Romance and Today's Woman Romantic novels have been a place where women have been allowed to fantasize about the perfect, ideal life. The romances are usually based on super sexy women who are only missing one thing in their life, the perfect man. The hero is also sexy, confident and determined in his pursuit of the leading lady. In current times, the romance novel has allowed women to break out of heteronormative behavior and explore their sexuality, where anything goes and their actions are perfectly acceptable to their partners. The latest adult fiction that has captivated readers are the books written by EL James the 50 Shades of Gray trilogies based on an extremely wealthy and good-looking young male entrepreneur who has almost everything money can buy except not he has love. He is also deeply emotionally disturbed and traumatized by his early childhood of poverty and abuse which in a sense gives him a free pass to indulge in his sexual deviance. In other words it is portrayed as the ultimate fantasy; a bad boy. The novels see the young man, Christian Grey, fascinated by an ordinary young woman, who doesn't like his sexual lifestyle. Yet she believes that if she loves him enough she can change him. This plot plays with many women's belief that they need to take care of men and with their help and love even a bad boy can be transformed into the ideal man who wants to get married and wants to support his wife and children. The current text speaks to my gender performance in the way it appeals to my inner desire to be protected and cared for. My current role in life is that of caretaker, my family (my sister, her children and grandchildren, my mother), my children and my husband who all depend on... middle of paper... ptable alternative a once became pregnant other than to become a wife and mother. Bottom line, regarding romance novels and how they affect my gender performance in everyday life, it's not at all. They provide me with an escape from my reality and allow me to act out fantasies in my mind that I wouldn't consider appropriate in my real life. Romance novels can certainly be seen as reinforcing the patriarchal view that women can only be happy if they have a man or they can be said to provide a safe haven to explore alternative lifestyles without putting themselves in danger. Women all over the world are contributing profits of millions of dollars to pay for a fantasy that they can act out in their mind and play the roles of these super sexy heroines who have perfect endings and wild sexual scenarios with a perfect man and that's it available in one go. of one page.