When people think of romance novels, the first thing that comes to mind is shirtless men with windswept hair on the covers of mass-market paperbacks, or maybe the “damsel in distress” main character who is waiting for a love interest to come and save her from the clutches of evil. They’re often not thought of as ‘real’ reading, because they are stories typically written by women, for women, and starring women. But what if the truth is that even the most “raunchy” novels of the genre are deeply political?
freedom to read
Do This: Unite Against Soft Censorship
The only way to end censorship, whether it’s the quiet removal of books from library collections or in-your-face book bans, is to fight it head on. We saw a huge example of this – and a big win for free speech – this week when ABC and Disney returned Jimmy Kimmel and...
Watch This: Learn How to Spot Soft Censorship
A lot of people are talking about freedom of speech right now. As Americans, it's a right that has always defined us and that we all hold dear. That’s why the majority of us oppose book bans and censorship. The rise in book bans over the past few years has been well...
Read This: The Quiet Danger of Soft Censorship
We’ve been fighting the explosion of book bans since Red Wine & Blue started. PEN America reports 16,000 book bans in public schools since 2021 — a level not seen since the 1950s during McCarthyism. This increase has been driven by organized groups with a...
Recent Posts
Read This: The Struggle for Women to Live Healthy in America
In our divisive political climate, there’s one thing that most suburban women can agree on regardless of party affiliation – we all want to keep ourselves and our families healthy! But every day, that feels harder and harder to do. Fresh, healthy food is way more...
Do This: Two ways to find out if Flock is in your town
Our right to move freely and privately, without being tracked, is fundamental to our democracy. But in recent years, we’ve seen a rise in surveillance technology companies. Flock is one of the largest of those companies, operating a network of AI-powered, automated...
Watch This: What Are Flock Cameras?
In last week’s Easy A, we learned that more than 6,000 communities nationwide have installed Flock surveillance cameras, even though there is no evidence that these cameras, or any automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras, help prevent or reduce crime. We all...
Read This: Get the Flock Out of Our Communities
If you’ve ever seen the movie Minority Report, you remember the dire warning the Tom Cruise sci-fi movie gave about fighting crime using high tech surveillance. But it’s not sci-fi anymore! There’s a disturbing rise in real-life surveillance that everyone needs to...
Do This: Another Step to Reclaiming Democracy
We spent America’s 250th looking forward to the future with Heather Cox Richardson, and hundreds of you made the patriotic commitment to reclaim our democracy from extremists in the 2026 midterm elections. Red Wine & Blue offers so many ways to get involved – from...