Meaning of bodice ripper | Babel Free

Definitions

A romantic novel, usually in a historical setting, with frank depictions of sexual activity, especially one in which the female protagonist is seduced; (by extension) a film, television programme, etc., featuring such activity.

informal

Equivalents

Examples

“My aunt would bring⟳ a stack of torrid bodice rippers with her to the beach, and would unfailingly blush if disturbed in her reading.”

“Publishers call⟳ them hot historicals as opposed to either the virginal variety Barbara Cartland writes or to the bodice rippers "because that's usually what happens to the heroines," Price explained.”

“The name⟳ "bodice ripper" was derived from the frequent rapes and sexual assaults that the heroines experienced. "Bodice-ripper" heroines were portrayed to be stronger and more active characters than gothic heroines. Editors of category romances, noting the popularity of the "bodice rippers," have⟳ borrowed the longer lengths, the overt sexuality and the assertive heroine from these romances.”

“Soon bodice-rippers, the gothics, the "romance" novel advanced from paperback to hardback, from supermarket racks to book club selections.”

“This book is the last⟳ stage⟳ of a long and varied journey that began with the first UK screening of The Piano. Never having been an ardent fan of conventional ‘bodice rippers’ or nostalgic fossilisations of a past we never had, I was surprised by my reaction to the costumes.”

“Indeed, Travis had been a model⟳ as a college student, working his way through John Jay Criminal College, posing for the bodice-ripper covers of romantic novels.”

“These novels became known as "bodice rippers" because they were much more sexually explicit than earlier romances had been. Instead of experiencing a delicious kiss or a mystical wedding night at the end⟳ of the story, heroines in the bodice rippers were regularly ravished by the hero. Some feminist critics objected to these books as a romanticization of rape, but readers identified strongly with the heroine's powerlessness as a woman in a rigidly patriarchal society. Unlike the sweet virgins of earlier romances, the heroines of the bodice rippers were notoriously feisty.”

“Grazia [Deledda] discovered early that a short story appeared in the last⟳ pages of each magazine; these tales were of a decidedly Romantic bent, much like⟳ today's supermarket bodice-rippers.”

“[M]y mother chased her dream⟳ of becoming a character in one of those frontier romance novels—buckskin bodice rippers, she called them—that she so adored.”

“They stubbornly hung on to the idea that Outlander was a Harlequinesque bodiceripper that would only appeal to middle-age bored housewives.”

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