One of the usual conventions in romances of certain heat levels is that the hero should possess a particular attribute of high-average to above-average proportions. While size doesn't have to matter, I'm generally okay with this.
My current manuscript has a Black hero (pure historical, no paranormal aspects), and of course, one of the major othering stereotypes of Black men is that they're all so blessed.
Am I playing in to that stereotype by following genre expectations for endowment, or do I go with the flow and make him as heroically proportioned as the rest of his romantic hero peers?
(The things I worry about over my evening tea... But seriously, I don't want to fall in to ugly tropes because I didn't think things through.)
My current manuscript has a Black hero (pure historical, no paranormal aspects), and of course, one of the major othering stereotypes of Black men is that they're all so blessed.
Am I playing in to that stereotype by following genre expectations for endowment, or do I go with the flow and make him as heroically proportioned as the rest of his romantic hero peers?
(The things I worry about over my evening tea... But seriously, I don't want to fall in to ugly tropes because I didn't think things through.)