One of the reasons why I hate dark romance is how the power imbalance is too big. Like if BOTH of them are equally toxic, and have just much as an equal say in that toxicity, then fuck yeah I'm in. Like it's wayyyy more entertaining if both sides are toxic and both have the power to destroy each other, y'know? Most of the time I see how there's a clear victim and abuser in those dark romances, and somehow, it's always the men that are toxic, like people DO know women can be just as toxic, right? RIGHT?!! 😭😭😭
@angleofsweetrevenge yes yes yes fuck yes! Y'know what came to mind when you said that? Fyozai 😃😃 got fucking traumatized from that ONE fic and it's like, 3 chapters in 😭😭
Ok but I'm still not in, even if it's "equal". Abuse is abuse. I do not support toxic relationships and it is NOT something to glorify. Can we just normalize healthy relationships PLEASE
@@Lmao_mooodi didnt expect a BSD MENTION⁉️⁉️‼️‼️ Fyozai is so toxic in a good way when its written by ao3 writers even if i dont like the ship myself 😋
@@nomoretwitterhandlesIf it was a self-aware book with dark comedy elements (clearly pointing out the absurdity of the situation and not romanticizing the abuse), I don’t see the problem: sometimes it’s fun to see two bizarrely evil people fall in love
my favorite part of the dark romance and booktok brain rot is these people thinking they're somehow above people watching corn or they're intellectual bc it's a book. you spend hours at a time reading smut, you are no different
@@Mittens5824 yeah, y’all watch movies with sex scenes that are full-blown porn and yet you have the right to judge people who read books about it make that make sense
I respect the dark romance author who listed all trigger warnings. She's not like Collin Hoover - she doesn't claim that she write romantic books full of chocolate, roses and a little bit of angst
Oh my god, yo, my sister said she read that one book by that author you’re mentioning, she said it was disrespectful to domestic violence victims. I believe her.
@@StrawberryCakeStudiosYT this may be the hot take, but there is no way Colleen actually wrote up It Ends With Us as an homage to her mother, because there is NO WAY you can write up smut about your parents just to have them beat on each other when its over.
Having survived DV and r and attempted m this sht is so naive and disgusting to me to romanticize it to the point where people literally think I’m trying to be special when I try to explain horrors I’ve survived.. then they claim *I’m* the messed up one.
Crazy how people constantly say "People read/write this as a way to cope with trauma", besides the fact that I haven't heard a single person actually say this as a personal experience, its still just flat out fetishizing and nothing about it seems to be therapeutic in any way. Especially when it comes to the sexually dubious nature of most of these things, I feel like this would retraumatize someone if they went in blind. Speaking of, a lot of dark romance readers for some reason reccomend people go in blind, not a single warning. Movies and video games at least give you a vague warning, these mfs want you to go off the cover
@@xxlittlekittyjess666 I can definitely understand it, because to those people, you included, I'd be part of the target audience and I absolutely despise this type of content And to clarify if you need it, ive been sexually harassed, sexually assaulted and graped starting at the age of 9, if I wanted to get my power back it would be in the form of revenge, not sexualizing and idealizing my assaulter and harassers just to excuse what she did.
Ironically these people who read dark romance have audacity to say don't judge, every one has their own preference. Like no I'm gonna judge u for glorifying rape and stupid shit like this. Like just bcuz u have diff choice doesn't mean it's right choice, get ur head straight.
@@PaizuruInsanal Booktok, like any fandom culture, is primarily bad. There are fans and there are people who recommend books, and then there is a Fandom and there is Booktok. Huge difference. Frankly it makes me sad that booktok is continuing to perpetuate horrible romantasy tropes. Makes me even sadder that they're POPULAR... The fact that Sarah J Maas's godawful "romance" books are treated like a holy bible book set makes me actually want to give up searching for book recommendations 💀 I love fantasy and I enjoy a romance here and there, but I'm never going to pretend like flawless edgy Mary Sues are cute
yeah,,, that's one of the things that upsets me about the "don't like? don't read/follow" line of thinking...people have the right to think your fictional interests are odd and icky; I'd never tell someone not to judge me for the weird shit I'm into
@@kleiinja i witnessed such monstrosity that no arrangement of the 26 letters of english alphabet could explain and then I submerged into the body of god to wipe out the guilt and disgust i felt after reading the descriptions of her books.
Honestly props to the book at the start that listed out the trigger warnings and said take care of your mental health, we need more of that. I've heard horror stories of dark romance books with zero content warnings, it's one of the (many) criticisms of the genre, the way they handle this content.
My step mother once gave me (14y/o at the time) a dark romance sm$t book. All because she liked the cover.😭 I never got over THAT trauma, that's for sure.
I feel like the only people who can enjoy dark romance are either lucky ass people who’ve never had anything bad happen to them in their lives or people who are so traumatised that they don’t realise how fucked up it is that they can enjoy reading such distressing content 😭 like surely the people writing these books fall into one of these two categories too
humans are innately drawn to the macabre and reading fucked up content does not, in turn, make a person fucked up or immoral, many people enjoy dark topics 👍
I like dark romance side plots because I like bad endings in things, but I've also liked true crime for years. I only really like it when the narrative doesn't romanticize it for obvious reasons and I always skip sex scenes, but yeah. I've never had anything bad happen to me, really. I just love dark storylines and feeling the desperation of the characters
Lets say it: Dark Romance is weird and problematic, but when read with caution and awareness it is acceptable. As long as it stays a fantasy, it’s fine. But the people that really scare me are the ones who really want that to happen to them. Let’s just not romanticise FUCKING SA OR CRIMES man
If you truly think like this you need to touch grass, reality is nobody really cares and just wanna make fun of weird girlies and TH-camrs and other content creators say shit like "don't judge" so they don't get hit with the harassment strike.
@@PaizuruInsanalim like 99% sure you cant get a harassment strike for saying "Yeah maybe don't write up a romance where a dude barbecues and stalks his future girlfriend so people can jill off to it" Not even to one specific person either, its a group of hundreds of thousands who decided to have their kinks be public while also asking for universal acceptance regardless of what it is.
Fr. Like if it's just a kink, I'll still not be friends with people who like it but they can do whatever they want. But what crosses the line for me is if they try to actually say the horrors that they're reading are "not that bad". Like, own up to the debauchery, or stfu. Just because you found the story about a 16 year old and a 38 year old getting together to be beautiful, doesn't mean that it's all of a sudden not creepy to the rest of us. If you can't acknowledge that what you're reading is problematic then you probably shouldn't be reading it.
nope, not acceptable. it’s fine to shame weird people for doing weird shit. you don’t have to be agreeable just so people don’t criticize you or get their feelings hurt.
dark romance is the female gaze (and the occasional men) version of corn that sounds justifiable because they're using their brain to make shit up instead of seeing it on a screen.
tiktok's version of dark romance is just the romanticization and fetishization of a lack of consent and unhealthy power dynamics. and i will stand by that.
When I was a teen, for some reason I was really into Wattpad dark romance in which the male character was always the forceful villain type and the female character was the shy damsel type.... I would fantasize about some hot guy taking full control over my life. But then when I actually started dating a guy for like a week and the second he told me I shouldn't wear my favourite short skirt... All hell broke loose. Now I do not even like the idea of a guy even raising his voice at me without me getting an intense urge to punch him let alone fantasize about controlling my life choices.
I definitely can relate to that. Survivor of SA here, when I was younger and before therapy/healing I' kinda got into that fantasy as well, but then as I was recovering and got older, I would not allow that kind of behavior to stand and it is appalling to me now. Plus it seems a lot of these books have awful plots and aren't even creative, it's just edgy to be edgy, which makes it worse lol. At least have some substance? Or maybe a good revenge plot too, ya know?
As a CNC enjoyer (HARD ON THE FIRST C) who reads some less than savoury fics on AO3, I HATE the sensationalization of “booktok” and “dark romance” because what I read on AO3 should not be romanticized and should definitely NOT be exposed to children. It’s kind of like if everyone started talking about h3nta! in anime community spaces. Also, I’m talking about the dark romances where its specifically romanticizing something that it shouldnt. You can have dark stuff in your book if you handle it well.
CNC is rape glorification. Say it like it is. When you romanticise rape, you normalise it. It's sad. Women know that they can't make this stuff go away so they settle for it and convince themselves that they're into it to protect themselves. It's like Stockholm Syndrome.
Why do I actually just want to read a parody of these mafia romances about some random girl from a middle-class suburban getting kidnapped and meeting the mafia boss but falling in love with a hopeful, down-on-his-luck mafia grunt who does the cleaning and the two teaming up to dismantle the mafia bosses’s control from the inside out through shenanigans and playing the parts they’re supposed to be in while scheming for the big guy’s demise 😭✋
My problem isn’t even that the fucked up shit is romanticized it’s that they talk about it like they’re actually into it like if it were real and happened irl. Cause like you can think something’s hot in *fiction* without thinking it’s actually hot irl yknow. But they never talk about it like they only think it’s hot in fiction 😭 plus them posting it all over sites like TikTok where teens have access to it and exposing teens to porn is also bad
You can tell who was never hugged as a child or wasn't hugged enough. So many touched starved people who want control in their lives but can't so they fantasize about other people doing it for them, but that doesn't happen either so they have to read these kinds of books lol. But one of my main problems is the sexism in these stories. The helpless girl who becomes a slave or whatever. It's never the other way around or with a tough guy and a tough girl. Someone always has to be weak and taken. I'd be a little more tolerant of it if it had different relationship and gender dynamics. But it's honestly just weird r*pe fantasies with extra steps.
Women around the world fought hard so less women of future generations would need to end up in abusive relationships. Knowing their 14 year old grand-grand-granddaughter adding imaginary abusive relationships to her dreamy fantasy world would probably make them instantly respawn and yell "IT'S THAT DAMN PHONE" at them
I have hypersexuality disorder courtesy of being exposed to this nonsense way too young. Hypersexuality disorder is characterized by intrusive recurring sexual fantasies that often involve subjects like assault or abuse. I'm lucky to have gotten healthier and never sought to fulfill those fantasies, but the naivety of these authors and imbecilic women is ASTOUNDING to me. How is it such a difficult thing to grasp that if you romanticize this stuff it's weird and can still hurt people who've actually suffered from it? Fuck, I actually DO write dark shit to cope, but then it's about the victim's quest to settle the score! It shows the effects they suffer, the shame, the self-loathing, and everything else that actually comes with this stuff. It's NEVER meant to be ROMANTICIZED!
This whole “debate” about dark romance is crazy. Like yes video games don’t cause violence, fiction doesn’t directly influence realty, etc, but like. There is absolutely a line somewhere and some booktok authors are using the line for bondage
Lol! My hobby is writing an audio drama where the main character is an actually-reformed criminal. The whole point of the story is "this guy improves his life and learns how to make healthier choices, not only for himself but for his loved ones." I refuse to use more than generic content warnings, because the point of the story is straight up front and people can judge from that, but there could be a ton of them simply because the dude reminisces about the wild stuff he saw in prison. The main criticism I've received is ... the dude and his girlfriend aren't toxic enough. Their relationship is too healthy. She doesn’t play mind games or behave in aggressive and unhinged ways. He learns to get a handle on his personal issues and feels badly when he behaves like a d-bag. Some people find that boring, and ravenously want to consume yet another series about an unrepentant literal criminal who abuses an unstable woman, who torments and abuses him in return. That just makes me double down, though. I'm writing about people getting healthier, being more decent, and I won't stop. Some people like that, and I am writing for them, because they are my people. The ones who romanticize toxicity can go read all the rest of this dreck instead
@@TheBleanaru I'm terrible at self promotion to the point that my series does not even have a name! But if you want to invest time in an audio drama, searching my creator name ("Joy Wainwright") on Spotify ought to bring it up. I have been on hiatus for a minute due to various reasons, but should release new episodes soon.
I found your channel on accident and am about to watch all videos but i need to drop in to say that your humor and editing is top notch. The Stockholm bit killed me and the Dire Dire Docks music revived me.
The mickey mouse voice lmaooooo tears in my eyes had to take a breather to calm myself down my god 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 instant fan and subscriber 😩🤌 absolute ✨ quality content ✨
man this reminds me of the time i was at a gathering and one of my mum's friend's daughters (12 years old btw) was reading 'Haunting Adeline' in the corner (a dark romance obvi) and she made us read this one page (invovling a gun lets say) and i was very disturbed to say the ABSOLUTE least. dark romance is literally just romance without the consent. i will always be the NUMBER 1 hater of that whole demonic genre.
@@bojacklynno it's not long enough. if it's a shorter video i gotta choose what to watch next instead of one topic being discussed for 30+min. at least for me. i know other people do bypass vids this length bc it's too long to pay attention for them. to each their own
@@latesummer I thought you meant it the other way around haha I do wish his videos were longer even though this length is like a middle ground between audiences
I read Haunting Adeline and it was worse than i ever thought, it made me feel so sick, because the way its written is absoluetly how SA victims feel, and also matched my own fear. Like it felt like something i shouldnt be reading and it was nasty.
As someone who occasionally dabbles in dark romance because I like SOME of the tropes, the amount that i've started and had to dnf because the writing was absolutely horrendous and had no proper plot is high 😅
some of the “dark romance” people give off the vibes of gross people in the anime community that say things like “it’s okay if i like this anime character! she’s fictional and she’s canonically 100 years old even though she’s drawn to look like a toddler!!1!1!1”
It is genuinely so crazy that you don’t even have 100k followers, you are the exact type of quality TH-camr who would have like 2M+ followers. I’m so glad to have found u while your still not too famous so I can say I’m one of the OGs💪💪. Your videos are awesome every time and I really hope you keep making them, you’re amazing man
8:44 just sent me down a rabbit hole of nostalgia with "where tf do I know this from?" and now I'm back from a nostalgia trip and all the things that unsetteled me in SM64 lol
In Wattpad , if you put one label as "Billionare " , you will see how many reads it will get. The entire point of dark romance novles is IF YOU ARE RICH AND HANDSOME , EVERYTHING BECOMES LEGAL
This was so hilarious. 😂 I couldn’t stop snorting, this is why I don’t read a lot of dark romance books cause reading a lot of it messes with my mental health.
You can't just mention SCP like that when I'm having my character take care of 999 on janitor ai! The double-take I double-took Thanks for the silly little cat though, adding to the wholesomeness that is 999
When ray reads from the stories, instead of my brain saying, “damn, this is hot” it just floods me with “DANGER!! WE’RE IN DANGER!!” I do not understand dark romance 🤷🏻♀️
dark romance is just a cute name to cover actual crimes on paper
u right
literally!!!
And romanticize them
Throw in a sex scene and bam its romance.
The crimes are the government name and “dark romance” is its stage name
"say it. demonitize yourself" 😂😂💀
You should demonetize your self NOW!
Loved that!! 🤣🤣
@ville__ did your parents show you affection growing up?
4:01
"sue me. maybe i'm into that" ray in this dark romance era
Ray is now the enemy of the big muscular Alpha mafia boss leader Chad Chad
One of the reasons why I hate dark romance is how the power imbalance is too big. Like if BOTH of them are equally toxic, and have just much as an equal say in that toxicity, then fuck yeah I'm in. Like it's wayyyy more entertaining if both sides are toxic and both have the power to destroy each other, y'know? Most of the time I see how there's a clear victim and abuser in those dark romances, and somehow, it's always the men that are toxic, like people DO know women can be just as toxic, right? RIGHT?!! 😭😭😭
@angleofsweetrevenge yes yes yes fuck yes! Y'know what came to mind when you said that? Fyozai 😃😃 got fucking traumatized from that ONE fic and it's like, 3 chapters in 😭😭
Ok but I'm still not in, even if it's "equal". Abuse is abuse. I do not support toxic relationships and it is NOT something to glorify. Can we just normalize healthy relationships PLEASE
@@Lmao_mooodi didnt expect a BSD MENTION⁉️⁉️‼️‼️ Fyozai is so toxic in a good way when its written by ao3 writers even if i dont like the ship myself 😋
@@nomoretwitterhandlesIf it was a self-aware book with dark comedy elements (clearly pointing out the absurdity of the situation and not romanticizing the abuse), I don’t see the problem: sometimes it’s fun to see two bizarrely evil people fall in love
dark romance book where both of them are fucked up and they KNOW it
dark romance booktok is just the first five minutes of a Law and Order: SVU episode
@ville__ Eyyyyy, that's how we know Ray is finally getting some of the recognition he deserves - the bots found him!🤣
@@Y_Shikova ugh king!!
@ville__ about you? nobody, probably
Dark romance lovers are the people that would simp for a serial killer if he’s remotely attractive/ charming.
I feel like most of this community is what made up the Dahmer-heads ngl cause aint no way people find this shit hot normally
They must not watch a lot of true crime docus to know the reality of it then
no they aren't
Ayyyy Oh Sangwoo comes to mind lol
@@nataliachristiani3630yeah yeah those that simp for Sangwoo
my favorite part of the dark romance and booktok brain rot is these people thinking they're somehow above people watching corn or they're intellectual bc it's a book. you spend hours at a time reading smut, you are no different
My favorite part is people who say they listen to pr0n (sorry, dark romance) audio books at work.... Like, WTF ???
@@Mittens5824 yeah, y’all watch movies with sex scenes that are full-blown porn and yet you have the right to judge people who read books about it make that make sense
And even worse it’s all poorly written. Like worse than a teen kids wattpad 🥴
@@sheluvssmokedupeyes1 who's yall? And not everyone is there for the sex, but to a lot of readers the APPEAL is sex.
@@xMsNoobx i read better "lemons" written by 13 year olds on there than whatever romantacised rape/abuse this is
The worst thing is that 12/14 year olds read books like this and when they see these women romanticizing dark romance they think it's normal.
as someone who spent my formative teen years reading fifty shades and internalizing that shit, STRONG AGREE
As a 12-14 year old, I apologise for any delulu minions
wait… didn’t we all download Wattpad and traumatise ourselves at 10yrs old?…. 😀
@@skullflower_l yeah you did. whats your point
@@thecolorsbrothers js saying
The screaming during the intro after mentioning dark romance is so real
My genuine reaction
RAY NO DON'T GO TO THE DARK SIDE OF ROMANCE... You may never go back to the light side!
Or you will run back and FAST
Putting usant Bolt to shame
@Mxchabearr he can have red flag in normal romance , its normal , but here the whole man personality is built of red flags
Just remembered the song 'the adults are talking': "don''t go there cause you'll never return"
Good one
Dark romance is just so try-hard. Like the plots aren't compelling or nuanced, its always just "let's see how edgy can we be!! >:)"
reminded me of "let's see how anime i can get 😈"
@@whahah. I forgot all about that video lmfao 💀
urbanspook for books
Haunting adeline in 7 words
“Let’s see how much r@pe and toxicity we can fit into this book!”
I respect the dark romance author who listed all trigger warnings. She's not like Collin Hoover - she doesn't claim that she write romantic books full of chocolate, roses and a little bit of angst
Oh my god, yo, my sister said she read that one book by that author you’re mentioning, she said it was disrespectful to domestic violence victims. I believe her.
Omg so fucked up 😮
@@StrawberryCakeStudiosYT this may be the hot take, but there is no way Colleen actually wrote up It Ends With Us as an homage to her mother, because there is NO WAY you can write up smut about your parents just to have them beat on each other when its over.
@@arkkon2740 I agree with you cuz ain’t no damn way I would disrespect my mama like that like she did 😭😭😭😭
@@arkkon2740Is this really a hot take because I agree with you too 😂😂😂
"What the heck is dark romance?"
-famous last words
Having survived DV and r and attempted m this sht is so naive and disgusting to me to romanticize it to the point where people literally think I’m trying to be special when I try to explain horrors I’ve survived.. then they claim *I’m* the messed up one.
Crazy how people constantly say "People read/write this as a way to cope with trauma", besides the fact that I haven't heard a single person actually say this as a personal experience, its still just flat out fetishizing and nothing about it seems to be therapeutic in any way.
Especially when it comes to the sexually dubious nature of most of these things, I feel like this would retraumatize someone if they went in blind. Speaking of, a lot of dark romance readers for some reason reccomend people go in blind, not a single warning. Movies and video games at least give you a vague warning, these mfs want you to go off the cover
It creeps me out as sexual assault survivor
Some people who have been graped use this to take the power back it’s sick and twisted but makes sense to me
@@arkkon2740if you don’t understand it that’s fine
@@xxlittlekittyjess666 I can definitely understand it, because to those people, you included, I'd be part of the target audience and I absolutely despise this type of content
And to clarify if you need it, ive been sexually harassed, sexually assaulted and graped starting at the age of 9, if I wanted to get my power back it would be in the form of revenge, not sexualizing and idealizing my assaulter and harassers just to excuse what she did.
Ironically these people who read dark romance have audacity to say don't judge, every one has their own preference. Like no I'm gonna judge u for glorifying rape and stupid shit like this. Like just bcuz u have diff choice doesn't mean it's right choice, get ur head straight.
It's more like people demonizing ALL of Booktok because of Romantasy and Dark Romance, there's regular ass genres there like sci-fi too.
@@PaizuruInsanal Booktok, like any fandom culture, is primarily bad. There are fans and there are people who recommend books, and then there is a Fandom and there is Booktok. Huge difference.
Frankly it makes me sad that booktok is continuing to perpetuate horrible romantasy tropes. Makes me even sadder that they're POPULAR... The fact that Sarah J Maas's godawful "romance" books are treated like a holy bible book set makes me actually want to give up searching for book recommendations 💀 I love fantasy and I enjoy a romance here and there, but I'm never going to pretend like flawless edgy Mary Sues are cute
yeah,,, that's one of the things that upsets me about the "don't like? don't read/follow" line of thinking...people have the right to think your fictional interests are odd and icky; I'd never tell someone not to judge me for the weird shit I'm into
Yea
@@nomoretwitterhandles…Jesse, what the f are you talking about?
"What's that shadowy place over there?" * dark romance* " You must NEVER go there my friend, you'll see things you can never unsee"
not dark romance booktok😭that side of the internet is wild
It should be locked up bro
@@PaperLoser-gv4wb REAL
"Coolen hover"
*every cell of my body physically cringed and my soul left my body to find solitude*
I mentally imploded from inside out and my atomical level changed instantly, causing me to collapse and unalive on the spot
@@kleiinja i witnessed such monstrosity that no arrangement of the 26 letters of english alphabet could explain and then I submerged into the body of god to wipe out the guilt and disgust i felt after reading the descriptions of her books.
Not the Office interview cutscene💀
Honestly props to the book at the start that listed out the trigger warnings and said take care of your mental health, we need more of that. I've heard horror stories of dark romance books with zero content warnings, it's one of the (many) criticisms of the genre, the way they handle this content.
My step mother once gave me (14y/o at the time) a dark romance sm$t book. All because she liked the cover.😭 I never got over THAT trauma, that's for sure.
You were pretty old. For me it was Showgirls movie at 5 years XD by accident
If my step mom gave me dark romance smut at 14 I'd probably sue her for child endangerment 💀
14😭✋✋
The moral of the story is always actually read a book yourself before gifting it to a child.
I feel like the only people who can enjoy dark romance are either lucky ass people who’ve never had anything bad happen to them in their lives or people who are so traumatised that they don’t realise how fucked up it is that they can enjoy reading such distressing content 😭 like surely the people writing these books fall into one of these two categories too
humans are innately drawn to the macabre and reading fucked up content does not, in turn, make a person fucked up or immoral, many people enjoy dark topics 👍
I like dark romance side plots because I like bad endings in things, but I've also liked true crime for years. I only really like it when the narrative doesn't romanticize it for obvious reasons and I always skip sex scenes, but yeah. I've never had anything bad happen to me, really. I just love dark storylines and feeling the desperation of the characters
@ville__ Me because I'm a trama victim and sexualising and romanticising trauma is weird and wrong
Ah, the race to the bottom. The DSM 5 going in hard with these tictoks.
when Ray posts i get happy. Like the sun is figuratively and literally shining.
@ville__ this comment makes me giggle with how random it is.
I can believe a crime boss drawing the line at cheating. They love loyalty.
But selling children into sw is okay I guess
Lets say it: Dark Romance is weird and problematic, but when read with caution and awareness it is acceptable. As long as it stays a fantasy, it’s fine. But the people that really scare me are the ones who really want that to happen to them. Let’s just not romanticise FUCKING SA OR CRIMES man
If you truly think like this you need to touch grass, reality is nobody really cares and just wanna make fun of weird girlies and TH-camrs and other content creators say shit like "don't judge" so they don't get hit with the harassment strike.
yupp, its understandable in like, kink contexts but shouldnt go anywhere near real life, or the publishing industry, lets keep this stuff on ao3
@@PaizuruInsanalim like 99% sure you cant get a harassment strike for saying "Yeah maybe don't write up a romance where a dude barbecues and stalks his future girlfriend so people can jill off to it"
Not even to one specific person either, its a group of hundreds of thousands who decided to have their kinks be public while also asking for universal acceptance regardless of what it is.
Fr. Like if it's just a kink, I'll still not be friends with people who like it but they can do whatever they want. But what crosses the line for me is if they try to actually say the horrors that they're reading are "not that bad". Like, own up to the debauchery, or stfu. Just because you found the story about a 16 year old and a 38 year old getting together to be beautiful, doesn't mean that it's all of a sudden not creepy to the rest of us. If you can't acknowledge that what you're reading is problematic then you probably shouldn't be reading it.
nope, not acceptable. it’s fine to shame weird people for doing weird shit. you don’t have to be agreeable just so people don’t criticize you or get their feelings hurt.
dark romance is the female gaze (and the occasional men) version of corn that sounds justifiable because they're using their brain to make shit up instead of seeing it on a screen.
the female gaze isn't "what turns women on" jsyk, I see ppl use it that way a lot
Ur totally right tho
It's soft guro...
tiktok's version of dark romance is just the romanticization and fetishization of a lack of consent and unhealthy power dynamics. and i will stand by that.
Don’t lose hope for our boy Charles, stay strong Ray
too late i'm now a lando stan
“His tail has decided to join the party haha” 💀
When I was a teen, for some reason I was really into Wattpad dark romance in which the male character was always the forceful villain type and the female character was the shy damsel type.... I would fantasize about some hot guy taking full control over my life. But then when I actually started dating a guy for like a week and the second he told me I shouldn't wear my favourite short skirt... All hell broke loose. Now I do not even like the idea of a guy even raising his voice at me without me getting an intense urge to punch him let alone fantasize about controlling my life choices.
Possibly a desire for security? Then the reality that no they’re just a control freak wakes you up.
I definitely can relate to that. Survivor of SA here, when I was younger and before therapy/healing I' kinda got into that fantasy as well, but then as I was recovering and got older, I would not allow that kind of behavior to stand and it is appalling to me now. Plus it seems a lot of these books have awful plots and aren't even creative, it's just edgy to be edgy, which makes it worse lol. At least have some substance? Or maybe a good revenge plot too, ya know?
@@kristinatodorovic2398 I'm so sorry that happened to you. I hope you are doing a lot better now.
Thanks dear ❤️ and yeah it’s a process and a lot of internal work and therapy but I am at a much better place than I used to be.
As a CNC enjoyer (HARD ON THE FIRST C) who reads some less than savoury fics on AO3, I HATE the sensationalization of “booktok” and “dark romance” because what I read on AO3 should not be romanticized and should definitely NOT be exposed to children. It’s kind of like if everyone started talking about h3nta! in anime community spaces. Also, I’m talking about the dark romances where its specifically romanticizing something that it shouldnt. You can have dark stuff in your book if you handle it well.
What's CNC?
CNC is rape glorification. Say it like it is. When you romanticise rape, you normalise it. It's sad. Women know that they can't make this stuff go away so they settle for it and convince themselves that they're into it to protect themselves. It's like Stockholm Syndrome.
@@Lmao_moood consent- non-consent.
You have a good point,I'm 13 and I'm thankful that i don't read often and that i don't use ao3,plus i dont like to romanticize crimes and all
probably shouldn’t admit that, it’s very odd.
Why do I actually just want to read a parody of these mafia romances about some random girl from a middle-class suburban getting kidnapped and meeting the mafia boss but falling in love with a hopeful, down-on-his-luck mafia grunt who does the cleaning and the two teaming up to dismantle the mafia bosses’s control from the inside out through shenanigans and playing the parts they’re supposed to be in while scheming for the big guy’s demise 😭✋
If I was actually good at writing I'd totally do this
This is fire that would be so good
dirty or squirty was FOUL lmaooooo
My problem isn’t even that the fucked up shit is romanticized it’s that they talk about it like they’re actually into it like if it were real and happened irl. Cause like you can think something’s hot in *fiction* without thinking it’s actually hot irl yknow. But they never talk about it like they only think it’s hot in fiction 😭 plus them posting it all over sites like TikTok where teens have access to it and exposing teens to porn is also bad
You can tell who was never hugged as a child or wasn't hugged enough. So many touched starved people who want control in their lives but can't so they fantasize about other people doing it for them, but that doesn't happen either so they have to read these kinds of books lol. But one of my main problems is the sexism in these stories. The helpless girl who becomes a slave or whatever. It's never the other way around or with a tough guy and a tough girl. Someone always has to be weak and taken. I'd be a little more tolerant of it if it had different relationship and gender dynamics. But it's honestly just weird r*pe fantasies with extra steps.
Thank you ray, for dragging us off the light side of the internet on this episode today 🙂(i remain traumatised and expect future compensation)
The mickey mouse voice makes this so much more bearable 😆
Women around the world fought hard so less women of future generations would need to end up in abusive relationships. Knowing their 14 year old grand-grand-granddaughter adding imaginary abusive relationships to her dreamy fantasy world would probably make them instantly respawn and yell "IT'S THAT DAMN PHONE" at them
I'm new here but I'm really digging the cat-based reward system
Was not expecting a scp joke in the midst of a video about Wattpad for people with skibidi toilet-esque attention span. Made me kinda happy regardless
My millennial side is breaching containment
I have hypersexuality disorder courtesy of being exposed to this nonsense way too young. Hypersexuality disorder is characterized by intrusive recurring sexual fantasies that often involve subjects like assault or abuse. I'm lucky to have gotten healthier and never sought to fulfill those fantasies, but the naivety of these authors and imbecilic women is ASTOUNDING to me. How is it such a difficult thing to grasp that if you romanticize this stuff it's weird and can still hurt people who've actually suffered from it?
Fuck, I actually DO write dark shit to cope, but then it's about the victim's quest to settle the score! It shows the effects they suffer, the shame, the self-loathing, and everything else that actually comes with this stuff. It's NEVER meant to be ROMANTICIZED!
This whole “debate” about dark romance is crazy. Like yes video games don’t cause violence, fiction doesn’t directly influence realty, etc, but like. There is absolutely a line somewhere and some booktok authors are using the line for bondage
Considering guys were SA-ing girls right after 50 shades came out (in the style that was depicted in the film), fiction definitely influences reality.
the 1st one is literally rape. if she was asleep.... and he was inside her. thats not legal or consensual...
Thank you for remembering your password to this account every two weeks
Lol!
My hobby is writing an audio drama where the main character is an actually-reformed criminal. The whole point of the story is "this guy improves his life and learns how to make healthier choices, not only for himself but for his loved ones."
I refuse to use more than generic content warnings, because the point of the story is straight up front and people can judge from that, but there could be a ton of them simply because the dude reminisces about the wild stuff he saw in prison.
The main criticism I've received is ... the dude and his girlfriend aren't toxic enough. Their relationship is too healthy. She doesn’t play mind games or behave in aggressive and unhinged ways. He learns to get a handle on his personal issues and feels badly when he behaves like a d-bag.
Some people find that boring, and ravenously want to consume yet another series about an unrepentant literal criminal who abuses an unstable woman, who torments and abuses him in return.
That just makes me double down, though. I'm writing about people getting healthier, being more decent, and I won't stop.
Some people like that, and I am writing for them, because they are my people. The ones who romanticize toxicity can go read all the rest of this dreck instead
what's the name of your book?
But like.... What's the name of your book? I want to listen!
@@TheBleanaru I'm terrible at self promotion to the point that my series does not even have a name! But if you want to invest time in an audio drama, searching my creator name ("Joy Wainwright") on Spotify ought to bring it up.
I have been on hiatus for a minute due to various reasons, but should release new episodes soon.
Good on you! I would love to listen to this!!!
"Oh mY gOd, iS tHsT hIs LiVeR"
God, I am wheezing 😭🤚
I'm scared of people who idealize dark romance irl.
GUYS WAKE UP RAY POSTED🗣️🗣️🗣️
Take a shot every time Ray has to bleep something out challenge
pls help, I ned a doctr
@@BroKenYaKnow 👍
0:16 thanks for the jumpscare 🌞
charles leclurg winning a championship is more unlikely then tiktok getting banned😭
LMAOOO😭😭😭😭😭
I found your channel on accident and am about to watch all videos but i need to drop in to say that your humor and editing is top notch. The Stockholm bit killed me and the Dire Dire Docks music revived me.
Not even 2 minutes in and I already know this will be great.
The mickey mouse voice lmaooooo tears in my eyes had to take a breather to calm myself down my god 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 instant fan and subscriber 😩🤌 absolute ✨ quality content ✨
NOT THE CHARLES LECLEREC !??💀💀💀💀
Omg you're channel is so underrated watching your videos is so fun
man this reminds me of the time i was at a gathering and one of my mum's friend's daughters (12 years old btw) was reading 'Haunting Adeline' in the corner (a dark romance obvi) and she made us read this one page (invovling a gun lets say) and i was very disturbed to say the ABSOLUTE least.
dark romance is literally just romance without the consent. i will always be the NUMBER 1 hater of that whole demonic genre.
"demonic genre" you sound like a catholic priest 😭
i genuinely love your pacing and editing and humor, u make 12 minutes worth it lol
Is 12 minutes long now?
@@bojacklynno it's not long enough. if it's a shorter video i gotta choose what to watch next instead of one topic being discussed for 30+min. at least for me. i know other people do bypass vids this length bc it's too long to pay attention for them. to each their own
@@latesummer I thought you meant it the other way around haha I do wish his videos were longer even though this length is like a middle ground between audiences
so proud of myself for getting the SCP reference and subsequently being rewarded for it 🙏
I read Haunting Adeline and it was worse than i ever thought, it made me feel so sick, because the way its written is absoluetly how SA victims feel, and also matched my own fear. Like it felt like something i shouldnt be reading and it was nasty.
Criminal with a gun: “give me all ur money!!!
Me: “you’ve read Haunting Adeline too😏”
I hate I love it 😂
Lol😂😂😂😂
Stop because why do I get this notification while me and my fellow reader friend were texting about how bad and normalized it is? 😭
Dark "Romance" is a Mix of p@rn and Horror. It's as romantic as "It".
As someone who occasionally dabbles in dark romance because I like SOME of the tropes, the amount that i've started and had to dnf because the writing was absolutely horrendous and had no proper plot is high 😅
I KNOW, LIKE GIVE ME MURDERERS IN LOVE NOT RPE 😭
some of the “dark romance” people give off the vibes of gross people in the anime community that say things like “it’s okay if i like this anime character! she’s fictional and she’s canonically 100 years old even though she’s drawn to look like a toddler!!1!1!1”
DARK ROMANCE IS SCARY 😰
Crying because I used to read these 😭😭
Who wants Chad Chad and Ray either do a video together or sue each other, please leave a comment! 😂😂😂
At this point, she's gotta know Ray exists right?
@@Drownedinblood I hope so ... lol ... seriously a collab would probably wipe me out because of a serious laughter overdose.
@@cornflakegirl4811 don't they live in the same city too?
@@cornflakegirl4811 gotta requisition the shipyards
I feel like Ray and NotevenEmily would be an amazing collaboration
Omg that would be amazing
omg yes
Classic RayLikeSunshine video😊
It is genuinely so crazy that you don’t even have 100k followers, you are the exact type of quality TH-camr who would have like 2M+ followers. I’m so glad to have found u while your still not too famous so I can say I’m one of the OGs💪💪. Your videos are awesome every time and I really hope you keep making them, you’re amazing man
Thank god I have a ray of sunshine to light up the dark romance
You are a warrior for going through this. Chad.
8:44 just sent me down a rabbit hole of nostalgia with "where tf do I know this from?" and now I'm back from a nostalgia trip and all the things that unsetteled me in SM64 lol
i miss old booktok 😞
If I wasn't already subscribed, that opening would've been an instant hit of the button. 😂
Your mafia skit was perfect. I would totally watch a show about that
dark romance makes me cry a little inside
i just discovered your channel and im obsessed
11:55 HELP I LOVE FORMULA ONE REFERENCES IN NOT FORMULA ONE RELATED CONTENT 😭😭
BWWOOOOOOAAAAAHHHHHHH
ITS THE BEST THING EVER OMGGGG
Love Ray’s videos. Hope he hits 100k soon!
When I first discovered Chad Chad I watched every single one of their videos and now I’m watching every single one of yours!! New favorite TH-camr
praying for your sanity since you had to go through all that
11:53 ive been watching this channel for two days and this is the second f1 reference 😭😭😭😭😭🫶🫶🫶
Dawg i already love this guys channel, why is he so underrated 😔
Have you seen the "man or bear" debate on tiktok going on currently 😭
Wasn't expecting to feel attacked by a Charles Leclerc reference today but here we are!
the fact that you know charles leclerc makes me enjoy your vids more, also taco is so fucking cute 😻
In Wattpad , if you put one label as "Billionare " , you will see how many reads it will get. The entire point of dark romance novles is IF YOU ARE RICH AND HANDSOME , EVERYTHING BECOMES LEGAL
4:42 I thought that he was going to show us a picture of scp 096 🫣
That last sketch made me hyena cackle, thank you sir 😂😂😂
This was so hilarious. 😂 I couldn’t stop snorting, this is why I don’t read a lot of dark romance books cause reading a lot of it messes with my mental health.
You can't just mention SCP like that when I'm having my character take care of 999 on janitor ai!
The double-take I double-took
Thanks for the silly little cat though, adding to the wholesomeness that is 999
When ray reads from the stories, instead of my brain saying, “damn, this is hot” it just floods me with “DANGER!! WE’RE IN DANGER!!” I do not understand dark romance 🤷🏻♀️
the f1 reference.... you are officially my fav youtuber
(let us ferrari fans be delusional he can be world champion
i am speaking as a Scuderia fan 😭
@@RayLikeSunshine oh hey fellow tifosi 🗣🔥
Thank you for posting. You get me through exams by laughing the pain off! 😊
i swear when i subbed you were at 8k, you’ve actually grown so fast it’s crazy
“I’ve never been with a woman before” okay but have you been with a man?
"If you're still here, thanks for watching." 😄
Appreciate the Taco videos.