The Death of Romance?
By Carley Hollis
As a society, and as a demographic, we, the 18 – 25 psuedo-professional student types are apparently obsessed with lust. In between advertising moguls using sex to sell us everything from the cars we drive to the perfume we wear and our academic parents forcing free condoms upon us, it really is possible to fall in love in modern times.
It’s easy to see that romance isn’t the top priority of the majority of students here in St Andrews – just check the ‘Overheard in St Andrews’ Facebook group and you’ll see how obsessed we all are with getting it on - but surely, romance isn’t actually dead? Suffering from an alcohol induced coma, maybe – but romance isn’t completely out of the student grasp, is it?
There do seem to be some shows of affection here in the Bubble, but ‘shows’ appears to be the operative word. For all the Balls and Formal Dinners which take place, couples seems to arrive together, pose for a few nice photographs to send to the parentals and then ignore each other until they’re rather more intoxicated. Coffee dates are something of a regular occurance, and yet I can’t remember the last time I saw a boy paying for his date’s drink – is there less point when it’s not alcoholic maybe?
Perhaps it’s the case that I’m being far too much of a cynic about the state of romance in our town, but if I am, please don’t blame me; the reason I’m searching for such a specific form of romance is, quite simply, because Disney gave me unrealistic expectations about love. I’m a child of the Disney generation; I learnt the words to the songs from Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King way before I understood what they meant. It should come as no surprise then, that my version of romance includes beautiful heroes and heroines, who have to battle through adversary to reach their beloved, who climb walls and scale buildings just for a glimpse of them, who wouldn’t dare to give an ‘IOU one backrub’ as a Valentines Day present – and I’m not alone!
The Facebook group “Disney gave me unrealistic expectations about love” has over 130,000 members, and points out that the message Disney preaches is utterly ridiculous in real life – how did anyone ever believe that a glass slipper would be a good choice in footwear for a ball?! The tongue-in-cheek analysis of some of our favourite childhood films is entertaining because it’s true; yet I still can’t quite come to stop searching for my Prince Charming – it’s just a shame that St Andrews seems to be full of Beasts.
By Carley Hollis
As a society, and as a demographic, we, the 18 – 25 psuedo-professional student types are apparently obsessed with lust. In between advertising moguls using sex to sell us everything from the cars we drive to the perfume we wear and our academic parents forcing free condoms upon us, it really is possible to fall in love in modern times.
It’s easy to see that romance isn’t the top priority of the majority of students here in St Andrews – just check the ‘Overheard in St Andrews’ Facebook group and you’ll see how obsessed we all are with getting it on - but surely, romance isn’t actually dead? Suffering from an alcohol induced coma, maybe – but romance isn’t completely out of the student grasp, is it?
There do seem to be some shows of affection here in the Bubble, but ‘shows’ appears to be the operative word. For all the Balls and Formal Dinners which take place, couples seems to arrive together, pose for a few nice photographs to send to the parentals and then ignore each other until they’re rather more intoxicated. Coffee dates are something of a regular occurance, and yet I can’t remember the last time I saw a boy paying for his date’s drink – is there less point when it’s not alcoholic maybe?
Perhaps it’s the case that I’m being far too much of a cynic about the state of romance in our town, but if I am, please don’t blame me; the reason I’m searching for such a specific form of romance is, quite simply, because Disney gave me unrealistic expectations about love. I’m a child of the Disney generation; I learnt the words to the songs from Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King way before I understood what they meant. It should come as no surprise then, that my version of romance includes beautiful heroes and heroines, who have to battle through adversary to reach their beloved, who climb walls and scale buildings just for a glimpse of them, who wouldn’t dare to give an ‘IOU one backrub’ as a Valentines Day present – and I’m not alone!
The Facebook group “Disney gave me unrealistic expectations about love” has over 130,000 members, and points out that the message Disney preaches is utterly ridiculous in real life – how did anyone ever believe that a glass slipper would be a good choice in footwear for a ball?! The tongue-in-cheek analysis of some of our favourite childhood films is entertaining because it’s true; yet I still can’t quite come to stop searching for my Prince Charming – it’s just a shame that St Andrews seems to be full of Beasts.