Do Romance Tropes Breed Toxic Relationships?

La La Land. The Notebook. Pride and Prejudice. All of these forms of media have one thing in common:romance. It is a widespread, popular, and infuential genre. There are several famous romantic tropes that people love to see in any form of media. Whether it be action, drama, mystery, or more, people go crazy. However, it seems as if a lot of people apply romantic fction to real life, and it is questioned whether it is infuencing toxic relationships.

Jessica Poon staff WritEr one person in a relationship, typically the man, does something that is unacceptable. For example, he cheats, but shows up at the other’s doorstep with fowers and is easily forgiven. It leads the audience

Personally, I believe that the problem of the media’s infuence on relationships isn’t the tropes but rather the authors and the near-impossible perfect relationships. Since most tropes are incredibly off-putting or rare in real life, such as offce romances and fake dating, the majority of viewers know to separate them from their personal lives and relationships.

Although tropes are typically harmless, when some of them are written wrong by the authors they can become harmful infuences, examples being “Grumpy X Sunshine,” or “Enemies to Lovers”

It is a trope that has at least one character have a frustrated or mysterious personality. The problem isn’t the trope itself, it’s that several authors/directors tend to refect how they perceive men and women and how they should act onto the couple(s), and excuse it as those said tropes. This does not apply to only a few tropes but all of them.

When writers do this, a good amount of the time the masculine character is arrogant or aggressive and causes most of the problems, lead, Elle, when she is in danger. The director makes viewers see his actions as romantic and heroic, but truthfully it’s scary, uncontrolled, and simply socially unacceptable.

Another way romantic fction partner to tend to their every want and need, but it’s just not possible all the time. People are not psychic, and won’t know what you want unless you express it. Additionally, not all people have the money to be able to fulfll some of these romantic gestures. Having extremely high expectations in a relationship isn’t wrong, it’s just unlikely to occur and leaves those with the high expectations to be disappointed in their partner or feel that something is wrong. whereas the feminine persona forgives and cleans everything up. The author sells their work as romantic and sweet as it seems from the surface, leading people to grow used to and romanticize the toxicity and incorporate it into their relationships as the norm. An example of this is to believe that one good deed is enough to cancel out all the bad that has happened. An example of this can be the Netfix Original, “The Kissing Booth”. The main lead, Noah, is an extremely violent character and becomes even more violent when it comes to the female breeds toxic relationships is the unbreakable and perfect relationships that are often portrayed. Due to the frequency of these relationships being written, a lot of viewers begin to expect their partners to be perfect just like in the movies. There have been cases where they expect their

Romantic content holds a heavy clutch on society’s view of relationships, as there aren’t many relationships around for the audience to compare to theirs. A considerable amount of viewers do not realize it is harmful towards their relationships to portray love as perfect. As long as both parties in the relationship are happy, there is no reason to compare or apply things they see in the media. The media only negatively affects relationships when those in the relationship are infuenced by it.