Just in case you forgot what love is...

Things that are romantic (in no particular order):

1. Making sacrifices for a loved one's well-being
2. Watching sunsets (or stargazing or other cool stuff like that) together
3. Giving your true love nice presents (like flowers, chocolate, homemade cards, all that cute stuff)
4. Comforting your loved one when they're sad
5. Laughing together
6. Creating drawings, poems, songs, and stuff like that for your true love
7. Eating dinner together
8. Having deep conversations with your true love
9. Doing fun things together
10. Showing physical affection (holding hands, hugging, kissing, touching, sex, etc)
11. Taking long walks (on the beach or in the forest or whatever) with your true love
12. Respecting your true love's feelings
13. Saying nice things to your true love
14. Friendly teasing (in a flirtatious way)
15. Enjoying hobbies together
16. Commitment
17. Many other adorable things

Things that are definitely not romantic:

1. Physical abuse
2. Verbal, emotional, and psychological abuse
3. Stalking
4. Any other unwanted invasion of privacy
5. Sexual abuse
6. Anything else that violates the Non-Aggression Principle

Notice how awesome the first list is. Notice how easy it is to find things that don't violate the Non-Aggression Principle. So why is it that so many "romantic" books and movies contain at least one of the following from the list of things that aren't romantic (between the people who are supposedly in love)? Would it be romantic if a dude watched his crush while she slept (and not in a "she was sleepy so I put a blanket around her and gazed at her lovingly" sort of way)? Would it be romantic if a dude beat up his girlfriend (assuming there wasn't some kinky thing they had both happily agreed to) and then told her to take a painkiller when she got upset? Would it be romantic if a dude was pulling an NSA and reading all his girlfriend's text messages or listening to her phone calls? Would it be romantic if a dude didn't allow his girlfriend to see her loved ones (assuming her loved ones weren't secretly plotting to kill her)? Of course not. So why do those things happen in romantic stories?