19 Moments From Popular Rom-Com Movies That Were 100% Problematic And Disturbing

    Nate from The Devil Wears Prada did NOT deserve Andy.

    Debanjana Das
    by Debanjana Das

    BuzzFeed Contributor

    1. Nick hiding his family background from Rachel in Crazy Rich Asians.

    @crazyrichasians on GIPHY / Via giphy.com

    The feminine urge to forgive a man who strategically conceals the "crazy, rich" status of his family from his girlfriend, mooches off her Netflix subscription, puts her in distressing situations without forewarning…the list will go on. Yes, Nick, the man in question is you and the middle-class act you tried to feign was in poor taste, to say the least.

    2. Lucy pretending to be Peter’s fiancée in While You Were Sleeping.

    Hollywood Pictures / Via giphy.com

    If you see Lucy lying about being Peter’s fiancée and keeping up the charade for long, just know it’s in an adorable-woman-madly-in-love sort of way and not in a she-was-committing-fraud-and-needed-to-be-put-behind-the-bars sort of way. Obviously!

    3. Phil Connors not letting Rita be in Groundhog Day.

    @groundhogday on GIPHY / Via giphy.com

    Beware of things that don’t kill you, but come back in the form of Phil Connors to trick you into sleeping with him, eventually treating you like a reward for his redemption arc.

    4. Mark filming Juliet on her wedding day and later professing his love for her in Love Actually.

    StudioCanal / Via giphy.com

    Give it up for our man Mark, a creepy stalker whose nice-guy-emotional-manipulation gambit has been rebranded as the ultimate grand romantic gesture. Our heart goes out to his best friend, poor Peter.

    5. Trudie kidnapping David and making him pretend to be her boyfriend in Holiday In Handcuffs.

    A woman points a gun at a man
    ABC Family

    You’re in his DMs. Trudie is kidnapping him and making him pretend to be her boyfriend. You two are not the same, and thank heavens! David took the — "hostage or not, it’s nice to be held" — meme too seriously, but his Stockholm Syndrome doesn’t discount the severity of Trudie’s crime.  

    6. Nate making Andy feel horrible for evolving into a new person in The Devil Wears Prada.

    @foxhomeent on GIPHY / Via giphy.com

    And the award for the least supportive boyfriend in the world, who doesn’t approve of Andy’s yassification and career growth, and guilt trips her at every chance he gets, goes to none other than — Nate Cooper!

    PS: I get it! It wasn’t her dream job. But she did work really hard to be good at it and deserved an encouraging partner.

    7. Bunny's problematic way of pigeonholing women in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.

    Dharma Productions / Via giphy.com

    You want me to rephrase “you’re not like other girls” as “tumhari jaisi ladki flirting ke liye nahi, ishq ke liye bani hai” (girls like you are not meant to be flirted with, they’re meant to be loved)? A dialogue that, in itself, should have gotten Bunny canceled?

    8. Annie actually being a stalker with no concept of ethics in Sleepless In Seattle.

    TriStar Pictures / Via giphy.com

    Things to do if you’re trying hard to be a jerk who doesn’t treat others with bare minimum respect, AKA pull an Annie:

    1. Misuse professional sources to extract information about the object of your fancy. Who cares about ethics or other people’s boundaries?

    2. Hire a private investigator to spy on someone because all is fair in love and war, obviously.

    3. String along your current partner even though you’re not into him, as he is only here to facilitate your big romantic moment, yay!  

    9. Charles leaving his fiancée at the altar in Four Weddings And A Funeral.

    Rank Film Distributors / Via giphy.com

    God, the Charles you put on earth to act decently is leaving his fiancée at the altar and confessing his love for someone else. Why introspect and communicate honestly when you can treat another person like a squashed cigarette, thereby enabling your character development (if we can call it development, that is).

    10. Rajat's sweeping generalisations about women, peppered with misogyny, of course, in Pyaar Ka Punchnama.

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    I wonder how Rajat sleeps at night after delivering a highly misogynist monologue, in a world where women’s rights are still up for debate. Is perpetuating vile stereotypes about women supposed to be comic relief?

    11. Gautam's terrible treatment of Veronica in Cocktail.

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    Gautam was the poster child of Madonna-whore complex and that’s all you need to know about him. Nobody should marry him. Not for a million dollars. Not even for a trip to the moon. Just no.

    12. Henry's manipulation of Lucy in 50 First Dates.

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    When Nikola Tesla said, “You may live to see man-made horrors beyond your comprehension”, he was actually talking about Henry Roth. Henry was a red flag in human form and former womaniser, who treated an amnesiac woman like his project and orchestrated a string of creepy meet-cutes to manipulate her into falling for him.

    13. Badri chasing Vaidehi to Singapore and kidnapping her in Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya.

    @india on GIPHY / Via giphy.com

    Badri is an abductor, a stalker, and exhibits abusive behaviour. Which one of these epithets makes him a hero and not someone in need of professional help or a restraining order or both?

    14. Jules trying to wreck, Michael, her best friend's, wedding in My Best Friend’s Wedding.

    Sony Pictures Releasing / Via giphy.com

    Who needs the apocalypse when you can micro-dose the Hunger Games by having a friend like Jules who’ll leave no stone unturned to sabotage your wedding? Michael was pretty problematic himself, but narcissistic Jules still bags the crown for being the worst of the lot.

    15. Sara's delusion of fate being the ultimate determinant of her future in Serendipity.

    @GoPlay_be on GIPHY / Via giphy.com

    Are you actually a staunch believer of fate or are you immobilised by indecision and don’t want to have agency over your own life? No, Sara! Don’t look away when I’m talking to you!

    16. Mr. Big's commitment phobia and lack of emotional intelligence in Sex And The City.

    @hbo on GIPHY / Via giphy.com

    The year is 2022. We have started raising our bars when it comes to romantic relationships. We are denormalising emotionally unavailable men like Mr. Big, whose fear of commitment and inability to think of anyone but himself are astounding. Life’s good. Amen.  

    17. Margaret exploiting her power to make Andrew, her assistant, marry her in order to avoid getting deported in The Proposal.

    Touchstone Pictures / Via giphy.com

    When Mama said, "Fulfil the prophecy, be something greater, go make a legacy", she definitely didn’t mean that you should aspire to be a Margaret who exploits the power she holds over her assistant and pressures him into agreeing to marry her.

    18. Harry's sexist assumptions and overall ignorance about women in When Harry Met Sally.

    @maudit on GIPHY / Via giphy.com

    Harry Burns said, “There are two kinds of women — high-maintenance and low-maintenance.” Now imagine dating him because you think he is nice and then boom, he turns out to be "no nuance, just vibes" personified. Thank you (NOT) for the extremely reductive labels, Mr. Burns, that we’ll be sure to disregard.

    19. And finally: Rahul treating women as he pleases without suffering any pangs of conscience in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.

    @bypriyashah on GIPHY / Via giphy.com

    It’s not you. It’s Rahul’s inherent need to treat women according to his convenience as if their sole purpose in life is to cater to his juvenile antics. Date him? In this economy???