Toxicity Sold as Love: How the Media Affects Perceptions of Love

Jordan Grothe Jordan.Grothe@coyotes.usd.edu

While romantic comedies may be a favorite for many, they do not always portray love in an accurate or healthy way. According to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), of the 118 movies that they counted from major studios, only 18.6% of the movies contained someone that identified as LGBTQ.

Many popular films follow and promote stereotypical ideas that define both the male and female leads.

“From the male perspective, there is that the love interest is one a love interest, so she doesn’t really do anything outside of being a love interest. It’s very much the idea of being an object of desire,” Chair of the Theatre department Raimondo Genna. said. “[The female’s perspective] is struggling to have it all and make work her life, but she is unfulfilled or unhappy. But that’s her focus. Then some guy comes in, and it’s, ‘oh, no, I’m not going to have that, because I’m focused on my thing,’ and then she feels unfulfilled, and her being in a relationship with the guy fulfills her.”

Unfortunately, this can cause viewers to distort their own personal image and feelings of self-worth.

“Women then see themselves, and that their value is based on their looks or how attractive they are. But it also teaches men how to think about them, and creates toxic masculinity, where they feel like, ‘I am in a privileged position and therefore you serve me,’ as opposed to having a partnership,” Genna said. “The continuance of that thinking because of how relationships have been portrayed and how we’ve been conditioned to think about relationships, not only through the media but also through other social normative behavior that is part of the media, and it just reinforces itself.”