Herself loves the Princess Diaries books and when the Princess Diaries II was on the TV the other night, I let her stay up until 9 to watch it. It is the most unrelentingly awful film. The fictional kingdom of Genovia is inspired by a mish-mash of Monégasque, English and Eastern European influences. Accents are a bizarre mix, the linguistic regime is, at best, unclear and the whole thing is deeply odd. But she absolutely loved it. She watched the whole thing in a state of rapt delight.
Germaine Greer has a chapter of “The Female Eunuch” devoted to men and women’s different expectations of romance. I think the rot probably starts here.