The Romance Industry

I am a sucker. Let it be universally acknowledged. There was not a jingle i didn't know when i was a child. I knew ads off by heart and i wanted EVERYTHING ever seen in any commercial. So, you can see how romance would be a big sticky web that I, a trusting, young fly, would settle to rest its eyes for the night, only to awake in the morning to see something rather horrible going on in the morning.

Now, Hollywood (being the bastards that they are) shone the love becon and like a moth to the light I became mesmerised. I watched every type of romance out there; from My Girl to Pride and Prejudice. I read romance books for preteens like "I love you, Jason Deleny." I had the odd celebrity crush and I dreamt of one day of finding the perfect catch.

Now, like any advertised product, when you spend a bit of time with it after the purchase, you find that it was not all it was cracked up to be. I mean sure, it might be adaquate, good even. But it's NEVER as good as they tell you it will be. That, and if it's something you've really been looking forward to, not only does it disappoint, but often something will go so wrong with it that it is now spoiled forever.

Such is love. The crushes i had on boys when i was 13 and 14 were heartbreaking. I loved one boy so much that i tried to facebook stalk him the other day (not that i still love him) but he didnt have facebook. Drat! I was rejected time and time again and it never got easier.

When eventually I DID find someone whom i loved, and still love dearly, it still didn't work out. This was possibly the most horrible. I mean, if you're rejected then there is no possiblity of a fairytale ending. If you've been set up to think that this is real love and it should last forever, its devestating when things do turn sour.

Don't get me wrong i'm fully aware that love is not everlasting in all cases. I come from a line of divorcees. Even so. Hollywood should not set young people up with high expectations. As Angus and Julia Stone so aptly put it "i blame you Hollywood/for showing me things you never should/show a young girl/coz life's not a happy ending/sure there's some/like johnny and june/and maybe other people too. etc"

I get that Hollywood does not depict reality in many cases BUT in a way it forms a reality. It says these are real people like you and me living in real places (New York, Chicago, LA) etc and this is what's happening to them. Then, because there are SO many people like this, so many movies about the same thing, it just seems that this is a regular thing and it happpens. Even when Hollywood tries to inject some ACTUAL reality into their movies such as "The Breakup" starring Jennifer Annisten and that other dude, the acting is so poor that you don't believe a minute of it. Even in "Suddenly 30" you BELIEVE that she has actually had magic dust send her rocketing into her own, messy future. The disney princesses are even worse. They are SOOOO young. Ariel is 16! This means that little girls grow up all their lives and expect to marry the man of their dreams an 16!!!!!!! (this is not always true and i do love the disney princesses)

If Hollywood wasn't trying to sell you love all the time, they might actually show you some wonderful but heartbreaking, also probably more insightful movies on love. If they weren't such money guzzlers they wouldn't be breaking hearts across the globe daily.

This entire rant is the product of someone dissattisfied with an item they purchsed on the premise that it was a good addition the collection.

I say this to you now, Hollywood:
Fuck you. You lied to me.