The Toxic Stereotypes that Romantic Comedies Depict to Viewers By Katie Hampton Photo By Katie Hampton Growing up I watched a lot of movies and my favorite genre was romantic comedies, partly due to the fact that I had grown accustomed to the "damsel in distress" plot that is depicted in Disney princess movies and partly because I love the idea of love. Now looking back at the movies that I once believed to show a beautiful love story, I have come to the realization that rom-coms were not so much romantic, but instead undermining to women. Some of the most popular movies that are targeted for women portray a very damaging image. In movies like She's All That , Grease, and The Princess Diaries, the girls were expected to change their appearance for the guy to fall in love with her. In Sixteen Candles, Jake Ryan "gives" the nerdy boy the popular girl because he's done with her, which not only promotes rape culture , but also shows that women are perce...