When I first watched Gossip Girl, I was always confused about how people still found Chuck Bass appealing. He did lots of bad things, and when people would defend him for them and say, âBut heâs Chuck Bass,â it would anger me so much becauseâŠwhy? Why say this? Now I understand why.
I have just finished YOU season five on Netflix and for years I would defend Joe and tell myself and others âBut heâs just looking for loveâ or as the Chuck Bass stans say âBut heâs Joe Goldbergâ. The show made me realize that Joe isnât this amazing guy defending their beloved Chuck. I defended Joe because I found him attractive and Iâm sure many Chuck stans felt the same way. Like I get it, Chuck is fine and so is Joe. We donât attack Joe as a killer because of his looks and we donât attack Chuck as a rapist because of his looks. Both characters have good redeeming qualities every so often, they both went through very hard childhoods that affected them as they grew up as people, and when it comes to loving someone they do it but in the end do bad things to them which then leads to toxic love. Both shows influenced us to fall in love with them when in reality they are not the expectations in a relationship or a man. They just need heavy therapy to get better. No one could change or fix them, but only themselves. They both have hard times into believing that they are not good people who have have made a few mistakes here and and there (cause in reality those âmistakesâ are super hard to forgive or move on from) I was tricked into loving Joe so much and now I see the hidden message in it all. We need to stop romanticizing these toxic men because it all may just lead to continuing the cycle of toxic (dare I say abusive) relationships. Thank you to Netflix and CW. đ
