>>713800958The are two real reasons:
1. Western media has never traditionally made romance content for men.
2. Tropes that actually appeal to men for romance are unfairly viewed as โproblematic.โ
Thereโs lots of American stereotypes about romance as a genre. Itโs long been considered deeply โunmanlyโ to watch or read romantic fiction. This doesnโt mean that men donโt want to watch or enjoy romantic stories though, so romance gets shoe-horned into โmanlierโ content like action movies and fantasies. We also see this in games, as romances are included in western RPGs. These are usually shallow romances though, since they arenโt the focus of the stories.
Men DO like and want romance though, and we can see that with how popular Japanese romantic media is. Lots of huge and very popular shows, manga, novels, and games, are explicitly aimed at men. Toradora, Clannad, Kagura-sama, etc.
But the tropes required to make romantic media appealing to men clash heavily with the western feminist media zeitgeist.
1. The main woman has to be conventionally attractive, or at least attractive to whatever niche audience that youโre targeting.
2. The man is not going to be perfect. Romance arcs require mental, emotional, and psychological character challenges and growth. Men frequently do stupid things when trying to court women because weโre dumb or have our own misunderstandings or hangups. Sometimes, we are dicks and hurt girlsโ feelings not because we mean to be, but because weโre fuck ups.
3. A happy end necessarily requires that the woman be the โprizeโ the man receives for getting his shit together and courting her. You can view any romance like this if you want to. Thereโs no way around it.
Two notable male-oriented western romance films are The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Both have been dragged by feminist film critics for the points above.