Stylistic choices are not merely orNamental but can be highly meaningful in representing a particular view of reality rather than an other. This critical linguistic credo lies at the bottom of the present study, which examines how concepts of femininity and masculinity are encoded in romance fiction, a genre which until recently has been largely ignored by linguists as well as literary critics. A large, representative corpus of 80 romances, which cover a time span of over 60 years, allows to address diachronic as well as synchronic issues.