John Green has had a big weekend. The film adaptation of his beloved book The Fault in Our Stars opened at No. 1, raking in more than $48 million at the box office. We’re as guilty as anyone else of getting swept up in the film’s charms, and we’re glad it has praiseworthy feminist cred with a smart, funny, and strong female protagonist. So we’ll cut him some slack.
But we think he might be just a little drunk on success at the moment. Yesterday, an ebullient Green reblogged a Tumblr GIF of TFIOS‘ epic romance, Hazel and Gus, and their lovely on-screen kiss:
GIF via fishingboatproceeds
To this touching moment, Green appended the following eager comment:
I just want to point out one thing here: When was the last time the girl kissed the boy in a teen romance? Ever? Has it happened ever? I seriously think it might not have happened ever.
Really, John? Really? This just happened, like, five minutes ago:
GIF by picture-of-sophisticated-grace
So did this, you know, from that little series your brother produced?
GIF via Leaky News
It’s not like this girls-kissing-first thing is anything new. Lauren Bacall’s famous go-getter from To Have and To Have Not is one of the most famous on-screen kisses in history, and it’s 70 years old:
GIF by Aja Romano
In fact, moviedom is pretty much strewn with iconic kisses initiated by the girl:
GIF via moviegifss
GIFs via Swide
It’s even been kind of an epidemic lately:
GIF via chalantness
GIF via felicityrjones
GIF via Giphy
GIF via animatedvault
GIF via consultingasgardian
But maybe Green’s admonition that TFIOS is in fact the first teen romance to have the girl kiss first is actually accurate?
Er, not by a long shot.
GIF via mbi-gifs
GIF via TV Rage
GIF via Skyrock
GIF via Wikia
Well, OK, so John Green got it wrong about girls never kissing first in teen romance. But maybe he specifically just meant feature-length films featuring teen romance?
Except no, no, still no:
GIF via Crushable
GIF via Giphy
GIF via Giphy
Critics already have an unfortunate tendency to allow the works of John Green to overshadow those of other Young Adult authors, a hot topic of discussion in the YA world known as the “John Green Effect.” The weekend success of the TFIOS movie comes at a time when many were ready to write off the recent boom in YA adaptations as a dead trend, despite the success of The Hunger Games and Divergent at the box office in the last six months.
So while TFIOS‘s win at the box office may certainly mean good things for YA, it’s important not to let it overshadow other film adaptations of other YA novels. And it’s important that we don’t let anyone erase the agency women in teen romance and other on-screen love stories have enjoyed over the years.
Obviously this roster isn’t perfect. To quote a friend after looking at all these GIFs, “I’m so happy I can finally go to the movies and see a straight white girl kiss a straight white boy.” But it’s simply trying to make the point that John Green did not invent the wheel.
It’s been done before, and it’s been done better:
Update: John Green posted a note to his blog that acknowledges he misspoke about the Hazel/Gus kiss’s place in movie history. The author apologizes for being wrong, clarifies a few of his statements, and reminds his readers “I do not deserve any credit for the quality or success of the film.”
In my exuberance for the film, I said something that was both flatly wrong and offensive, and I appreciate being called out on it, and I’m sorry.
Screengrab via YouTube
