Is Your Love for Fairy Tales Hurting Your Chance at Happily Ever After?

I have never been a fan of romantic books or movies. In fact, the only romance I can stomach are stories that were based off of true events. *Cough* Titanic *Cough*. The reason why is pretty simple really. I hate the fact that romantic stories are always doused in soppy and unrealistic ideals of love and relationships.

The details of all romantic stories might be different but the crux of the plot is always the same:

Girl meets boy.

Girl and boy fall deeply in love.

Girl and boy live happily ever after.

The end.

The problem with this is that life is never that easy. In the real world love and relationships are much more complicated.

The other problem I’ve always had with romantic stories is the toxic relationships that are glorified a lot of the times. This whole idea of ‘you and me against the world’ or ‘bad boy changes around for the girl next door’ are only some examples of underlying themes in romantic stories that, in my opinion, glorify toxic and sometimes emotionally abusive relationships.

These are just some of my main points of contention with romantic stories. If I had to explain all of it, I’d have to write a book about it (which I’m seriously considering at this point). So, I won’t go into too much detail and bore you, instead I’ll just give you one very important, scientific ally backed, reason to stop watching romantic movies and reading romantic books.

It makes you a worse partner.

According to the research, people who read Harry Potter and who prefer books of fantasy and science fiction genres make better partners than those who don’t.

Why you wonder? Well, people who prefer fantasy and sci-fi have more positive, realistic, mature and romantic beliefs about relationships, that aren’t based on unrealistic ideals.

Now while the study was specifically done with books, I feel like it is applicable to movies as well since it comes down to the same thing.

So I’m not sure if you like romantic books and movies or not, but one thing is for sure, if you want to be a better partner then it’s time to put the Nicholas Sparks stories aside, and reach for some JK Rowling.

Or you know, at the very least, spice it up and change up the books you read and the movies you watch every now and then.