Last week, my article explained why Valentine's Day is a day to celebrate all relationships. And why platonic and familia relationships are just as important as romantic relationships. Now, I want to take a step back and explore why we view romantic relationships as this great and powerful things. Why we put so much emphasis on them.
After all, you don't choose to just have one best friend for the rest of your life. You don't put on expensive clothes and get up in front of your friends and family and say I promise to love you and only you forever and ever. But we do with romantic ones.
And not only that but we believe that romantic relationships are what we need in life. We need a romantic partner to make us happy. A crush. Someone to swoon over. Someone to make us feel loved.
The reason we feel this way is because of the media. The media bombards us daily with shows, books, movies, songs about love and relationships. When was the last time you heard a good song about friendship? Or read a book without a love interest? Saw a movie that isn't about will they end up together?
We as artists need to change this. As writers we need to write about other relationships. There's a world of relationships out there that could be explored. Mother and daughter. Brother and sister. Friends. It is up to us to make this change. To prove that there is way more to life and relationships than romance.