Where adaptation culture ends and hypersexualization begins
Hannah Flammenspeck, Contributor, and Katrina Ebuenga, Staff Writer
Are acts of toxicity forgiven when the outcome satisfies the hypersexual desires of the public?
Recently, expectations for erotic themes have become more normalised in mainstream media.
Examples such as Colleen Hoover and her heyday of movie deals, as well as the highly anticipated film release of Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights” reflect the need to add suggestive themes to media to appear entertaining.
The most recent film adaptation of a Hoover novel, Regretting You , released Oct. 24, 2025 and is argued to be a questionable representation of modern relationships. The story disregards the act of adultery, playing it off as a normalised solution within complex relationships.
In the film, one of the main characters, Clara Grant, played by McKenna Grace, finds herself entangled with Miller Adams, played by Mason Thames, after the tragic death of her aunt and father.
The troubled situation becomes further complicated when it is revealed that Miller is in a committed relationship while pursuing Clara, increasing tensions between the characters.
Nonetheless, the action of cheating is seen as justified. Miller describes a toxic relationship with his current partner, further claiming that he has been in love with Clara for years despite being with someone else.
As such, common themes like trauma, secrets, and betrayal are normalised concepts within Hoover’s books, as well as within the films. The baseline of these tropes has created a different outlook on relationships, which frames tragedy with an idealised perspective.
One of her more popular film adaptations, It Ends With Us, was released on Aug. 9, 2024, directed by Justin Baldoni. The film garnered major backlash over the promotional decisions and the perceived problematic portrayal of domestic violence.
The glamorisation of the abuse cycle the main character falls into normalises the concept and capitalises on the triggering topic, reframing it to be something that can be taken lightly and even aspired towards.
With another film adaptation on its way, Reminders of Him is set to release March 13, 2026, directed by Vanessa Caswill. The storyline is similar to most Hoover books, with the main character being challenged by tragedy, only to overcome her hardships through a newfound relationship born of catastrophe.
Hoover is a prime example of how recent onscreen releases are expected to have sexual implications to appear valuable. As seen with her books, the misguided romance plots fit within the hypersexual expectation, resulting in anticipation for other releases to include the similar elements.
This concept toes the line between the reclamation of women’s sexuality and the oversexualisation of women within different forms of media. Hoover’s books seem to solidify the idea that women must be challenged by abuse or over sexualization in order to be loved.
Within this, women are reduced to their physical worth, catalysing the romanticisation of abusive cycles, a common theme that appears within Hoover’s books as well as within the dark romance subgenre.
These solutions to tragic relationships show how the toxicity can be subsided with a result that feeds into the need for sexual satisfaction.
This leads to many books justifying the dark romance trope popularized by BookTok, feeding into the over-sexualisation of storylines.
Along with modern romance adaptations, there has been an influx of classic literature resurfacing; Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, a new six-part series of Pride and Prejudice, and the controversial adaptation of “Wuthering Heights” directed by Emerald Fennell.
Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” is set to release Feb. 13, 2026, with a hypersexual modern twist. The influence of Hoover’s popular book tropes can not be avoided, even in gothic classics.
Promoted as a tragic romance filled with sexual tension and forbidden desires, and acted by two of Hollywood’s most popular actors, it can be debated whether or not the original story of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë is romantic source material.
Written in the gothic tradition, Wuthering Heights is a psychological drama with gloom and despair at its core. Heathcliff’s unrequited love haunts him until he dies; it is not supposed to be romantic.
In evaluating the film’s recent trailer, many of the scenes explicitly include romance and sexual implications, which stray away from the original meaning of the story. The focus of this element acts as a solidification of the film’s intent, further deviating from the original concept.
In Brontë’s novel, Heathcliff is tortured by both his love for Catherine and the fact that his social standing makes her unattainable, leading him into a life of despair and languishment.
The romanticisation of the possessive love interest seems to be masked by the popularised concept of yearning or the intense longing for the unattainable. This is normalised through the misinterpretation of abuse being an intense form of love.
While the visuals of the movie keep to the gothic tradition, the heightened expectations of erotica are viewed as a reflection of the romance genre. It strays away from the destructive aspects of love within the original novel and replaces them with unnecessary sexual tensions.
“Wuthering Heights” is a reflection of how the modern era approaches adaptations of classic literature. Classic novels are undergoing a reorientation to fit the model set by authors such as Hoover, which isolates sexual themes in an attempt to satisfy the need for erotic material.
What seems to be an unavoidable element of this is how attention is brought to the perception of women’s sexuality, and the extent to which women must suffer to feel a sense of love and acceptance.
Although audiences may be in favour of the raw shock provided by Fennell, the growing demand for dark romance in media remains a controversial and even damaging trope.
