Men like big tits and big asses because we evolved (over millions of porn-free years) to prefer women of the hourglass shape. Incidentally, women have a similar bilogical imperative to prefer the inverted triangle shape in men. I saw this on a brain-food channel show, but here’s a quick cite (shamelessly Google’d)
Men like big tits and big asses because we evolved (over millions of porn-free years) to prefer women of the hourglass shape. Incidentally, women have a similar bilogical imperative to prefer the inverted triangle shape in men. I saw this on a brain-food channel show, but here’s a quick cite. (shamelessly Google’d)
Some points of interest:
It must be Playboy.
It’s a pretty long article, but an interesting read.
Ooops, crap. Sorry for the doubler. It takes SOOOO LOOOOOONG to actually engage a post I got bored and started quoting. Thought I cancelled it in time. 
I actually read this before I even ran across this thread. It’s about paranormal romances (obviously) and is written by a professor at Seton Hill College in PA, who has a PhD in English. She’s also a published romance author. The article goes a long way to establish the differences between the 70s/80s “bodice-rippers” and the more current trend in romantic fiction – that is, stories about women with personalities and problems, rather than just simple, li’l misses with heaving bosoms. It also talks about how romance’s demographic area has changed over the years. (Blah blah blah, Sarah! Just tell them to read the article.) Listen to my inner voice; read the article.
I’m a practically unabashed (in that I’m actually almost able to admit that I do read them) reader of romance novels. However, I also read other books that don’t fit into the romance genre, so I do know that my romance novels aren’t really aren’t meeting The Three Unities (even though that’s classical drama). I’ll readily admit that romance novels are without redeeming qualities. There’s quite a bit of a difference between those bodice-rippers, though, and some of the romance novels out there. There was even an article in Time (I think! I could be wrong) about those differences a while ago. As in the Feb. 3, 2003 issue. Very unfortunately archived, but available for purchase! Anyway, I seem to remember it saying that romance novels are fast flying away from the Scruples model, especially romantic fiction.
Sarah
Hey, lillalette! Stop hijacking the th… oh, wait. Yeah, uh… nevermind.
Hey, now, kettle, put away the black paint! 
You know, I was really shocked when I discovered that there are a lot of romance writers with degrees above and beyond a BA. I actually tangled with the idea of writing a romance novel to fund my college education, but stopped once I realized how fantastically hard writing well is.
Sarah
At first, I agreed with you. Then I thought about what ‘normally’ is considered ‘hardcore’ porn.
As I understood it, the difference between hardcore and softcore was that in hardcore, there was graphic depiction of sexual contact/penetration/ejaculation. If I’m wrong, please don’t hesitate to correct me.
Now in the no-so-distant past, all magazines you could buy in liquor stores and 7-11’s were softcore. (where there were ‘simulated’ acts of oral sex and penetration). That is no longer the case. Now (at least here in the LA area) I can walk into most any liqour store and pick up a hardcore mag. Actual photos of penetration, anal penetration, oral copulation and ejaculation.
While there may be quite a difference in the number of “novelty shops” and Micky Dees, the difference between the number of McDonalds and liquor stores is not that great.
Forgot to mention:
In many of these liquor stores you can also purchase ‘hardore’ video tapes.
Now, this could be a result of the relaxing of the codes only in the city of Los Angeles. I don’t know what’s going on in other cities.
I think this is merely proof that LA is on a different planet from the rest of America.
I can’t imagine this happening even in New York State, where the liquor stores are independent and far less so in those states that have package liquor stores run by the state. Magazines? Videos? Never.
Penthouse and Hustler now have actual penetration, so I’m told (no, really) so they may qualify as hardcore. But they are banned, I thought, at 7-11s and many other places.
The real question I’d like to ask that pertains to the OP is where romance readers buy their books. Romance is now over 50% of the total fiction market, but if you walk into any bookstore they will have far less shelf display than f&sf, which has about 5% of the fiction market. What gives?
You’re forgetting that people buy books at places other than bookstores. I see a heck of a lot of romance novels for sale in grocery stores, and have often heard romance novels refered to as “Grocery store romances” or “Kroeger novels” because of this. I imagine a lot of romance fans pick up a new book every week or so when doing their regular shopping.