collage anyone? (LOL)
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