Katelynn Carter, Mary Dillon, Cheyenne McAllister, Anna Weikel
English BA and MA students
What Women Want: Subverting Gender Expression in Modern Storytelling and Romance
Class: ENGL 3361/5361: Multimodal Digital Writing with Dr. Hüsing (Spring 2026)
Authors
Mary Dillon
Undergraduate English BA student, Education Minor 7-12
Cheyenne McAllister
Undergraduate English BA student, Education Minor 7-12
Katelynn Carter
Undergraduate English BA student
Anna Weikel
English MA Student
Abstract
Our podcast, What Women Want examines how modern feminist pop culture has reshaped gender expression within the booming romance genre across book-to-television storytelling. In this episode, the host and three specialists analyze Netflix’s Bridgerton (2020), Harley Laroux’s Soul of a Witch (2023), and Rachel Reid’s Heated Rivalry (2019) and its 2026 screen adaptation for non-traditional portrayals of masculinity and femininity, and the rhetoric behind queer relationships. Four women discuss the popularity of these works through media reception and character analysis in Benedict Bridgerton, Everly Laverne, Shane Hollander, and Ilya Rozanov. As these protagonists offer up atypical examples of masculinity, femininity, and romance, we look for reasons behind their overall success and why they resonate so strongly with contemporary female viewers, who are ultimately redefining what gender expression looks like in the romance genre.
The Multimodal Exchange 