Romanticizing pt.2

As teenagers, we love to romanticize things in order to give ourselves the motivation to finish the task. I personally have seen so many reels which say- “When things get hard remember what you are working towards” and they proceed to show pictures of an ideal life. I am not here to be like- no I don’t romanticize things and it is completely awful. Everyone does it and a little bit of it is not a bad thing but using it as escapism is when it can become a problem.

Romanticizing movies and tv shows

I feel this phenomenon has become more prominent with Gen-Z. I am very much guilty of it too but when things seem to be perfect on screen doesn’t it lead people to wonder whether it can exist in real life? We often set our expectations for a certain event based on a scene in a show or a movie we have seen and are disappointed when it plays out any other way. This leads me to wonder why movies depict the perfect life when ours is far from it (blog coming soon)

The idea of ‘It will all work out in the end'

You are lying if you say you haven’t wanted to be Rory Gilmore once in your life (for those of you who have seen the show). The perfect reader with the perfect grades and the perfect boyfriend. Everyone wanted to be her until season 3 (Yale Rory). Everyone was annoyed when her life didn’t end up perfectly like every movie and tv show and I think that is the problem- real life is not perfect so why should we hate Rory when her life didn’t end up perfectly? This is just one of many examples I can think of. I think that creating unrealistic expectations of events portrayed by the media can be dangerous to our mental health. There have been so many times when I catch myself wondering why something didn’t play out a certain way but I realize that I had unrealistic expectations of it in my head.

Name one movie where it did not all work out well in the end for the characters (I am sure there are some dystopian movies) but in the end, it is always the girl who gets the guy and they stay together forever. That’s not always how life works- I think sometimes movies give us a false sense of security that no matter how things are going for us now, it will end up working out for us. Things happen that no one could have foreseen. In Rory’s case, I feel that she had burnout and it is a very real thing for which we sometimes assume it may be laziness. Of course, there are certain life decisions that she took that she should’ve thought through better but isn’t that what life is? You live and you learn. There are so many life decisions that I regret but learning from them is what helps me get stronger.

The ‘Glow Up’

I cannot express the number of times where I have seen flashbacks in movies where the character is called ugly just because she/ he has braces and glasses. I think they mistake glowing up for growing up. I don’t understand the concept of taking off your glasses and suddenly having this magical transformation. Like ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty,’ Belly took off her glasses and her braces came off and suddenly she became ‘pretty’ according to the show. I feel like sometimes there are unrealistic beauty standards that we romanticize which do us no good. There are numerous movies where all the before pictures are actresses basically wearing glasses and braces- I think it is part of growing up and we create this false sense of romanticizing it which in the end hurts us.

Toxic relationships

I think what we romanticize the most is the idea of love. I know I do it all the time. We tend to want relationships that they depict in shows not realizing how toxic it would be in any real-life scenario. I can think of so many shows in which I have seen edits of the two characters in a relationship and all I can think of is how toxic they would be. Here are some examples:

1. Chuck and Blair

Yes, I know- they are everyone’s favourite couple in 'Gossip Girl' and they belong together, etc but just think about how toxic they are. They really were enemies to lovers but took that literally. There are many messed up things that they have done (which I won’t mention because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t watched the show). It was like they were addicted to each other but not in a good way? If that makes sense? Yes, they did love each other but at the cost of their own mental health

2. Ross and Rachel

I think we all know how this one goes. The biggest question is- ‘Were they on a break?’ the constant breaking up and getting back together gave me whiplash. Ross gave the ‘if I can’t have you, no one can’ vibe and I was not here for it. They would constantly break up over small petty things, they would not admit to their faults as none of them would let their pride get in the way and then they would get jealous if one of them would date someone else. The amount of time they have tried to ruin each other’s relationships (I lost count).

Can it be a good thing?

To a certain extent, a little romanticism is not a bad thing but there is a certain limit. It helps you feel as if you have more control over your life. it makes life a little easier in which you can escape into your own little world. I think it gives you a more optimistic view of life and helps you see the positive side of things. It helps you see the beauty in the little things and what is life if not the small moments put together?

Well, I’m thinking of doing a part three in relation to work or from the point of view of a student but I hope you enjoyed reading this blog.

Thanks for reading,

Xx mahika

(Ps: follow my Instagram: @blogbanterandbigwords where I share polls and put teasers for my upcoming blogs, you might also find some nice quotes in there)