Hopeless Romantics Make A Hopeless Society
I am no better than your average media obsessed demon. I’ve seen the shows, I’ve watched the edits, and I get the message loud and clear: yearning is earning.
It’s been the latest media obsession next to winter sports. A switch flipped and we’ve realized the infinite potential that tortured romance carries. I find it in my books and movies, even on my daily scroll… faceless accounts online “looking for a real yearner”, strange underproduced ads with elaborate storylines on TikTok, and songs with melodies carried by heartache.
‘Heated Rivalry' Stars on Shane and Ilya's Relationship and Why We Love to Yearn’ | MSN
The people are hungry for friction filled stories with tension and angst. We want passion and pining and desperation. It’s an exciting change of pace from the monotonous obligations of everyday life. I’ve been a big fan of what the culture is feeling, a little bit of action never hurt anyone. In fact I would argue it’s food for the soul.
Bridgerton, Heated Rivalry, and (hesitantly) Emerald Fennel’s Wuthering Heights - in the last few months it’s been impossible to escape these titles. It’s agreed upon that this is what we’ve been missing. We haven’t been fed like this since Bound. Beautiful people oiled up on a screen, overwhelmed with their desire for each other, kept apart by forces of Heaven and Hell. The world is running on love in a very literal sense and it’s beautiful.
Bound (1996) | TMDB
But I am tired of waiting and pining. I can get down with the idea - someone to fawn over my every move, obsessed with me, waiting for me in the shadows. In theory it's poetic. In practice it’s lame.
I love the drama, I love the anguish, and I live for the (hopefully) happy ending at the end of the tunnel. I can’t front like I’m not a consumer. Sue me if I tune in to some enemies to lovers, but I can go without the very obvious and frustrating miscommunications. The last place I need any of that anguish and hair-pulling drama is in my very real consequential life.
I am not anti-love, I am anti wasting time.
Catherine and Heathcliff’s doomed love story literally consumes their entire lives. We flicker in and out of this world, it’s useless to suffer for a lover who never has me.
This yearning for yearning’s sake is spilling into places it shouldn’t. Life is just happening to so many people. We are afraid of action. content holding our breaths and pining from the sidelines because, maybe one day, silent suffering will manifest greatness into our reality. Our love for love is all consuming. We lose so much time watching the beautiful people on our screens fall in love, and watching the beautiful people in our lives drift away. It’s an epidemic that’s evolved into a performative stoicism. An aching for love remolded into the need to be nonchalant and show the world you’re casual and uncaring.
Yerin Ha as Sophie Baek and Luke Thompson as Benedict Bridgerton in 'Bridgerton' season 4 | Netflix/EW
My qualm isn’t with yearning, it’s the lack of urgency. It’s bigger than love. If we really dissect it, silent suffering is a breeding ground for complacency in all facets of life. That change you’re yearning for, whatever it is, can’t come true if all you do is ache for it. Nothing happens without action. A closed mouth never gets fed.
Why would I want to twiddle my thumbs thinking about what I want when I can just go for it? It’s ridiculous to deprive ourselves of the basic desires of human connection and make our journey to gratification so much longer. Let's get to a healthy dose of hedonism.
At the end of the day, I do still enjoy a good yearner. Don’t leave behind that tasty dramatic edge on my account, yearning is absolutely welcome in the big 26’. There is no life without struggle and no pleasure without pain. But I hope this is a year for action. For the lovers who are loud and unafraid, who push through obstacles and say how they feel even when Heaven and Hell are tearing them apart. Let’s eat when we’re hungry, sleep when we’re tired, and love when we want.
Strike Out,
Moriah Higgs
Miami
Moriah Higgs is a junior at Florida International University majoring in Public Relations, Advertising and Applied Communications. Moriah is a novice writer, with goals of writing pieces that reflect her interest in pop-culture, the complexities of modern life and love for exploring the current state of Western society. You can find some of her previous work in Strike Miami’s Print Issue 9. Her self-expression also takes the form of fine art via painting and drawing. When she’s not writing, she’s on the field with the FIU Women’s Rugby team or spending her leisure time with friends and loved ones.
