Locking Down Love

Labelled as the hookup generation, Gen Y is known for giving love a bad name. But Aurelia Fernandes busts some of those myths with her inside scoop

Stepping out of the theatre, the lilting jazz of La La Land still playing in my head, I casually start eavesdropping on the conversation buzzing around me. Between observations on the cuteness of Ryan Gosling and the discovery that Emma Stone is a pretty decent dancer erupts a playful banter. “But yaar, she should’ve ended up with him. They clearly love each other?” This was swiftly countered with, “It’s the plot, bro. After all those years, they cared, but were not in love. Big difference.”

Every generation has a few romcoms that define the way it perceives love. While the plots remain essentially the same, laced with sloppy kisses and the promise of happily-ever-afters, a few things have changed with time. So, for example, while you watch The DUFF, a teenage rom-com about the designated fat friend, aka DUFF, and her journey towards self-acceptance, it might remind you of another character, Allison, from another teenage cult classic, The Breakfast Club.

The story arc for The DUFF’s Bianca and The Breakfast Club’s Allison is pretty much the same, even though the movies came out 30 years apart: weird girl goes through a makeover and ultimately ends up with the secretly nice jock. But there is one glaring difference. Even before her transformation, Allison was never anything less than movie-star pretty. Bianca, on the other hand, stayed who she was throughout the movie. So how did the DUFF end up with the hot guy? Simple, she went on a journey of self love, and any millennial will tell you that is the answer to all the world’s problems.

For a generation that hates labels, we sure are given a lot of them—‘the Hookup Generation’ is our favourite. It begs the question: what does love mean to your average millennial?