How should the every-heroine look?

Lately I've seen a lot of talk about how authors should be careful about making romance heroines too beautiful. They should show that every person is deserving of love and happiness, even if they're not model-perfect. People should be drawn in all shapes and sizes in romance novels because everyone is worthy of love.

It's not that I disagree with that idea, but in an attempt to do this, I've started seeing a different pattern in romance novels too. In trying to describe the “every woman” as a heroine, these heroes describe women as “not beautiful”, “not exactly pretty”, or even “somewhat mannish”. Things like “their features separately are nothing special, but the whole package is rather intriguing”. I can understand what's being attempted here, but I feel like it's going a little too far.

See, I want to read a romance novel and take myself to a place, not where every sort of woman is worthy even if they're “not beautiful”, but a place where every woman is simply beautiful. I don't want a guy, even a romance hero, to fall in love with me because he got to know me and was attracted to the whole package even if he didn't care for the parts initially. I want my hero to fall in love with me because he thought I was perfect-looking to him, because every woman is attractive, no matter what.

They don't need to be described as models, but can't we put a positive spin on the way a hero sees each of us, instead of having him narrate his not-quite-attracted-to-us thoughts? I know women often lament our own body types and self-flagellate all of our imperfections. And I'm not saying this idea should never be in a book. But I feel less invested in a heroine's happily-ever-after if the hero can't see from the start that this person is physically attractive.

Plus, even when the authors describe the heroines in this way, the heroes are still show to be super-mega hunks. Yes, we want our heroes to be attractive, but I also want something else from how these heroes think of their heroines.

That's one of the things I love about Charlotte Stein's writing. In each of her books, it doesn't seem to matter what anyone looks like. In fact, many of her characters describe each other in not-very-flattering terms, but she's able to paint it in such a way that you know each of those people secretly loves exactly what they're saying they're repulsed by.

So yes, don't describe every heroine as a skinny, blonde model. But really, tell us how awesomely attractive each woman is, no matter what their body type or physical attributes. Tell us how the hero fell for her the first time he saw her because of exactly who she is. Let us live the romance of it all, instead of trying to bring things down to earth by letting us all know how unattractive the heroine really is – but even they can find a happily-ever-after eventually. I want the music and the sweeping crescendo for every woman, not the slightly creaky, out-of-tune melody as we try to knock some sense into the hero. Every woman is beautiful and worthy to be a romance heroine and I hope to read more novels that show that, without having to get over that hump of tearing the women's description apart to make her “seem more real” before we can prove that she actually is still attractive to someone.