me judging big blockbuster movies: ugh again with these tired romance cliches? come on, aren’t we above this? this is gonna suck
me reading fanfic: *opens the 700th coffee shop au with unintentional bed sharing i’ve ever read* damn this is gonna be So Good
I recently tried to watch a Hallmark movie and it hit me that the reason I can’t stand these tropes in romance movies is because they’re often presented in infuriating ways. They were doing the enemies to lovers trope by having the guy insult what the woman did for a living and call it frivolous then rudely making loud noises in the hotel room next to her and not stopping even when she complained.
In movies this trope tends to be played as the man being an absolute asshole but them still getting a happily ever after, which sends the message that women should put up with and forgive this behavior once the man is willing to love her.
In fanfic the enemies to lovers trope is portrayed as the characters being competitors or having misunderstandings. In these fics they usually don’t do anything hurtful to each other, they just bump heads. Their initial interactions aren’t toxic and they have a believable foundation for a healthy relationship.
Hollywood is stuck, it’s been portraying these tropes the same way for decades and they tend to be subtly sexist. Sometimes it’s not even that subtle. Fanfic uses the same tropes as romance movies but they do them a little differently and those differences speak to more people.
Also, fanfic tends to have them explicitly work through their issues before moving into a relationship - or else showing that not doing so causes more problems later - while movies tend to flip switch to “relationship time” and ignore everything beforehand, which is weird and creepy.
Yeah, in a fanfic that had one of the romantic leads behaving like that the story would be all ABOUT him realizing that he’s a huge jerk and his behavior’s in no way okay, and cleaning up his act while also realizing that the woman/second man’s profession is actually pretty cool and worthy of respect. The transformation might be handled clumsily or wrapped up too quickly and neatly, but it’d still be the driving force of the plot, not this…weird THING mainstream romance does where the guy stays a jerk from beginning to end and the woman still somehow falls for him anyway.
THIS. Finally, someone put into words why I love romantic fic but hate most romantic movies.