19 Annoying As Hell Clichés About Romance That TV Shows And Movies Need To Stop

Guys being super persistent isn't as sweet as movies make it look!

We recently asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us which romance clichés annoy them the most. Here are some of their responses!

1. Meeting "The One" only for them, or you, to be taken.

Columbia Pictures

"When you meet Mr./Ms. Right, but he/she already has a girlfriend/boyfriend/fiancée/wife/husband, but they're just not right for them, which they will not recognise until they meet our lovely, gentle, caring, flawless protagonist. See; The Wedding Planner or The Wedding Singer."

– Anna Arpin via Facebook

2. Guys being super persistent and it being idealised as romantic.

Columbia Pictures

"What makes me wanna scream is how they present the leading guy never giving up even when the leading lady says 'no' over a thousand times as 'romantic.' 'No' never means 'no', dudes, it just means 'try harder'! Women don't know what they want, anyway, right? Right."

– Iveta Marinopolska via Facebook

3. People falling in love whilst barely knowing each other.

Walt Disney

"'We've only known each other a week and have had all of two conversations, both misunderstandings, but WE ARE SOULMATES, and that means it's time for [another peeve of mine] a grand romantic gesture saying so!'"

– Emily Barnard via Facebook

4. Female romantic interests never being allowed to know how attractive they are.

20th Century Fox

"The main female lead can never know that she is attractive. She always needs a man to tell her that she is. It's like if she herself knew she was good-looking the writers think people will instantly dislike her – so she's always clumsy, or nervous, or anything other than confident."

– Adrienne Fornwald via Facebook

5. Brides running away at the last moment to be with their true love.

NBC

"When the woman doesn't realise she's with Mr. Wrong until she's at the altar, in her wedding dress. She then cries 'I'm sorry, I can't do it' and runs off to Mr. Right, who she met while being happily engaged to Mr. Wrong, of course. How HORRIBLE to abandon, humiliate and crush someone's heart in public like that!!! I hate, hate, hate it. It's even worse if Mr. Wrong is actually a nice guy."

– Caroline Helies via Facebook

6. Possessive behaviour being romanticised.

Summit Entertainment

"Wanting to control someone's actions, know where they are at all times, and get all angry and combative if someone else even talks to them is not cute or romantic, it's a serious red flag."

– Wendy Davis via Facebook

7. Easily-explainable misunderstandings causing a whole lot of drama.

NBC

"Misunderstandings. Constant, continual misunderstandings, so two people who clearly like each other take an absolute fucking age to get together, long past the point where the audience have stopped caring."

– Darren Rosenberg via Facebook

8. A character's crappy past behaviour conveniently being forgotten.

Columbia Pictures

"The 'all is forgiven' ending – I can’t stand watching Groundhog Day because as much as we’ve watched Phil come on a journey and change, as far as she’s concerned he’s still an asshole. Just because he’s spent a few hours being nice doesn’t mean she would forget his months of being a dickhead."

– hollygittins

9. Attractiveness gaps between male and female leads, when the reverse rarely happens.

Universal Pictures

"Where the ridiculously attractive woman falls for the average guy, but does a ridiculously attractive man fall for the average looking girl? And if they are considered average is it because this stunning goddess of a human being wears glasses, has textured hair, and/or an awkward/demure personality?"

– thanujadmc

10. Having two characters initially hate each other before they ultimately get together.

Buena Vista Productions

– yasmurbina

11. Portraying married life as being utterly miserable.

CBS

"Just let people love each other, damn. Also, if my husband acted like he actively hated me 90% of the time, I'd probably want a divorce."

– j4e7a45900

12. Showing cheating as fine if it means you can be with your ~soulmate~.

New Line Cinema

"Where cheating is basically seen as being a good thing. For example, when it's an ex/old connection and they go and break the heart of the current partner. Everyone sees it as this big romantic thing when the main characters finally connect and admit they love each other or sleep together or whatever but nobody takes into account that they are being shit-heads."

– capriannw

13. Men behaving like children and needing their partners to help them grow up and get their shit together.

CBS

"Men who act like children and their potential love interests have their lives together and are supposed to wait for their men to grow up. I understand staying with someone through the struggle but why should women be expected to grow up and be mature and then have to sit around and wait for someone else to mature, but men aren’t expected to do the same."

– carissab4c4c2d92b

14. So many LGBT on-screen relationships ending in tragedy.

The CW

"With the exception of the recent Love, Simon, most films that involve LGBT relationships end in some form of sadness, trauma, sickness or death!"

– CaptainSardonic

15. Single women often being shown as really desperate to be in a relationship.

New Line Cinema

"It's not so prevalent now, but for a long time there was this narrative that all women are desperate to be in a relationship and to get married. That they're always obsessively and needily trying to pin a man down into a relationship. When women are single in movies they're usually depicted as; an old maid, a spinster, a party girl who can't settle down, a workaholic who's put her work ahead of her TRUE purpose (marriage and kids). And GOD FORBID if she doesn't like or want to have kids. She must be a selfish bitch!"

– honeyeater

16. A character harbouring a secret that could jeopardise their relationship, only for their partner to discover it and be heartbroken.

Buena Vista Productions

"When one character, usually a guy, has a huge secret to hide from the romantic interest, like a bet from their friends or something that could jeopardise the budding romance. After the romantic interest falls for them, usually after a grand gesture or constant showering of affection, the character finds out the secret and everyone is heartbroken. Then, predictably, they make up again and everything is okay."

– sophiem4d64fd213

17. Only ever portraying interracial relationships as between someone who's a person of colour and someone who isn't, and rarely two POCs.

Fox

"I'm so tired of seeing literally any colour person falling for a white person. How about a Black/Chilean love affair? An Asian girl and a Hispanic guy, or vice versa? A Nepalese woman and a black person? SOMETHING ELSE?"

– Bianca Orellana via Facebook

18. Characters giving up an amazing opportunity to be with a not-so-great S.O.

20th Century Fox

– kirahannam

19. Shutting someone up mid-rant by kissing them.

Marvel Studios

"When a female character is angry and yelling at a man and he just grabs her and kisses her. If this was ever done to me in real life it would not end prettily."

– Kristivel

Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.

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