Top 10 Romantic Comedy Characters Who Are Terrible Role Models

A teen rom-com that explores body positivity and female friendships should feature a heroine that you’d want to aspire to be like, right? That’s is unfortunately NOT the case with Sierra Burgess. A modernization of “Cyrano de Bergerac,” this movie tells the tale of an unpopular girl who gets texted accidentally by a cute boy, thinking she’s the popular girl instead. But rather than setting him straight – you know, like a normal person – she keeps up the façade and pretends to be said popular girl. Catfishing scam aside, Sierra is also guilty of backstabbing someone she calls her friend, neglecting her friends and family, and pretending to be deaf. Y’know what? We’re renaming this movie: “Sierra Burgess Is a Problematic Character.”

We all get our signals crossed when it comes to romance sometimes, but Gigi Phillips takes the cake! After repeatedly finding herself mistaking men’s behavior as romantic interest, Gigi is coached by Alex on how to read their signals correctly. However, she still manages to confuse his attempt to help her with feelings on his part; driving him away. Even worse, he turns around and decides he does have feelings for her, effectively making it so that Gigi learns nothing from the experience. She also largely seems to define her life by her ability to find a partner, which isn’t a healthy mentality, even if it is common in romantic comedies.

The owner of a large chain of bookstores, Joe Fox engages in an attempt to run the smaller bookshop around the corner, owned by Kathleen Kelly, out of business. However, the twist is that Joe and Kathleen are also falling in love via anonymous emails. Oh, and did we mention they’re both already in committed relationships? While Kathleen doesn’t come off great either, Joe’s manipulation of her after discovering their connection is reminiscent of catfishing, and on top of that, his destruction of her professional dreams is just terrible.

The rebellious, wisecracking delinquent of the titular group of students serving detention, John Bender is certainly entertaining, offering many of the film’s most memorable lines. However, Bender is generally unpleasant to everyone around him; mocking and putting down his fellow students and the principal alike. Worst of all though, he sexually harasses his eventual love interest, Claire, several times and drives her to tears. Contrary to what movies in the 1980s purported, that’s not the way to win a girl’s heart. While Bender’s abusive home life is sympathetic, it certainly doesn’t excuse his actions.

Sam Baldwin is a widower whose son Jonah convinces his father to talk on the radio about how he misses his wife. This sparks interest across the country, particularly from women, who become enamored with Sam, including reporter Annie Reed, who is engaged. Annie breaks it off with her fiancée, but not before travelling across the country to secretly watch Sam and his son play - albeit because Jonah led her on. We’re meant to sympathize with Annie, but the only difference between her and the other many creepy women who fall for Sam is that it works out for her because she’s the heroine.

Just because she’s played by America’s sweetheart, doesn’t mean she’s automatically a good person. Quite the opposite, in fact. Julianne Potter’s best friend and “safety net” Michael is set to be married to someone else. Instead of just telling Michael how she feels, Julianne spends most of the film engaging in underhanded acts of sabotage to split him and his fiancée apart. While she eventually realizes what an awful person she’s been, Julianne still manages to make plenty of ethically and legally questionable decisions along the way.

Anna Kendrick is a great actress, but even she can’t save Beca Mitchell from being insufferable. Despite being sent to college on her father’s dime, something most college students would kill for these days, Beca is upset with her father and would rather move to L.A. to become a DJ. Her reluctance to attend classes is only exacerbated when she reluctantly joins the acapella group, which, contrary to what this series might suggest, isn’t exactly a great career move either. Beca’s attitude… is the worst. Oh, and this has nothing to do with her role model potential, but she apparently doesn’t like movies in general. Who in their right mind doesn’t like movies?!

Look, we know Bridget Jones’s flaws are part of what make her so entertaining, but a lot of the time she is just the worst. She is obsessed with herself, feels dependent on men for validation, is extremely judgmental of everyone around her - despite being a blatant hypocrite, bad at her job, manipulative, ungrateful, spiteful, paranoid, and many other things besides. Bridget Jones is essentially many of our baser behaviors distilled into one person, and while this may make her relatable, it also makes her an awful example to any impressionable viewers out there.

Although primarily focused on Tom Solomon and Violet Barnes, a couple whose prolonged engagement and other factors drive them apart, this film’s supporting cast doesn’t come off great either. Tom upends his life and career for Violet, but becomes unhappy and acrimonious, which causes Violet to cheat on him. Professor Winton’s ethics are also definitely compromised, given that he starts a relationship with his student. Then there’s Tom’s friend Alex, who fires him from his job because he believes Tom can do better, instead of, you know, talking to him about it. This film may be funny, but don’t look to these characters for life advice. Before we get to our top pick, here are a few (dis)honorable mentions: Polly Prince “Along Came Polly” (2004) Carrie Bradshaw “Sex and the City” (2008) Lucy Eleanor Moderatz “While You Were Sleeping” (1995)

The romantic leads of the film, Ben Barry is an advertising executive who bets he can make a woman fall in love with him in 10 days, while Andie Anderson is a magazine writer who wants to write the titular article to prove common mistakes women make in relationships. Both of their plans involve manipulating a romantic partner for financial gain, which is thoroughly vile and sociopathic behavior. But it’s “okay” because they “learn their lesson” by the movie’s end. Ugh, these two deserve each other!