Are romantic movies bad for your relationship?
If you have ever insisted that your partner watch a romantic movie at the cinema with you, instead of the latest action blockbuster, then you might want to rethink your choice.
A recent study has found that some rom-coms are actually not good for women.
What’s so bad about watching a sweet movie about two people falling in love, asked no one ever!
Which is why this study has us rethinking the pursuit of love depicted in romantic movies.
A report by a gender and sexuality expert in America suggests that certain romantic films encourage women to tolerate bad behaviour from men, like stalking and obsessiveness.
So all the male leads who had you swooning over the lengths they would go through to get the women of their dreams, are actually teaching you to take stalking less seriously!
Remember the oh so sweet movie, There’s Something About Mary, where Ben Stiller hired a private detective to help him find his high school crush? Not good, people!
Here are four other movies we thought were romantic, before realising they were actually normalising stalking and other forms of creepy behaviour.
Love Actually
The Christmas-themed romantic comedy, Love Actually, saw Andrew Lincoln’s character showing up at Kiera Knightly’s door in the middle of the night with a bunch of cue-cards to profess his undying love? Major no-no!
Fifty Shades of Grey
A billionaire developing a weird obsession with a student, and getting her to sign a sex contract is not weird at all!
Closer
This exchange between Julia Roberts’ character Anna and Dan, played by Jude law, sums it up:
ANNA: I haven't even seen you for a year.
DAN: Yes you have.
ANNA: (exasperated) Only because you stalk me outside of my studio.
DAN: I don't stalk. I lurk, and when I'm not there you look for me.
ANNA: How do you know if you're not there?
DAN: Because I am there, lurking from a distance.
Management
A motel manager falls for one of the guests, and won’t leave her alone - yip, nothing creepy about that!