What About "Pretty" Characters in Romance Novels? (Post 7 of the What About Series)

 Okay, so, yes, I'm lightening up. Today I will cover a subject that is not so serious. However, if it looks like the world is coming to an end, then I may have to write about survival techniques, lol.
About pretty characters. I am speaking of the heroine and hero in romance novels. Some have suggested that my characters not always be so darn good-looking. They suggest I be more realistic. Describe people as they really are today. Not all women are gorgeous with amazing hair, eyes the color of the sea, and pouty lips the color and softness of rose petals. Not all men have six-pack abs, a square jaw, a broad chest, narrow waist and are strong yet sensitive. Really? Well darn. 
"They" say I should write the characters more realistically so that normal regular type people can identify with them. Well, I've read some of those types of romance novels, where the heroine is a little overweight and not quite sure of herself and the man is, (sometimes severely) flawed in some male type way. And I have to say, I didn't enjoy them nearly as much as the ones where the characters are simply lovely. (And hey, don't get me wrong. I do not look down on people who are overweight. I've struggled with my weight ever since giving birth to 7 children.) In my books, I like, no, I prefer the fantasy world. Not that my characters don't have flaws. They do. One is spoiled. One is a bitch. One makes stupid decisions. One is a potty mouth. Etc., etc.. Yet most of their flaws are usually endearing. But I enjoy the characters being lovely to look at. ;) Besides, these are fiction novels. The circumstances my characters find themselves in are extraordinary, and so my characters must be extraordinary.
Maybe not everyone looks like the characters I write. But I think they do. I see beautiful people everyday, both strangers and people I know. My own daughters and daughters-in-law could pose for the covers of my novels. In fact, one has! Maybe I see beauty in people when they don't see it themselves. Of course, I see most everyone as beautiful. Beauty really is NOT skin deep. All I know is, I like to "see" the people in my novels as beautiful. And though they may be flawed, they are and can be beautiful both inside and out. I think I equate love with beauty, therefore the women in my stories are always beautiful in their own way. Some more than others, still, I see them as beautiful. Love is beautiful.   I'm all about love. I guess that's why I write about it. Love relationships. Love between men and women, yes, but my books also address many other types of love. Just a few of them are: the love of a son shown for his father by striving to be like him, the love of children for their mother, shown in the way they speak to her and try to protect her, the love for children by the offering of a parent's very life for them, the love between real friends, shown by loyalty, and even love of the earth, shown by stopping to appreciate it's awesomeness.
Rest assured. My novels will continue to contain beautiful people. They will also continue to address complex subject matter. And hopefully, when a reader closes the book at the end, the story will have made her feel like she can accomplish anything! Do anything! Be anything! And maybe even help each reader to know that she....or he.... is absolutely beautiful.