tv relationships vs real life relationships
Last night I had the opportunity to catch up with an old coworker/friend. Since she’s married and I’m in a relationship the convo naturally veered towards relationships and as we were chatting she made an interesting observation…
“Television has created unrealistic expectations of what a relationship should be.”
As we sat there, I couldn’t help but think about how true it is. Television and movies have created this fairytale like experience where two people meet under the most unusual of circumstances and know immediately that they are meant for one another. On top of that - everyone is far too attractive and much to quick to jump out of a seemingly “bad” relationship.
Here’s how a typical tv/movie relationship ends.
Character A: I don’t like the way xyz went down.
Character B: Well if you can’t accept that then I guess we’re over.
Character A: YELLING
Character B: YELLING
Characters A & B: Sex.
With the exception of the recent Sarah Jessica Parker movie, I Don’t Know How She Does It I cannot think of one tv/movie senario where you see the characters going through hard times and coming through it - probably not as in love as before - but willing to work on it. You never see the times where there’s therapy, disinterest, where children, work and life takes over for a moment. You rarely see couples work at being a couple. Instead you see them fight, leave each other and then reconnect - just as passionate as before.
There’s something to be said for the generations past. With divorce off the table as an easy out - they were forced to work on things - I would bet if you talked to generations past they would say there were periods of time where they didn’t want to be in the same room as their significant other, much less be intimate - but they worked it out and in the end reconnected - stronger than ever.
I’m not saying that there’s not a place for divorce in the world. Some relationships start for the wrong reasons and end for the right ones. You just have to wonder - if people were seeing different things on tv and in the movies would that change their own behaviors? In a world where we are over-saturated with pop culture and people rush to copy their favorite celebrities - would things be different if more icons tried to stay together?
