So in m/m romance, I love the trope of a hot single dad getting a hot single guy as a caretaker for his kids. This could easily become het if you made hot single dad a hot single mom, of course. But one thing I've come across looking for books with this premise is male nannys or caretakers being referred to as "Mannys". I'm not sure why it bothers me, other than I feel like its weirdly gendering and a little infantalizing maybe? Any other romance writing term that rubs you the wrong way, even if the underlying premise floats your boat?
Manny wasn't invented for romance - it's been around at least 15 years, when it was used in Friends. Not sure if that's where it originated or if they just popularised it. I see what you mean, although nanny is also a gendered word - over here at least, it's another word for 'Grandma.' I called my grandma 'Nan', and I did have some USians who thought I had a nanny...
I don't like that "Inspirational" Romance is used as a synonym for "Conservative Christian" Romance. I HATE the convention of shortening hero to a capital H and heroine to a lower-case h. That's bullshit. Other than that? Hmmmm... I need to think about it!
Good ones! Actually, I think "hero" and "heroine" annoy me even in full. They perpetuate that myth that all the men are muscly alphas and all the women are simpering. Also "sweet" for "sexless." Because, of course, sexy romance can be sweet in the normal use of the word, and "sweet" romance can be chilling (e.g. when it's abuse dressed up as romance, just without sex scenes...)
