High-voltage sex, jealousy and control: why do movies and series for teenagers flood us with toxic relationships?

BarcelonaReviewing the latest Prime Video hits, it's easy to spot a pattern: films for the platform centered on teen love stories are bound to win. The latest example is Tell me in a whisper, a Spanish production about the love triangle between Kamila (Alícia Falcó) and brothers Thiago and Taylor Di Bianco (Fernando Lindez and Diego Vidales), whom the protagonist hadn't seen for seven years. The romantic relationship patterns in this film are toxic, but that doesn't seem to matter to its audience, who have devoured it.

Tell me in a whisper is one of many films of this kind that can be found (and will be found in the future) on the platform. In fact, this production is an adaptation of one of the romantic novels by the Hispanic-Argentine writer Mercedes Ron, and Prime Video has already announced that it is preparing a second part, taking advantage of the fact that the book is part of a trilogy. The author is one of the streaming service's great assets: she and the platform have an agreement, which they named House of Ron, to bring to the screen the entire universe created by the writer. The alliance comes after Prime Video made the trilogy of Guilty (made up of the films My Fault, Your Fault and Our Fault), which has surpassed 100 million viewers worldwide and of which an English version has also been made.

Bad boys who make you fall in love

Besides these titles, Prime Video's catalog also includes other films and series that operate in the same vein, such as the German Maxton Hall, one of the platform's great phenomena, or Love me, love me. All proposals share the fact of being adaptations of romantic books aimed at a young audience, most of them born from Wattpad, the platform that allows anyone who wants to write and publish their stories. They also share more important details, such as that, as a general rule, the male protagonists fit the stereotype of the bad boy who deep down has a good heart, or that the teenagers who appear live adult lives despite being minors. There is also a certain fascination with the world of motors and speed.

This flood of romantic series and films with toxic traits arrives at a time when there is a setback in feminism and tolerance towards control within couples is growing. The latest Youth and Gender Barometer from the Fad Youth Foundation indicated that 32% of young women state that their partner got angry because they did not immediately reply to messages or calls, compared to 17.5% of young men; 27% of girls report that their phones have been checked (17% for boys), and 26.6% of them have been told who they can or cannot talk to (17% for boys). Also, almost half believe that having a partner means absolute surrender and that a relationship is for life.

"Patterns of toxic, violent, and unhealthy relationships have always existed in fiction, but the difference is that now there is much more sexuality. The erotic charge is much higher," says psychologist Elena Crespi, specialized in sexology, couples therapy, and other relationship models, who adds that these representations do have a real impact on viewers. In this regard, she points out that, as a general rule, these are series and films very focused on falling in love rather than on love relationships, and that, very often, they are linked to explosive sexual relationships. "Everything is presented in extremes in series and films, and often we find the dilemma of 'who do I listen to? The bad boy who makes me lose my head or the good boy who doesn't awaken my passion?' Reality is not like that; good boys are not blessed without passion, nor will the bad boy transform into the love of your life. Reality is much more complex, and series simplify it," Crespi recalls.

Regarding the control patterns that also appear in these fictions, Crespi points out a factor that has changed the rules of the game: the widespread use of geolocation by parents. "Teenagers are very used to geolocating themselves because their families have been doing it since they got a phone. The moment their partner asks them to geolocate, they see it as the most normal thing in the world. All these control behaviors end up being presented as behaviors of love and concern. This perpetuates control and submission," she says.

Films like the trilogy Guilty have faced criticism pointing out their toxicity, but both production teams and actors have defended the films and their audience. "I think 17-year-old girls are greatly underestimated; they obviously know that this is fiction and not something to aspire to or relate to. They are women who are in a moment of rebellion, of not knowing if you are an adult or a child, of talking back to your parents, of going out to parties when you are not yet of age... In the end, they express it and look for it in books like these [on which Guilty] is based, in films, in bad boys, and in these kinds of things, when they see these films, they say 'wow, that's cool.' But afterwards, they really know what they need in a relationship and what is good or bad for them," argued actress Nicole Wallace, protagonist of the three films, in an interview.

Crespi points out that the problem is not so much the teenagers, who in some cases may consume them critically, but the pre-teens. "It's true that now there are more references that question these kinds of discourses, and we shouldn't be paternalistic towards teenagers. But the problem is that it's not only 17-year-old girls who watch it; 12-year-olds watch it too. At that age, the brain is not yet ready to consume these things," she remarks.

Although young people are usually the target audience for these fictions, it should be noted that adult audiences are not exempt from this type of series and films. On HBO Max, for example, we can find Ask me What You Want (HBO Max), which adapts a novel by Megan Maxwell and crosses red lines by showing a non-consensual sexual relationship – therefore, a crime – as a path to sexual liberation.