Real romance

Writer and lover of love Bolu Babalola explains how growing up with a one-shade view of romance inspired her to write her anthology, Love In Colour

Iam an extreme romantic. I revere the sublime, almost preternatural, aspect of love – the way it can elevate the mundane, colour the grey, and have you hearing Stevie Wonder songs in your head. Growing up, despite being a consumer of all things romcom, I naturally sought out and clung to depictions of Black women being loved and desired, Black women meeting their match, Black women as deserving of the very basic of human joys. Sadly, though, these depictions were difficult to find in mainstream culture.

Love is a universal phenomenon. It’s an indiscriminate, all-encompassing emotion that draws us closer together and exposes the core of us; the humanity of us. And yet, if an alien were to land on earth and seek to comprehend the concept of love through the sole medium of mainstream romantic films and books, it would likely presume that love is a privilege exclusively for those who are white, slim and straight. Growing up watching Disney films, I was led to believe that desirability only belongs to white women, who, apparently, are the epitome of beauty. Cinderella was blonde-haired and blue-eyed, and Snow White’s pale skin was considered so exquisite that her character was named after it.

As I got older, I noticed that feminist critiques of fairy tales are easy to come by: why does the prince always have to save the princess? Why does the princess always have so little agency in these stories? Why does it seem like her life has no purpose without the prince? But these criticisms are still extremely white in nature and fail to account for the lack of racially diverse romance presented within popular culture. And if the mainstream white woman is considered soft and sweet, what is the Black woman in comparison? Aggressive. Abrasive. Unlovable.

What does it mean, then, if love (arguably the very thing that comprises the essence of human joy, that brings life to life) is only presented for one race? It is a subtle, insidious way of dehumanising those of us who are excluded.

This is why writing Love In Colour was crucial for me.

It’s an anthology of rewritten love stories taken from mythology and history; love stories that truly show the variety and colours of love around the globe. It’s so important for me to imagine dimensional characters who are not only independent-minded and smart and who use their voices, but who are also allowed to be soft within that strength, tender within that toughness; who are wanted, the nuances of their humanity reflecting the nuances of love itself. Black women deserve to see the varying tones of who they are glowing under and in love, and our culture in general needs to see love in its fullest colour. Because love that exists only in one shade is no love at all.

Love In Colour: Mythical Tales From Around The World,

Retold by Bolu Babalola (Headline) is out 20th August

‘LOVE IS A UNIVERSAL PHENOMENON’