The best and worst thing about love is that it makes fools of us all, and that's terrifying to anybody who needs the illusion of omnipotence. Romance fiction exalts this power, shows how it brings us all low and then raises us when we surrender to it. It's the antithesis to the Enlightenment, a refutation of reason. Because it challenges deeply held beliefs there, too. First, romance fiction says that women like traditionally female things.
Romances tell the uncomfortable truth that many women like shopping, home decorating, and babies.
But while it's true that these aren't the only things women are about, it's also true that they're what a lot of us are about some of the time, and that we like reading about them. So romance dwells on them and makes them important, telling the truth even though it's politically incorrect. Second, romance fiction says that sometimes women like to be overpowered sexually. Politically incorrect though it may be, the rape fantasy not only exists, it's popular. Only for those who confuse reality and fantasy, and the vast majority of readers can tell the difference.