Love is one of those things that is highly subjective. Everyone has their own ideas and fantasies about love and in general, I say good for them. After all, everyone has the right to their own dream romances, right? What may be mundane for some may be romantic for another and vice versa. That being said, this new breed of fictional ‘dream’ boyfriends that girls seem to be swooning over these days really pisses me off.
And yes, I’m looking at you Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey. The quality of the writing style aside, these books are not just ‘bad’ for impressionable young girls, they’re downright dangerous in the life lessons they appear to be imparting.
Ladies, I’ll put it bluntly: if you think Edward Cullen and Christian Grey are the height of romance and love, please hit yourselves over the head with the nearest piece of furniture to save me the trouble of having to do it myself. If you think these characters, who exemplify over-possessiveness at best and stalker-ish behavior and abuse at worst, are romantic then you really don’t know what love is. Love isn’t just the grand gestures and physical attraction, it’s so much more than that. Love is:
– Getting out of bed to get your pregnant wife a double chocolate fudge brownie at 2 am just because she’s craving it
– Watching My Fair Lady with your wife because it’s her favorite movie and not complaining during or after the movie even though you’re bored to death throughout
– Making your husband’s favorite food for dinner even though you really don’t like it
– Picking up after yourself even when you’re getting late for work just so your sleep-deprived wife has less housework to do and can catch a nap with the baby
– Making it a point to say please and thank you even for the little things so your spouse doesn’t feel under-appreciated
– Forgoing that really lovely new dress you saw at the store so you can save up to buy a nice present for your husband’s birthday next month
– Being patient when your spouse is venting instead of screaming back at him/her
– Understanding the need for (and encouraging) time not spent together
– Making the effort to take your wife out to dinner because you promised even though work ran late and you’re dead tired
– Insisting on staying home and watching a movie instead of going out like you had planned because you can see that your husband is dead tired
– Not holding a grudge
This is just a drop in the bottomless ocean that is love, but you get the idea. Love is more than what this new breed of ‘romance’ novels seems to make it out to be, and if you really think Twilight has got love figured out, then you just probably haven’t been in love yet.
What does love look like for you? What would you add to this list?