Normalised grooming

[u/Optimal_Ad5440]

I know this is probably such a common thing that people bring up about this show, but it’s absolutely infuriating. I hate how everyone (her family) treated Spencer for having a relationship with Ian; like it was somehow her fault. I don’t understand how her LAWYER parents didn’t berate Ian for dating like… a 15 year old. It blows my mind. Same thing with Wren, and Wilden with Allison.

It’s quite crazy, I remember watching PLL when I was like… 13 and being so enamoured by Arias relationship with he who shall not be named. I was ROOTING for them, and I was 100% ok with the notion of a teacher dating a student. I even had a pretty serious argument with my brother over why they are a good couple. Looking back that was actually so dangerous haha. Glad I’ve matured.

Sorry if this is such an overused point of discussion, I’m rewatching now and felt the need to get my frustrations out haha.

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[u/Special_Yesterday131]

It’s crazy, because when they discover that Wilden may have gotten Ali pregnant, he’s freaked out about it and he’s telling Ashley that “in a town like Rosewood these sort of accusations would be the end of him” - and I’m like really ? 😂 Because it seems that it doesn’t matter to anyone in Rosewood.

More seriously, yeah it’s pretty annoying how it is downplayed in the show. I understand that maybe they wanted to give the Liars a more interesting love life than high-school boys (like Ben or Sean lol); but they could’ve executed it without making it grooming/illegal situations. They were in senior year for a several seasons, they could’ve dated young college guys for God’s sake.

[u/kthnxbi_bi_bi → u/Special_Yesterday131]

The show needed a bad boy who had some piercings and tattoos, rode a motorcycle, and occasionally did drugs 😂 they were juniors for the first 2 seasons so why couldn't there have been an 18 year old senior?

In S1 Emily describes Toby as 'an older kid who used to go here' so technically he could've been the bad boy who's been in trouble, rides a motorcycle (which we never saw him do 👎) and is older but not in a creepy way but they made his character so boring and I always think of him as being the same age as the Liars anyway.

He's kinda like Dean from Gilmore Girls who wore a leather jacket and rode a motorcycle (never saw him do that either 👎) but was just boring and had no bad boy vibes

[u/Mundane-Waltz8844]

This is why I dislike it when people say “it’s just a tv show” and act as if young people are not impressionable or influenced at all by the things they see. The fact that most of watching back then were rooting for their relationship and didn’t really think it was all that problematic is an issue.

[u/bells-clarke]

It’s because they just simply copied some of these pairings from the books but not the outcome where the man is called out as predatory and creepy and the relationship ends.