Worst Romantic Movie Stereotypes

Romance films are a sham and full of lies. Various movies have scenarios of what love is, but when you analyze them, you realize their messages of cheating, lying, deceiving and stereotyping are actually detrimental. The films I have listed are divided into categories that will make you feel better about being single on Valentine’s Day and thank god that you are not in any of these relationships.

Cheaters:
“The Wedding Planner,” “The Notebook, “Something Borrowed,” “My Best Friend’s Wedding”
Trying to break up a couple or marriage for your own selfish reasons is wrong on so many levels. In “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” Julia Roberts’ main character spends the whole movie trying to get her best friend to fall in love with her in the week leading up to his wedding. Anyone with good morals and a heart would know not to cheat.

Stupid agreements lead to true love:
“50 Shades” series, “The Proposal,” “The Wedding Date,” “The Wedding Ringer,” “Pretty Women”
Who would even want to be in contract or agreement with someone you barely even know or don’t like to begin with. In “50 Shades,” the relationship between the main characters (the sexy Christian Grey and the mousy, innocent Anastasia Steele) is about dominance and how this controlling man gets what he wants. This is just one of many movies that show love is about trapping the person you love.

Love is a life-or-death proposition:
“Dying Young,” “The Fault in our Stars,” “Ghost,” “A Walk to Remember,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “One Day,” “Me Before You”
Don’t you hate it when you’re watching a movie and your favorite character dies at the end? I understand about the cancer movies, but a part of me has a lot of hope they will fight it and survive. But there are movies where you don’t see it coming, they get you at the end and you’re left pissed as hell. In “One Day,” lifelong friends go their whole life pushing away their feelings for one another. Twenty years later, they finally get together but at the end [SPOILER ALERT], she dies. These types of movies got me in my feels, and I hate it.

Starting a relationship with deception:
“She’s All That,” “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” “Hitch,” “Failure to Launch,” ”Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” “Made and Manhattan”
When getting into a relationship, do you want to start it off with lies and manipulation? Screenwriters seem to think that this is how love begins. There are tons of movies that display how love can blossom from deception. In “She’s All That,” a guy is trying to win a bet with his friends that he can make the nerdy girl into the popular prom queen. She gets a makeover and changes who she is for this guy. And, of course, the guy starts falling for her after she turns beautiful, and she starts falling for him but all of it is a lie. Films like this say it’s okay to use people all you want because they are foolish. Falling in love under false pretenses is the worst way to start your relationship.

Damsel in distress:
“Twilight,” “The Princess Bride,” “Spider-Man,” “King Kong,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Snow White,” “Shrek”
For far too long, women in movies were there only to be rescued by a man. Needing a man is a sexist thought that has been put into women’s minds. In “Sleeping Beauty,” an evil witch Maleficent curses Princess Aurora into a deep sleep. She can only be awoken with a kiss from a prince. He even slays the evil witch for Aurora. What is this teaching little girls? That they need a man or a prince to do their bidding? No thanks; girls can handle themselves.

Women pitted against other women:
“The Other Woman,” “The First Wives Club,” “The Layover,” “Mean Girls,” “Aquamarine,” “Pixel Perfect”
Fighting for a man’s attention is dumb enough, but imagine fighting against another woman. Women are constantly put against one another and not in a good way. They are compared in all different aspects of life, whether that’s with love, jobs, and beauty. “Mean Girls” touches on all these aspects. The two girls are fighting for a boy, popularity, and who’s the prettiest. It’s sad because this does play a part in modern-day life, and the movies just add to it.