Off Campus author accused of lesbophobia for ‘fetishisation’ in book series
Off Campus is written by Elle Kennedy (Prime Video | Getty Images)
The author of the romance book series Off Campus, which inspired the new Amazon Prime Video series of the same name, has been accused of lesbophobia.
The steamy heterosexual ice hockey series earned instant ‘hit’ status when it landed on the streaming platform last week, but eyes have now turned to the book series on which it was based.
As a result, some fans have been raising their eyebrows at the way author Elle Kennedy has depicted lesbians.
BookTok creator Alyssa, known as alyssaslibrary, posted a video on 4 May ahead of the series’ release calling Kennedy out for “fetishisation of lesbian relationships” in her Off Campus series.
Alyssa started the video highlighting how Kennedy, who has also written MLM romance, responded to a message on X from a reader asking her when they can expect her to dabble in WLW, or sapphic, college romance.
“Unfortunately F/F really isn’t something I’m interested in writing, sorry!” she replied in a post dated 15 May 2019.
“It’s really interesting to see because she has written so many instances in the Off Campus series of women making out with women, specifically for the gain of male attention, male attraction, and just sexualising them,” Alyssa said.
Alyssa then shared a quote from Kennedy’s book The Mistake, which featured Logan as the male main character. Logan is the best friend of college hockey player Garrett, who stars as the main character in the Off Campus TV series.
The quote reads: “I glance around the room again. My gaze lands in the corner, where two girls in jeans and bras are making out while one of the Omega Phi guys films the passionate display with his iPhone. The sight makes me stifle a groan. Ten bucks says that video will end up on one of those free porn sites.”
“One, that’s absolutely disgusting,” Alyssa responds. “Two, I cannot. That’s actually disgusting.”
The BookToker then reads aloud an excerpt from the 2016 book The Score. “It’s Friday night, and I’m sprawled on my living room couch, sipping a beer while two blondes – two very hot, very naked blondes – suck each other’s tongues in front of me. My life is awesome,” the passage reads. “‘Best night ever,’ I drawl. My gaze is glued to the trajectory of Kelly’s hands as they glide towards Michelle’s perky t***. Kelly squeezes, and I groan.”
Alyssa continues reading two more excerpts that involve male characters watching or thinking about women making out with each other, noting that the books they were from were all written before Kennedy’s post about not being interested in writing sapphic romance.
“I am so disgusted that people still are reading and recommending these books, but I know people don’t know about these quotes because they’ve only read the first book and a lot of this isn’t mentioned in the first book; it’s mentioned in later books,” Alyssa explains.
“Throughout these quotes, Elle Kennedy, obviously, you can see that she writes F/F relationships. However incredibly awful that is, it is truly so awful, but only in a way to sexually satisfy men that is seen throughout these quotes.”
Alyssa concludes: “I just think everybody needs to put these books down for good. Nobody needs to recommend them, don’t watch the TV show, it is truly awful.”
At the time of writing, the video has gained over 375,000 views. Other TikTok users responded to the accusations in the comments.
“I was going to defend her by saying she doesn’t have to write about something that she’s not interested in, so thank you for citing examples,” one wrote. “She’s forever off my TBR now, and I won’t be watching the show.”
“This is really making me wish I could make myself write all of the sapphic books that I’ve thought about,” said another.
A third wrote: “I’m so glad you shared this because I remember everyone talking about this for a while and then all of the conversation disappeared when the trailer for the show dropped?”
Another user who spoke about Kennedy’s WLW representation was BookTok creator diariesofafemme, known as Amivi.
Posting a video following a series casting announcement, they said: “Elle Kennedy’s Off Campus series has been cast and while her fans are crashing out over the casting choices I’m going to come on here again and tell you guys how that book series is lesbophobic and Elle Kennedy is a whole-a** weirdo.”
They also then went on to cite excerpts from Kennedy’s books to back up their claims. “If the only time you write sapphic relationships into your books is for the men in your books to get off to, that is fetishisation. That is disgusting.”
Amivi continued: “And the fact that this series is being made into a TV show and yet we have a lot of sapphic books that have been picked up for adaptation, but we have no news on them, but we’re gonna get this lesbophobic-a** book made into a TV show? Okay.”
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