That's why I don't find these clues easy. It just seems wrong. To me it clearly states that one is to put something into a word that means 'love'. The something is related to 'male' and 'take'. And finally before putting them in you have to take out letters for a word meaning 'unnamed female'. I don't see any alternative rational interpretation. It's like the setter couldn't be bothered to create the clue properly so just dumped everything in and thought, "That'll do".
I see how you're getting it, but I don't see that the clue indicates that you should do that. That can surely only come from experience/knowledge that the clue has been left muddled up and misdirecting.