Every romance story is exactly the same: There are two people-- usually single-- who meet by chance, woo each other for 300-or-so pages; then have sex, get married, and live happily ever after (but not before a final confrontation between the new lover and the abusive-yet-clingy ex-lover who has "changed" and "wants him/her back").
A lobotomized Myspace camwhore could develop a better plot than most of the authors1 who write these horribly idealistic novels.
I could go on for several pages about how the morons who write these mind-dump stories are uncreative, talentless hacks, but that energy is better spent getting to the heart of the problem: the impact these formulaic stories have on the mindsets of impressionable women.
Thanks to shitty romance novels, guys are expected to act a certain way when trying to get laid: Instead of the up-front, effective "Let's fuck like animals!" approach that would eliminate social tension, we're expected to be everything a contrived character from some shitty book emulates.
Guess what, bitch? My name isn't Prince Charming! What you see is what you get.
If you happen to be a self-proclaimed "hopeless romantic," allow me to let you in on a little secret. This is just between me, you, and anyone with a functional brain:
The reason lonely, bitter housewives with sandy vaginas write these impossibly-ideal romance novels-- and also the reason they sell so well-- is because the "perfect man" is a work of fiction. He does not exist!
I'd love hate to shatter your self-conceived illusion, but it's the god damn truth. Men are pigs. If you're a woman who reads/writes these masterfeces and you can't rationalize this simple fact, consider licking pussy.
Sadly, it's not just women, either. There are just as many "hopeless romantic" men2 and they're just as stupid as the women.
The only acceptable way to use romance in a story is to build up a possible romantic pairing, make the two people seem so perfect for each other... then suddenly smash it completely and utterly without any hope of repair. (If you use death as the tragic force, it's best to keep one character alive so nobody tries to come to terms with the tragedy using the "united in the next life" cop-out.)
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