Infidelity Is Bad For You And For Society, So Why Does Entertainment Keep Romanticizing It?With Valentine’s Day approaching, plenty of media outlets are suggesting problematic movies that don’t just document infidelity but laud it.
By Jordan Boyd
February 14, 2022
The first time I watched the classic ’90s film “You’ve Got Mail” with one of my gal pals, I was shocked.
For years, I heard my girlfriends rave about the movie’s picturesque plot, dreamy bookstores, and darling main characters who eventually fall in love. After watching the film, however, I discovered that a movie that was marketed to me as a staple romantic drama was actually a twisted story of broken relationships and unchecked desires.
“You’ve Got Mail” glorifies emotional cheating. From the beginning of the film, characters Kathleen Kelly and Joe Fox sneak around behind computer screens to get more online chatting time with each other. As much as I adore a good bookstore rivalry, the characters’ relationship with each other is quite literally built on lies.
With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, plenty of media outlets are suggesting movies that don’t just document infidelity but laud it. At the top of almost every list is “The Notebook,” a film that, while renowned, is centered on a relationship that characters repeatedly return to despite their commitments to others.
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The message at the end of these films and shows always seems to be the same: It doesn’t matter how you fell in love. It doesn’t matter whom you ditched to be with another person. In these types of stories, the end always seems to justify the means.
But does it? There are plenty of studies indicating that infidelity is not all it is chalked up to be. Cheating in any form, including emotional cheating, is one of the top reasons spouses file for divorce. It is bad for physical and mental health, can cause long-term psychological effects, wreck homes, leave children feeling betrayed and traumatized, and hurt work performance.
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Source:
https://thefederalist.com/2022/02/14/infidelity-is-bad-for-you-and-for-society-so-why-does-entertainment-keep-romanticizing-it/
