This book was published in the US as Female Desires: How They Are Sought, Bought and Packaged (New York: Grove Press, 1985). See the chapter named "An Overwhelming Desire," on pages 187-196 (in both versions).
in the fantasies represented by these novels, the power of men is adored. The qualities desired are age, power, detachment, the control of other people's welfare. And the novels never really admit any criticism of this power. Occasionally the heroine's [sic] 'protest' their right to gainful employment, or rebel against the tyranny of the loved men. But in the end they succumb to that form of power. And what attracted them in the first place were precisely all the attributes of the unreconstructed patriarch. The qualities which make these men so desirable are, actually, the qualities which feminists have chosen to ridicule: power (the desire to dominate others); privilege (the exploitation of others); emotional distance (the inability to communicate); and singular love for the heroine (the inability to relate to anyone other than the sexual partner). (192)
Women do acquire power in these fantasies. Men are injured, or are rendered the helpless slaves of passion. The great heart-breakers are brought into line and the proud and arrogant are apparently humbled by their sexual desire for the good heroine. This power, however, is always familial, always regressive. The potent father, the abolition of the rival mother, and taking the mother's place are the classic structures of childhood fantasy in a nuclear patriarchal family. (196)
This book was published in the US as Female Desires: How They Are Sought, Bought and Packaged (New York: Grove Press, 1985). See the chapter named "An Overwhelming Desire," on pages 187-196 (in both versions).