Tropes that became problematic

[u/KalzK]

The Persistent Suitor: A guy who is after the girl and just wont take no for an answer. Nowadays we just call stalking and harassment, but it used to be romantic. Example: The Notebook (2004), Noah asks Allie out while she's on a date with another man. She refuses, but he threatens to let go and fall unless she agrees to go out with him.

Comedic Woman On Man Violence: Mostly seen in anime, recently it has decreased a lot but years back every show had a woman hitting a guy and showed it as funny. Example: Toradora!, where the quintessential tsundere, Taiga, beats up the MC regularly.

Kid Bags Adult Baddie: I remember a few of these, sometimes it was to show how cool and awesome a kid was because an adult woman fell for him, now it's just seen as problematic shit. Example: Blank Check, the woman likes the kid and kisses him telling him to look for her in 10 years.

[u/Le_Juice_]

Take any romcom from like 25 years ago and it's gonna be full of these. Love Actually? I watched it not long ago, and god damn people were weird in 2003

[u/-Release-The-Bats- → u/Le_Juice_]

The newlywed plot bothered me. However, I liked the one where the guy learned Portuguese so he could confess his feelings to his crush.

[u/pinkypipe420 → u/-Release-The-Bats-]

Kiera Knightly was still a minor in that movie. And her character is married and being pursued by another older man. I'm close to her age, and I thought that movie was grossly out of touch. 🤢🤮

[u/DirectionSad4274 → u/pinkypipe420]

To be fair, I assumed that all of them were in their twenties in that plotline (didn't know Keira was so young until waaaaay later)

[u/pinkypipe420 → u/DirectionSad4274]

I only knew because I worked with a guy who obsessed with Pirates of the Caribbean. And her. Years before that, I worked at a video store when a Mary Kate and Ashly Olsen movie came out. A grown ass man said, "they're gonna be so hot when they're 18."

[u/DirectionSad4274 → u/pinkypipe420]

Oh man I remember that website that was just a countdown to when they turned 18

Fucking yikes.

[u/-Release-The-Bats- → u/pinkypipe420]

Uuuuggggghhhh. Grown-ass men need to stay away from teenagers (and yes, by definition, 18 and 19 are teenagers, argue with the wall). I still remember the countdown to Emma Watson’s 18th birthday too. Shit’s so gross. Those men would go younger if they could.

[u/BackgroundSummer5171 → u/Le_Juice_]

40 Days and 40 Nights, guy gets raped.

Wedding Crashers.

If we want we can go Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls...although that's a gorilla doing the raping.

[u/HoochieKoochieMan → u/Le_Juice_]

90% of that movie was lust, actually.

[u/molsminimart → u/HoochieKoochieMan]

My sibling made me watch it with them. Had to sit through Love, Actually and Closer (2004). How either of these movies were viewed as romantic films (comedy or drama) was beyond me. I felt like I was insane/being gaslit for finding both horrifying in their own ways.

[u/CockroachNo2540 → u/molsminimart]

Nothing romantic about Closer . . . at all.

[u/bitt13 → u/Le_Juice_]

God. I always hated that film. I found all of the stories both boring and depressing in their own special ways. I never knew why it was many people's fav ''comfort'' movie for Christmas. You think that moment Emma cries stoically in her room when she finds out her husband is cheating on her heartwarming???? I felt like people were messing with me. It's a terrible movie.

[u/Sie_Simipour → u/Le_Juice_]

Somethings Gotta Give.

Whilst I like…most of the movie (fuck the beginning)….the premise was just older people fucking 20 year olds then realizing they have nothing in common and being with the close in age partner.

Romcoms get under my skin cause they’re usually full of cringe tropes that aged like milk. Dirty Dancing, Sixteen Candles, ugh……Blue Lagoon……..
That last one is my most hated movie.

[u/snailtray → u/Le_Juice_]

Don’t be baboozled. It was weird at the time too