Shopping for Men: The Single Woman Narrative

Philips adresses a relatively new genre of fiction for women readers- including works by Jane Green, Freya North, Jane Gordon, Marian Keyes and the journalist Kathryn Flett- namely, that of the working woman romance narrative. These are novels that are addressed to a generation of young women who have independent incomes, are in work and are skilled consumers. The title, 'Shopping for Men', refers both to the consumption of men as objects of romance, and to the deployment of consumer skills in order to create a man worthy of the heroine's desire. In these novels, romance and sexual desire are contingent upon the reader and heroine appreciating and valuing consumer items. Using Bourdieu's argument that distinctions of taste are integrally related to class relations, the paper suggests that 'Mr Right' in these novels is required to display an awareness of consumer labels, and an ability to purchase them that surpasses that of the heroine. Philips will suggest that, while the heroines of these narratives assume all the gains of feminism, the romantic expectations are those of traditional gender relations, and that, while the female protagonist is assumed to be a working woman with a successful career, the romantic denouement depends on a hero whose work and social status are superior to hers.