TV and FILM
Love is a Many Splendored Thing
Or is it?
“The sun always shines on TV.” ~a-ha
Once upon a time, I thought so many of the relationships I watched on TV and in the movies were perfect, so romantic, so ideal. Now, I realize I was painfully wrong about most of them.
Poisonous, toxic relationships on film and television are often disguised as romantic, with such tropes as:
“If he is mean to you, it means he likes you.” (No, he is just mean.)
“She cheated on you to make you jealous, isn’t that romantic?” (No, it is infidelity, pure and simple.)
“You’re his wife, of course he has a right to grope you.” (No, consent still applies for both men and women. We are still human beings with agency.)
“Boys will be boys.” (No. There are good boys and there are terrible boys. It is our job to teach them to be the former.)
And of course, there are the blatant, outright horrors where the victims are blamed for their abusers’ actions:
“You wore that, so you asked for it.”
“You must have done something to make him angry.”
“He cheated because you wouldn’t put out.”
“If you made more money, she wouldn’t have left.”
