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I found this video on YouTube (link below) about how abduction is used as a romance genre in certain action movies.
It really opened my eyes to how common it is, to how these men are portrayed as the misunderstood nice guys (always has to be a white guy) and they easily win over the hearts of the women they kidnap as they demonstrate how sweet they can be to her while she is chained up in his bed or backseat.
Its amazing how common its used as a theme and considering it starts in childrens films (Stardust, Beauty and the Beast, etc), its seems as though as women we are conditioned to not see the harm in this sort of trope from a young age.
Something the Youtube creator says is: "Regardless of the intentions of the writers, these narratives end up both excusing and romanticising the violent behaviour of abusive men".
"Stories like this carry with them some insidious messages about men and masculinity. Chief among them is the idea that abusive men just need to meet the right woman, someone so special that the promise of her love will magically cure him of his violent ways and make him a better person".
Id love to hear the thoughts and opinions of this from other FDS Queens!
I often think many relationships are a result of some form Stockholm’s Syndrome. So I guess it is fitting.
Pop Culture Detective is good for spotting misogynistic tropes. And it's done by a man, so maybe there are men out there who care!
Agreed. Can you imagine if the se were reversed in, say, Beauty and the Beast, but the story was exactly the same?
People would be queasy! It's just as creepy either way, but only one way is normalized and romanticized.
Ha I knew it would be Pop Culture Detective. He does great work and also has worked with some feminist creators in the past. When I first came across his videos I was relieved that I wasn't the only one to think romance tropes we're creepy and sinister, and he does a great job of breaking them down into component parts. In a video like this many creators would group in similar tropes like stalking, and sexual assault, but those have their own separate videos. So there's like 3+ hours of content criticizing these story telling mechanisms with very little overlap.
Honestly I've always hated the romance genre mostly because the male lead was always gross or scary to me, and I hated the women and girls who would try to gaslight me into thinking it was sweet too.
Tale as old as time https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rape_of_the_Sabine_Women https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bride_kidnapping