What Women Want in Male Lead

Nirtak_Kempfer · February 17,2025

Hello!
This is xenocross, male.
I am an avid reader who read all kind of genres, and I had read my fair share of shoujo manga, chicklit novels, female oriented romance novels etc.
Because I often got headache after reading those, I believed that female brains are built differently from the male counterparts. The way female view the world and what they expect from male would never be understood by males.

Still. Still!

I think these chinese novels took "liking bad boys" trait a little too far.

It's not that I want to know about it. (Though yes I did read several good ones). But when I browsed NU for my daily updates of novels, I can't help but read the title of these novels and after so long, I grew sick of it.

For example, let me take several titles of these novels.

The Demonic King Chases His Wife: The Rebellious Good-for-Nothing Miss
The Two-Faced Venerate Emperor
Evil Emperor’s Poisonous Consort: Divine Doctor Young Miss
Tyrannical Wang’s Beloved Wife
Godly Farmer Doctor: Arrogant Husband, Can’t Afford to Offend!
The Enchantress of Medicine, with the Heaven Defying Child, and the Black Belly Father
Evil Wang Pampers His Ghost Doctor Fei
Miracle Doctor, Abandoned Daughter: The Sly Emperor’s Wild Beast-Tamer Empress
The Evil Prince and his Precious Wife: The Sly Lady
The Cold Regent Keeps a Fox as a Consort
The Overbearing Chief Husband’s Favorite: Baby
Evil-Natured Husband, Don’t Tease!

Let's ignore the overpowered trait of female protag because that's normal, divine/ godly/ poisonous/ blablahblah~ male oriented novel also has the same thing.

Also ignore how the male lead is rich, powerful, emperor, king, blablahblah since that's the general wish fulfilling trope.

But one thing that is different from male oriented novel, often the love interest male lead would be described in the title. Like above list. And actually, the other chinese shoujo novels have male lead who didn't stray far from the above.

Now let's combine them all.
Demonic, Two faced, Evil, Tyrannical, Arrogant, Black Belly, Sly, Cold. Overbearing

In real life, imagine you meet a man like this. You really would fall in love with him?
I know it's a fantasy and fiction but..... sigh.

Or is it because of the face? As long as he is handsome, and pampering and loving the female lead (to the point of being stalkerish and possessive), that is fine? Is it the Gap between evil and pampering?

edit: this! summarize my points

SamiAlfoheday · February 18,2025

I think you are kinda wrong. It's not that women (in CNs) are in love because they are bad guys but more because they are kind to them (but as i didn't read the novels you said, i'm not sure). MLs being kind only to them is a +. Them being mean/evil against their enemies, not sparing them is also a +. Edit: also maybe if you search hard enough, maybe there is a FL that is shocked of the bad guy side of ML but decide to stay at his side only because his kind side is too charming to her.

It's just that this trend of cold two-faced ML is interesting to see, better then some JP MC that spare his enemies, allowing them to bother him again later.

Cwunchy_taco · February 18,2025

It was Mel Gibson wasn't it ??

Veldanava00 · February 18,2025

Isn't that basically how most tsundere FLs start out?

CastlePandaSoy · February 18,2025

These all sounds like a trend not only on heterosexual novels but also in yaoi huh

VladAlexandrov2880 · February 18,2025

Being a female myself, I personally really hate this kind of male lead; they're so toxic. I literally stopped reading that first novel you listed because the male lead was such a controlling, manipulative bitch.

Maybe it's the women in China who like these kind of guys. I personally thought the male leads always had this kind of cold, overbearing attitude because it's the only type of man the author think their OP Mary Sure MC will accept.

Or maybe the authors of these novels are all preteens lol Maybe that's why there's so many "bad boys" on musical.ly? lol

WEBUniversezbg · February 18,2025

What I find hilarious about the whole Sly Black-bellied Overlord genre is that the female lead usually wants nothing to do with them, actively tries to avoid them, and makes her stance extremely clear to everyone that she hasn't got a sliver of interest in the guy. Meanwhile, the male lead goes "I want you, so STFU and be mine" and forces himself into her life (assuming he also isn't forcing her physically). And then 1000 chapters later FL is all "He's the only one who treats me this well!" even though in the beginning she was screaming at him to leave her alone, like she can't remember all the times he harassed her without caring about her feelings. Completely defeats the purpose of having an overpowered female lead when the male lead is 10x more overpowered and just forces her until she falls for him.

JaneSmitten · February 18,2025

I'm with you. I like books with female protagonists so Romance novels that aren't just about romance appeal to me. However, I find that a lot of the male leads in these books are awful; moreover, they're often the worst characters in the book! Worse, these books often start out strongly with interesting conflicts and challenges, but they devolve into straight up romances where the male lead ends up doing all the heavy lifting. While I think that I do get what some readers get out of these kinds of story elements, my opinion is that they really lessen the overall novel.

I think that it has to do with how women are supposed to be demure so the man has to make the first move. And if the woman shows some resistance then it makes her look more pure and innocent. I don't think that the writers consider how awful they're making their male leads look.

ShuangWeimhM · February 18,2025

Dude, you do not understand it at all.
There are multiple explanations but it is all about face at the end of the day.

MadAnimeFan · February 18,2025

There's certainly a gap moe going on there, and doesn't everyone like it when they're being treated in a special manner?

Though it really is a bit..... uh, boring? Annoying? At least 8/9 times out of 10 in these novels (as mentioned in some posts above), the male lead is much more OP and will stalk and/or harass the female MC. So he will one-sidedly bother her while she is busy face-slapping enemies and ruining treacherous family members/friends or some sh*t. It's a dynamic seen often in (CN?) shoujo and yaoi (at least with gong MLs):
ML: *notices MC, gets increasingly obsessed, starts the stalking and/or harassing*
MC: *minds their own business but can't escape the grasp of ML, eventually develops feelings after maybe getting harassed a bit/a lot*
I frankly like novels more where the leads first meet/spend time together due to some common goal/mission/interest and fall in love while slowly getting to know each other. Much more pleasant and less shallow than some guy going cray cray over some other girl/guy that looks nice, has interesting charisma or displays some uncommon skills once, and then the only reason they interact is because of said guy's obsession.

If I were to meet someone like that irl..... uuuhhh. Those traits create an image of a person that's troublesome af.
"Demonic, Two faced, Evil, Tyrannical, Arrogant, Black Belly, Sly, Cold. Overbearing"
So many red flags. Avoid over 9000

ikr... I once watched a kdrama with that kinda trope 2-3 years ago and I seemed to have found it cute so I tried rewatching it a few months ago... it was bad. orz I can't believe I didn't find it cringeworthy at the time XDD

DetachedDreamer · February 18,2025

Maybe it was really because of the female's expectation on what a man should be or something... like no matter how bad a man can be, for me he will change his ways for the better blah blah~

Its no denying that I like those kind of concepts in which a man changes for the better for the sake of his woman...
But I get your point, those titles were really a bit too sad when combined...

That's why I'm a full-pledge fujoshi now... but I don't think anyone wants to know that...heh

ThreyaMidnightmdl · February 18,2025

Transcending Nine Heavens but it's not really a romance novel, just a good cultivation one. Smart MC. With occassional good comedy.

AmazeAngeloyn · February 18,2025

Yes, because yaoi and shounen-ai genre mostly written and read by females.
I don't even know if any gay-male write yaoi....

Ah, another one thing I had long time wondered....Why is it in the shoujo/ josei, the romantic entanglement often started with rape?

Or maybe sexual harassment. Forcing a kiss to a woman (by surprise or strength) is sexual harassment by today standard, yes? But the female will blush if the handsome male lead did it. But it will be instant crime - jail if ugly male did it, right?