I don’t consider myself to be a very-committed person. I spontaneously pick up and dispose of my hobbies, trying everything from baking to embroidery to my latest ambition of pottery.
However, until recently, I held one solid commitment to my most beloved genre of books: romantic comedies. A marriage of two lovely things — romance and humor — romantic comedies were a never ending source of enjoyment. Never did I meet one that I couldn’t finish within the span of a few days, and never once did I consider the closureless activity of a DNF (“Did not finish”).
Recently however, each rom-com I pick up ends up a huge disappointment. I find myself unable to turn the page knowing that I will find nothing beyond unlikeable lusting characters and their non-descriptive suitors. I struggle to find anything with even slightly better writing among Barnes & Noble’s shelves stocked with TikTok sensations. My google searches either deliver books I’ve already read or classics which, while they have their advantages, are often not what I want to decipher during what I consider to be my leisurely activity. Even looking beyond rom-coms into regular romance proves heartless and oftentimes horrifying.
Throughout all of this, I wonder: where did all the good romances go?
To delve into this, I must look into the perceived boom in “bad rom-coms.” Note, by “bad rom-com” I don’t simply mean cliches. I mean books with sub-par writing, immoral characters portrayed as upstanding, borderline and occasionally over the line dangerous relationship dynamics, etc.
When considering the devolution of romance, my accusatory finger lands on consumers. If people are buying it, then I understand why bookstores are selling it.
Social media heightens the platform of a mediocre book to gain consumers —when I see a million comments telling me how good a book is, of course I want to read it! By now though, I’ve learned to be wary of who I believe.
Modern day rom-com consumers have created an industry for books based on lust rather than love, and within that the glorification of abusive relationships in the name of it being arousing.
Every romance book review I see consists of “spice ratings” and excessive praise for a mindless man who happens to be written as conventionally good-looking. Romance books are missing the very thing that they are meant to describe: love!
Yet, few seem to let this fundamental lack of what I consider to be the obvious key element of a romance book discourage their praise, and the market for sub-par romance strengthens.
While I partially believe that some people really do enjoy these disturbing works of self-proclaimed “romance” and I understand my singular opinion on what makes a good book is insignificant, I feel that cultural changes have made this industry of bad books more popular than in previous times.
By cultural changes, I mean young people decline in both attention span and ability to form significant opinions [My thoughts on the decline in teenagers’ abilities to form opinions has less scientific backing than attention spans, but I don’t believe it’s any less significant].
Bobby Allyn, Sylvia Goodman, and Dana Kerr mention in an article on the dangers on TikTok that excessive social media use generates “negative mental health effects like loss of analytical skills…contextual thinking, conversational depth, [and] empathy.”
A loss in these skills has detrimental effects in many areas, but to stay on topic, it limits the ability of consumers to shape their own ideas when buying, reading, and reviewing a book.
When looking at the consequences of this, note that a large population of the people purchasing these books are young women, some as young as preteen girls with naive parents who think their child reading any book is better than them being online.
The consequences of a mindless consumption of rom-coms has more damaging effects than my own displeasure.
By perpetrating these rom-coms, consumers are transferring what used to be idealistic love into the type of relationship that no one should look toward as an example.
The bar for love is being lowered, and while it might seem insignificant to many, for me, once an eager consumer of any silly love story, it’s frightening.