I’m a big advocate for reading; persuading people to pick up a book is a hill I would die on. Research proves that reading is good for your mental health, education and empathy development; plus, it's simply fun. However, I think there’s an insidious aspect of literary tradition which might be doing us a disservice as women. What am I talking about? The glamourisation of emotionally unavailable men.
Since the brooding Byronic hero, we’ve digested a catalogue of literary male protagonists defined by distance, hidden trauma and a reluctance to connect, who are marketed as the ultimate romantic hero. But are they? Mr Darcy (Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice) is cold and proud to the point of arrogance. Mr Rochester (Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre) is the definition of secretive; he hides a wife locked in his attic! Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë) is, in fact, a cruel, angry and unreachable man.
