A popular opinion expressed among women is that men tend to be less romantic, or less eager for an emotional bond and commitment. This cliche is pretty common in society, but as research suggests, it is actually much more likely to be the other way around. According to some of the findings:

So let’s start with how men and women score on the most well-known measure of romanticism, the Romantic Beliefs Scale.2 This questionnaire asks people to rate the extent to which they agree with statements like, “There will only be one real love for me," “If I love someone, I know I can make the relationship work, despite any obstacles," and, "The person I love will make a perfect romantic partner; he/she will be completely accepting, loving, and understanding.”; The researchers who developed the scale have found that, on average, men outscore women.

Other research on gender differences in romantic beliefs has found that men report being more likely to experience “love at first sight”4—one recent survey of 100,000 adults found that 48 percent of men claimed to have fallen in love at first sight, while only 28 percent of women made such a romantic claim.5 In addition, men, compared to women, tended to place a greater emphasis on the importance of feeling passion in their relationships.6 Men have also been found more likely to say “I love you” first in a relationship—and they report greater happiness than women after hearing those words for the first time.7

The author, Gwendolyn Seidman, an associate professor of psychology studying relationship, and a woman, continues in a possible explanation which is treading dangerously close to the concepts of Hypergamy, and more bleakly, female opportunism and materialism:

To make sense of these apparently counterintuitive gender differences, we can turn to evolutionary psychology. Women tend to be more pragmatic when seeking a mate.8 That is, they are more likely to feel that love should develop slowly, and to be cautious before jumping into a relationship—a less romantic attitude. According to evolutionary theory, women must be more selective when choosing mates because, by biological necessity, they must invest more as parents.9

Thus, a “love at first sight” attitude could lead women to jump into relationships with less than optimal mates, and miss out on better mating opportunities that could increase their chances of having healthy offspring.

This means that a more cautious, less romantic approach to love is more adaptive for women than it is for men

As for my own take on the subject, I feel the misconception many women share regarding men's romanticism is borne out of their own solipsistic selective bias, in which the only pool of men they actually pay any attention to and date happen to be the alphas they are attracted to, thus creating the impression in their minds that all men act as jaded alphas, while spurning the romantic beta ironically for the very reason of being the antithesis of it.

It was men who invented monogamy, who cemented the union between male and female as an undying vow, who culturally preached to a pure, exclusive and permanent relation. It was men who urged everyone to curb their lust. And it was feminists, women, who spearheaded the sexual "liberation" and gave us hookup culture, Darwinian mate selection, and spurious breakups over loss of excitement or tingles. Which gender is more dedicated to commitment and devotion?

In literature and other fiction, little has changed from Pride and Prejudice to 50 shades of Grey when it comes to female desire. The synopsis of the protagonist and other characters in Madame Bovary, which was written by a male and inspired by a true story, captures the run of the mill theme of almost every woman's mentality:

She has a highly romanticized view of the world and craves beauty, wealth, passion, as well as high society.

Charles Bovary, Emma's husband, is a very simple and common man. He is a country doctor by profession, but is, as in everything else, not very good at it. He is in fact not qualified enough to be termed a doctor, but is instead an officier de santé, or "health officer". Charles adores his wife and finds her faultless, despite obvious evidence to the contrary. He never suspects her affairs and gives her complete control over his finances, thereby securing his own ruin. Despite Charles's complete devotion to Emma, she despises him as he is the epitome of all that is dull and common.

Rodolphe Boulanger is a wealthy local man who seduces Emma as one more addition to a long string of mistresses. Though occasionally charmed by Emma, Rodolphe feels little true emotion towards her

With a love affair or not, the pursuit after an exciting, high-value, socially alluring male remains the vain and shallow focus of most female readers and writers, who unlike Gustave though, do not see it in a negative perspective. In contrast, men's favored love stories often seem to be Quixotic and idealistic in nature, from the Hunchback of Notre Dame to the English Patient and Cinderella-eseque tales of unconditional love and "inner beauty".

In modernity, anime oriented towards men often features women who are lacking in status or success in some way or shy/weird/vulnerable, but still develop all the more meaningful connections because of it. Songs composed by men are often about unlimited affection and adoration for the woman's very existence, and it is men who generally make most of the romantic gestures in the process of courting.

It also seems men's desire in a relationship is to give more than receive, to cherish flaws and weakness of someone and love them in spite of it, while women wish for a male to maintain his value at all time and constantly improve it lest she loses attraction. Women appear to be more turned off by having to reassure men of their love or reliability ( insecurity ), while many men are only too happy to profess their absolute devotion.

With that in mind, we can also understand some discrepancies in gender interaction, such as the nice guy phenomena. They believe women are as romantic as they are and will be smitten by idealism alone, while women prefer materialism.

If true love exists, it's going to be experienced only by gay couples.