Richard A. Kiernan said:
Mr F. said:
Romance has its purpose. Having a distaste for all romance is not normal. The only lives that are devoid of ALL romance are those lived by psychopaths.
I'm not a psychopath, and my life has literally been devoid of anything that could be regarded romantic. I don't have a complete distaste for romance, but I do have a great disregard and antipathy for many overtly romantic things. Now, obviously, this thread shouldn't centre around my issues, but I'm really not surprised that the OP is turned off romance, as it can be really, really hard to attune yourself where nearly everybody else seems to be getting lucky and you're not.
But the fact that you mention not getting lucky DOES indicate that romance has played a part in your life, however small. Unrequited love is half of romance. I mean, a central theme is "Boy meets girl, girl already has boy, boy proves himself better than other boy through quest/savingworld/beingrich/bacon, boy wins girl". A hell of a lot of poetry, from all fronts, is centered around "Boy loves girl, Girl barely notices boy, nothing ever happens".
So I still hold that the only lives that are UTTERLY devoid of romance, devoid of it to the point where they do not even think about not getting lucky are psychopaths. And that they would not care, what with being psychopaths.
I can understand being turned off romance. I used to be. Hell, I used to hate seeing young couples, all happy and whatnot, what with my only experience with dating and romance (At the time) being making out with a morbidly obese chick. But, once I had a few more forays into the realms of love (Getting engaged. No longer being engaged. Stuff like that) I just... Grew up, I guess.
Not saying that you are immature for hating romance just... Well, I dont understand it. In my experience once people get above the age of, say, 17, they have... grown to either like hints of romance in things or, at the very least, not hate it. Relationships are a part of growing up is what I am saying, so... Yeah.
I think I lost my central point here.
I still hold that the OP aint normal for having a "Strong distaste for any material containing Romance" considering that most material has romance within it, even as a sub plot, and that romance makes up a large part of our everyday lives. Unless, naturally, the OP is bitter (Like you appear to be) about their own life, which does make them normal for hating romance, but not normal if they are above the age of, say, 17.
I guess I am saying that if you have a strong distaste for romantic material in things you should grow up. I do not mean this is a mean way, or in a way which sounds like a personal attack, I mean it as someone who DID hate romantic things and then DID grow up.