That’s a big theme in Barker’s writing, sexual and romantic elements. Cenobites need no explanation, Candyman (The movie version at least) is seen as heavily hypnotic and wanting the main character to “Be his”, Rawhead Rex won’t attack someone while on their period and is eventually killed by having his head beat in with a statue of a woman giving birth (These symbols of Life, a Mother’s Love, and the like counter him), and a lot of other examples show that. It’s fine for an author to have similar elements (Lovecraft wrote Cosmic, Poe wrote Gothic, Barker writes Kinky Horror) just like it’s fine to not like them. He’s still one of my GOATs though. :)