Stereotypically, the answer to what women are looking for in a man includes things like “understanding” and “sense of humor”. Here are the word frequency counts from the titles of the last 130 “Harlequin Presents” romance novel titles, of those words that appear at least three times. Most of the names are author names, so ignore those. I chose “Harlequin Presents” because it’s a general imprint; if I had chosen, say, Harlequin’s medical imprint, there would have been a lot more “doctor” and stuff on there.
| 92 the |
| 23 bride |
| 20 mistress |
| 20 italian |
| 17 virgin |
| 17 billionaire |
| 16 wife |
| 16 tycoon |
| 15 greek |
| 11 boss |
| 11 baby |
| 10 revenge |
| 10 marriage |
| 10 for |
| 8 millionaire |
| 8 his |
| 7 sheikh |
| 7 pregnant |
| 7 kate |
| 6 susan |
| 6 one |
| 6 innocent |
| 6 her |
| 6 helen |
| 6 at |
| 5 trish |
| 5 shaw |
| 5 ruthless |
| 5 night |
| 5 love |
| 5 in |
| 5 convenient |
| 5 chantelle |
| 5 bought |
| 5 anne |
| 4 williams |
| 4 to |
| 4 stephens |
| 4 sicilian |
| 4 sharon |
| 4 robyn |
| 4 of |
| 4 milburne |
| 4 melanie |
| 4 lucy |
| 4 lee |
| 4 lawrence |
| 4 kim |
| 4 kendrick |
| 4 james |
| 4 forbidden |
| 4 command |
| 4 child |
| 4 cathy |
| 4 captive |
| 4 brooks |
| 4 bedded |
| 4 bed |
| 3 wedded |
| 3 taken |
| 3 spanish |
| 3 secret |
| 3 royal |
| 3 ross |
| 3 proposal |
| 3 pleasure |
| 3 penny |
| 3 mortimer |
| 3 morgan |
| 3 morey |
| 3 monroe |
| 3 marinelli |
| 3 lynne |
| 3 lucas |
| 3 kathryn |
| 3 jordan |
| 3 jennie |
| 3 hired |
| 3 hewitt |
| 3 graham |
| 3 desert |
| 3 defiant |
| 3 christmas |
| 3 catherine |
| 3 carole |
| 3 carol |
| 3 blackmailed |
| 3 bargain |
| 3 a |
After “The”, the top two hits, “bride” (23) and “mistress” (20), refer to the female lead in the story. (Or presumably do; I haven’t read every book on the list.) Then comes “Italian” (20), the first of several Mediterranean ethnicities, which is only ever used to refer to the male lead. It beats out Greek (16) and After that is “Virgin” (17), which is used only ever to refer to the female lead, as is the case with “Innocent” (6). “Billionaire” (17) heads of the list of words (only ever used to describe the male lead) that refer to wealth. “Tycoon” (16), “Boss” (11), and “Millionaire” (8 ) come close behind it. “Revenge” (10) is something that I don’t normally associate with romance, but it beats out “love” (5), “Passion” (2) and “Romance” (0). Baby (11) is sort of a surprise, though the word does double duty, referring sometimes to the female lead and sometimes to a literal baby. “Sheikh” (7) is unusual enough that I thought that it surely must refer to a recurring character, but nope, all seven instances are different guys. I guess being a Sheikh is way more romantic than I think of it as, although I suppose it does combine the best parts of being Mediterranean (1) and rich (2). “Ruthless” and “convenient” (7, if you count variant forms) are some other adjectives I don’t tend to think of as romantic, but I am not the person who writes romantic fiction, so what do I know. “Bed(ding)” (8) is a good way to say “hav(ing) sex with” that doesn’t make the title too long.
What generally appears to be the case is that terms that refer to things that generally women say they care about (intelligence, sense of humor, honesty, sensitivity) don’t appear on the list at all. The list suggests that women care about A) Mediterraneans, and B) Wealth. Interestingly, the list also suggests that appearance is unimportant, although the back-of-the-book blurb always makes it abundantly clear that both of the lead characters are, in fact, totally hot.
As a disclaimer, I realize that “Harlequin Presents” is roughly analogous to pornography directed at women, and thus these results should not at all be taken to -really- indicate anything.
