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Forbidden Love
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| Related tropes/genres | Star-Crossed Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, Secret Relationship |
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Forbidden love is a romantic trope in both fanon and canon. It involves a relationship that is somehow taboo or disallowed. Infidelity, age differences, power dynamics (i.e. teacher/student) and incest are some common reasons that a relationship may be treated as forbidden. Other times it is because the characters are enemies, or from different classes, races, religions, species. Slash and femslash works may involve the characters facing homophobic restrictions or prejudice.
History
Forbidden love has been a romantic trope from the early days of writing. Some early examples of forbidden love pairings include Romeo/Juliet, Orpheus/Eurydice, and Guinevere/Lancelot. What is considered forbidden varies from society to society and person to person, but the trope has continued to be popular due to its potential for drama.
Fandom
Forbidden love is a popular trope because it allows fans to explore some more controversial or taboo ideas, as the idea of having a desire for someone despite the circumstances of the relationship lends itself to smut quite well. Another reason that the forbidden love trope may be popular is because it allows fans to ship characters in different ways, or ship characters who may seem otherwise unshippable.
Examples
External Links
- Forbidden Love tag on AO3
- Forbidden Love at TVTropes
- Forbidden Love tag on Squidgeworld Archive