Why the term ‘hopeless romantic’ bugs me
I hate the phrase ‘hopeless romantic’.
It’s paints a rather putrid image for me, as if I am some hysterical woman running around London, desperate for even an inkling of male attention.
It begs the question of romance being somehow hopeless for certain women. That there is a gaggle of gals running around every major city in the world, frothing at the mouth at the thought of a romantic relationship. Going gaga for the L word.
Funnily enough, if you actually type ‘hopeless romantic’ into Google, you are met with the rather large sum of 25,000,000 searches. Just how hopeless are we? And man, that gaggle is getting pretty big. (Worth also pointing out that those 25,000,000 aren’t just women).
When searching for the term ‘hopeless romantic’, the first Google suggestion is a definition of what a hopeless romantic is. ‘A hopeless romantic is an expression describing a person who has romantic notions about life. For a hopeless romantic: life = love. Especially when that person is involved in a relationship - He/she thinks about love and romantic relationships in a different way than other people.’
Does liking rom-coms mean I have romantic notions about life? Does reading Jane Austen mean I have romantic notions about life? What about singing just for the sake of it?
Just because I do, or enjoy these things, does that mean I value love above all else and could be pigeon holed as a hopelessly romantic? No sensei, thankfully it does not. Also if, for a minute, life did equal love and only love, then what part of that is hopeless anyway? I was under the impression that love was hopeful rather than hopeless, but maybe I’m just an optimist.
What I really want to know is why there is such a lack of hope for women who like the idea of romance?
I reject that phrase, and instead prefer to call myself a hopeFUL romantic.
Because I am hopeful that one day someone will sweep me off my feet and we will ride off into the sunset. Just preferably not on a horse, because I’m allergic.
