Every Christmas, I watch the same movies- White Christmas, Holiday Inn, Bridget Jones’s Diary and Love Actually. I also watch Die Hard with my husband and that’s okay because it has Alan Rickman.

Maybe because the #MeToo movement was everywhere, but I wondered how the last two would be received if released today. There’s stalking and at work sexual harassment and some might say a toxic workplace. Then I started wondering how many romance tropes would be acceptable in today’s climate- the obsessive behaviour, the never take “no” for an answer, the “it’s not really rape” because she gave into her overwhelming desire.

It makes you feel a little sorry for the not-predator majority of guys who have trouble reading women’s behavioural cues. But maybe that’s the point. Maybe romance is fantasy because we don’t want real life to be like that. We don’t want to be swept away. We don’t want to be powerless in the face of passion. Your thoughts?

Also I wonder what this says in retrospect for the entire genre of BDSM novels like Fifty Shades of Grey. Regardless of consent, they raise the issue of submission and dominance which feels out of step, at least to me.

As I ponder this, I will re-watch this hilarious bit by Jamie and Claire of Outlander in the real world.  Merry Christmas!