Thread by @Jenny_Trout

AND WHILE IT'S VALENTINE'S EVE LET ME ALSO SAY: The reason Romeo and Juliet isn't a love story isn't that they're stupid kids who die for love. JULIET DID NOT DIE FOR LOVE SHE DIED BECAUSE SHE WAS OUT OF OPTIONS.

How old is that play? Like, at least four hundred years, right? And people are still like, "They killed themselves for love, how stupid!" No. Romeo killed himself for love. Juliet married Romeo to avoid an arranged marriage, faked her death, and woke up a widow.

The only way Juliet couldn't be forced to marry Paris is if she was already married. But her marriage was secret and her husband was exiled. Her powerful family and her intended's powerful family could have easily still gone ahead with the marriage.

So she's gonna fake her death and escape. She has somewhere to go because her husband has a life happening somewhere else. And it's IMPERATIVE that she doesn't marry Paris while Romeo is still alive because GOD WOULD KNOW and both she and Paris would be committing a mortal sin.

So, yeah, she wakes up a widow, she doesn't know Romeo has already killed Paris and she's off the hook. She thinks, shit, now I have no fallback and I'm going to get caught faking my death and my dad is NOT going to be cool with that AT ALL.

Her father and mother had already threatened to throw her out on her ass if she didn't marry Paris. What are they going to do once they find out just how badly she defied them? And you know, if people think you're already dead...not gonna be a big deal if you die for real.

So, Juliet sees this as a no-way-out situation and is like, fuck it.
The only person in that play that kills themselves over love is the boy, but it's the teen girl that pop culture constantly rakes over the coals and brands as hysterical and foolish.

Kind of like how it's super feminist somehow to point out that Sandy in Grease "changed for a guy" and whoops, now we have to throw the whole musical in the trash, but we never discuss the fact that Danny changes, too.

She put on some makeup and tight pants. He went out to get a varsity letter.

Also, there's legitimately an entire song where a girl is like, yeah, so I have sex with a lot of guys and like male attention, but is that really the worst character trait I could have?

But oh shit, Sandy teased her hair.

How did I get here?

Oh yeah. Fictional women who get treated like shit because we isolate and generalize one aspect of their story and repeat it forever. STOP DOING THAT.

I remember now. Someone mentioned Romeo and Juliet in the HEA tweet I RTed right before I lost my marbles.