I think we frequently make the misconception of associating romance with what we see portrayed in the media and we bring this mindset into our relationships. We think that when we enter relationships, everything’s comprised of sunshine and rainbows- that everything’s perfect. As women, we’re guilty of expecting our significant other to do various things such as giving us flowers and paying the bill on the first date and we fail to analyze these expectations. Even if it is men’s job to pursue women, I think women can go overboard with their expectations in their relationships. This is a clear indication of unhealthy double standards and it has to stop.
Men deserve effort just as much as women do and in society today, both sides require a certain awareness to this. It isn’t that chivalry is necessarily dead, but that effort is needed from both ends for romance to be kept alive in the relationship. Men do the pursuing and the chasing at the start of a relationship, yes, but women should also compromise.
Especially as a relationship gets familiar and comfortable, the tendency is that women think they stop trying or that they’re taking us for granted when this isn’t always the case. Don’t get me wrong, there are relationships when one clearly takes the other for granted. Relationships exist where women are drained of their constant unjust sacrifices for the relationship. However, in the scenario mentioned above, it was just a case of men being men. Sometimes, as a relationships gets familiar, men feel more secure in their relationships than ever and it settles down to a best friend type of relationship. It isn’t that they take us for granted, but it’s that they’re happy living life with you.
Romance isn’t always about the grand gestures and cliche moments to be proven that it’s alive, because it’s also about the mundane moments. It’s also the moments where they kiss you before they get up from bed in the morning, or moments where they wake up early to cook you breakfast. Maybe they don’t stop trying at all, but maybe it’s more of the fact that we stop seeing the mundane things as their way of saying “I love you.”
