RumBelle is not abusive
Physically? No. Emotionally, absolutely. He toys with people the same way he toys with words. He put her through the wringer. He lied to her. He manipulated her. He used her. He is going to destroy people she cares about. He HURT HER. He made her doubt herself. He made her not trust her instincts. Not all abuse is physical. And now he thinks that he can simply rewrite his happy ending using the Author to have it all–giving her NO CHOICE in the matter.
TV is escapism
No, it’s really not. It’s not a way to escape your life. It holds a mirror up to that life and asks you judge it. It is not a way to simply ignore the world around.
ETA: I took me half an hour but I finally found what I was looking for. From my “Love and Romance” thread of a year ago. This is from @Myril and it encapsulates what I’m saying.
Escapism or grounded in the real world? You can’t decently escape unless you can identify with characters and/or story, and a character can be someone you would wish to be like or someone who is in many ways like you are but doing things better (most of the time). Be it one or the other, characters have a connection to us as we are in the real world. Furthermore even if a show is meant as escapism it reflects on the real world and its issues, if we like that or not, if we are aware of it or not. It doesn’t matter if an audience wants to take a fictional show as something reflecting on their reality, it always does anyway, questioning or upholding believes and views and societal images. And we never can watch or read fiction without our very own bias, based on our believes and experiences.
believe it or not most people can distinguish between a work of fiction and actual reality
Really? Golly, tell me more!
Of course they can. EXCEPT when they realize that the work of fiction is incredibly problematic but refuse to call it as such because it makes them uncomfortable to acknowledge that something they love is super problematic. People will bury their heads in the sand and refuse to call a spade a spade because they don’t want to face the fact that a piece of media they love is sending out a lot of red flags.
People don’t just dumbly accept the media they are fed.
…yes they do.
No really. They do. It’s only quite recently (thanks in large part to social media) that dissenters are becoming more widely recognized. You know how I know that people dumbly accept the media they are fed? Because TV hasn’t been shut down or revamped but instead falls into the same pitfalls that it always had Because when those dissenters point out the moral and ethical flaws in a relationship–whatever relationship it is–people instantly get defensive when it’s something they love because again, they don’t want to acknowledge that something they love and care about is morally and ethically problematic.
Ship what you’re going to ship. That has always been our motto ’round these parts. But it doesn’t mean that you should turn a blind eye to how it’s being presented. Because the fact is, it’s being presented horrifyingly.