The internet has discovered women’s latest fantasy, and the irony is too perfect to ignore. ICE agents have shot to the number two trending persona on popular women’s AI roleplay apps, spawning a wave of mock romance novel covers that might not stay fictional for long.
YouTuber Yellow Flash broke down the phenomenon in a recent video, immediately recognizing the pattern. “Does this surprise me? No,” he stated flatly, before explaining the appeal: “It’s the thrill of a forbidden power dynamic. Dominant submission. It’s dangerous because imagine if other white women saw them with these ICE agents. It’s the enemies to lover trope.”
The timing couldn’t be more absurd. Following the January shooting of Renée Good in Minneapolis during an ICE operation after she tried to run over the agent with a car, social media exploded with protests and outrage. Yet privately, women are flooding AI chat apps with scenarios featuring rough arrest scenes and “I’ll do anything to stay in the country, Mr. ICE agent” fantasies.
Yellow Flash captured the comedy gold perfectly: “Publicly they’re like, ‘Oo, these mass enforcers are monsters. Defund ice resist.’ But privately, they’re like, ‘Yes, daddy. Arrest me and rough me up, then hopelessly fall in love with me.’ It’s just funny.”
The meme has generated countless AI-generated book covers featuring stern agents and desperate heroines. Yellow Flash even noted one viral example: “And this is a fake, this is a fake picture, right? Somebody made this with AI. But if this is a real book in a store, you walked into a, this you, I don’t even know if you’d see it, it would sell out.”
He’s not wrong. Anyone familiar with romance publishing knows this joke has an expiration date before it becomes reality.
Yellow Flash referenced another content creator who nailed the psychology: “I just made a lengthy YouTube video about women’s fantasies being very, very centered around power dynamics and dominant power dynamics. To be specific, this will usually be stuff like, ‘Oh, you’re the police officer and I’m the one who needs to be arrested or you’re the teacher and I’m the bad student or you’re the doctor and I’m the patient who needs to be saved.’ But deportation agents, have you lost your damn mind?”
His response captured the bewilderment: “See this is why there’s so many books out there of people trying to say they understand women or you know like what women want, what you need to do. Nobody, I don’t even think women know.”
Consider the trajectory of “romanticy,” the monster romance subgenre that gave us Morning Glory Milking Farm. C.M. Nascosta’s 60,000-word opus features a broke millennial taking a job milking well-endowed minotaurs to pay off student loans. The premise sounds like parody. It’s a bestseller with thousands of five-star reviews.
Or look at Amazon’s current top category: women’s hockey romance. Thousands of novels feature alpha male hockey players sweeping women off their feet. Bruised knuckles, locker room encounters, and protective possessiveness dominate the trope. The formula prints money.
Yellow Flash explained the current ICE agent appeal with clarity: “It’s really not that different from similar stuff you see where women will fantasize about the mafia boss or vampires, cops, and books. Really what it is is because of the current news cycle, it’s made ICE agents a very timely, hyper masculine symbol that amps up the appeal for some and it’s forbidden.”
The power dynamic formula remains consistent across subgenres. Dominant authority figure in uniform meets woman who needs something. Add forbidden attraction and enemies-to-lovers tension. Repeat until profitable.
Romance publishers watch social media trends obsessively. When AI roleplay data shows ICE agents as a top-two fantasy, acquisitions editors take notes. The genre has built entire empires on less promising premises than uniformed enforcement officers with handcuffs.
Yellow Flash broke down the specific appeal: “It allows them to safely explore raw masculinity and authority figures, especially authority figures in uniform. I mean, it’s really not that different from similar stuff you see where women will fantasize about the mafia boss or vampires, cops, and books.”
He continued: “Really what it is is because of the current news cycle, it’s made ICE agents a very timely, hyper masculine symbol that amps up the appeal for some and it’s forbidden. And like I said, it’s still funny, especially the glaring irony and hypocrisy that people have been spotting right away.”
The hypocrisy provides endless entertainment. Yellow Flash laid out the contradiction: “Many of the same women, or at least a vocal subset of liberal progressive ones, are out there protesting ice hard, calling agents fascists, abusers, or domestic terrorists in so many viral videos and rallies. Yet, in private AI roleplay apps, Ice Agent explodes as a top romantic sexual fantasy character.”
He offered some tongue-in-cheek theories: “There’s a lot of comedy gold here if you think about it because look at it. Look at it like this. Publicly they’re like, ‘Oo, these mass enforcers are monsters. Defund ice resist.’ But privately, they’re like, ‘Yes, daddy. Arrest me and rough me up, then hopelessly fall in love with me.’ It’s just funny. Especially a lot of the takes that the protest signs are just foreplay or the real reason they block raids is to get close enough for the handcuffs fantasy which I find absolutely funny.”
Yellow Flash maintained perspective on the phenomenon: “Of course, you know, I don’t really think that’s that’s going on, but who knows? Maybe it is. It’s harmless really. It’s just women being women. They love they love their power dynamics. They love their dark fantasies. It’s fine. But is it funny? Oh, hell yeah, it’s funny.”
But the joke stops being funny when we can safely predict that the first ICE agent romance hits shelves in six months. Publishers will frame it as empowerment or subversion. Book bloggers will defend it as fantasy exploration. The cycle continues.
What do you think about ICE agents becoming romance’s next cringe trend?
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Romantasies are arguably not good for women but this would be better than the monster versions
As long as the book ends with the protester having a (fed)bun in the oven, and fully based on the importance of borders, I’m surprisingly ok with this trend!