Public love or Public pressure

Is confessing your love in front of the world embarrassing, or romantic? Sturla Holm Lægreid has made us question how far should we really go for love, before it gets humiliating?

Lægreid won bronze for Norway in the 20km individual biathlon at the Winter Olympics and confessed he cheated on his girlfriend and wanted her back on live Television. 

The hardest thing to do is admit you’re wrong, be vulnerable, and allow millions of people to see it. And he ticked every box on that list. So why isn’t this the most beautiful apology ever? Because of the involvement of cheating, it seemed more like guilt tripping the anonymous girlfriend. Putting on a grand gesture in front of millions to pressure her to return. 

This story is like a moth to a flame for social media. Cheating, lies, scandal, romance. Today's media won’t rest till every speck of gossip and drama is revealed. Every corner of the internet is eating it up.   

If public expressions of romance are not tied to dishonesty, they are more appealing to us. A Romcom's love declaration will always make us go, “I wish that was me”. Maybe they’re only romantic when they are fictional. In our modern world where everything we do is embarrassing, public declarations are not the same as they are in cinema. But I think they should be. We should be as corny and cringe as we like. 

Lægreid’s speech was embarrassing and manipulative. But do we not all have something in common with him? We’re all wandering around this world looking for the one person who makes us feel special, and if it takes a public declaration of love to find them, so what? Sing in the street, cry on TV, do a flash mob, paint their name all over town. Go get em tiger. 

Edited by Abi Hall