Cheating is widely unacceptable in society. Cheaters are condemned for their inappropriate actions, and the act itself can destroy relationships. If this action is so highly disregarded, how is it that so many characters in television shows get away with it?

Somewhere down the line, television shows started romanticizing cheating. The storyline isn’t anything unique. There are two characters that everyone wants to end up together, but there is one thing standing in the potential couple’s way: the fact that one of them is still in a relationship.

The person in the relationship is often too afraid of hurting their partner to actually break up with that person, so they do the next logical thing: they cheat on them. This is a climactic scene, sometimes set a Chili’s restaurant during an impromptu office award ceremony (e.g. The Office).

This concept of cheating isn’t just found in every day characters working in the office environment. It seems that even the president of the United States is able to get away with these types of actions (e.g. Scandal).

If cheating on one person wasn’t enough, there have even been story lines where the cheating partner is deceiving both of his or her partners (e.g. New Girl). In this case, the deceitful partner ends up with neither girl, until later in the show when one of the girls decides to take him back, because despite his cheating, they are in love. The other girl is never heard from again.

This behavior is often seen as acceptable because there is a large group of fans of the show rooting for the couple to get together. This storyline is used all too often and gives way to the thinking that it is acceptable for someone to cheat, as long as it’s because the passion they felt for someone else were so strong that they couldn’t contain themselves.

These actions, although inexcusably, could be remedied by the cheating character owning up to his or her actions. Unfortunately, this never happens. The cheating partner gets away with his or her actions, is able to leave the unhappy relationship with little to no remorse and goes on to be with the new person without a second thought.

This has become one of the more accepted storylines in Hollywood. The media gets a lot of attention for how people think it affects those who watch it, so who is to say that the audience isn’t getting the impression that they can do the same things, especially if they see it often enough.

As the target audience for these TV audiences, it is our responsibility to not support these unhealthy story lines. They are fictional and the spouse who is cheated on doesn’t go on to live unemotionally damaged by this experience. Cheating is never okay and it needs to stop being the romantic story line between TV’s favorite couples.

To contact the Ionian’s Taylor Brown, e-mail her at [email protected].