What do women really want? A mild-mannered, squishy-centred man | Arwa Mahdawi

Christian Grey types are being supplanted in romance novels by heroes with a sweet, golden retriever energy - and some conservatives aren't happy

Buckle up, ladies - it's squishy boi summer. According to a recent piece in Publishers Weekly, the male leads of romance novels aren't quite as hard as they used to be. The hot new industry trend is books featuring squishy-centred men" AKA sweet cinnamon roll heroes" and golden retrievers".

Perhaps you're thinking that sounds ... sticky? And sort of slobbery? Look, I don't know all the sordid details but I can assure you that in romance novel lingo a cinnamon roll" means a sweet, supportive hero: a gentleman in the streets, who irons your sheets. That sort of thing. And a golden retriever" is an upbeat love interest with a floppy, friendly energy. The opposite, in other words, of an aggressive, domineering alpha such as Christian Grey from Fifty Shades of Grey.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist