The heroine of popular romance falls in love with the man of her dreams, but the man of her dreams turns out to be an emblem of patriarchal authority itself. Just in case there was any question about it, the romantic hero of a Mills and Boon novel seals off any doubts about the power of a masculine identity modelled upon the symbolism of the father. All the familiar ingredients are there: the threat of violence, the law-giving nature, the ownership of the world, a power vested in physical presence. (154)