Why The Love Hypothesis Is Desperately Needed Right Now
Believe it or not, The Love Hypothesis — a fanfic based on Rey and Kylo Ren — is actually the perfect antidote for the misogyny of the manosphere.
Currently, 27.2% of all STEM roles in the UK are held by women. This is higher than any pre-pandemic levels, with this percentage being 23.6% back in December 2019. On the face of it, more than 1 in 4 women now being in STEM careers is great progress. But before we start patting ourselves on the back, we should remember that we have a long way to go.
For instance, the pay gap between female STEM workers and their male counterparts in the UK is 19% as of 2024, while 64% of women in STEM surveyed in the US reported being paid less for performing similar work to their male counterparts. In that same survey, 61% of women in STEM reported that they experienced sexual harassment, while 78% said that they have experienced sexism.
Sure, with all of this in mind, a movie adaptation of The Love Hypothesis, a BookTok hit about women in STEM, won’t fix the structural issues that plague the industry — but at the very least, it is a good place to start.
What Is The Love Hypothesis About?
The Love Hypothesis tells the story of Olive Smith, a biology PhD candidate at Stanford who finds herself in a ‘fake’ relationship with notoriously-mean professor Adam Carlsen after a panicked-kiss turns into a complicated arrangement. Given this is a rom-com, you can probably guess where the story goes from there — but, in my opinion, there’s a lot more to this movie than the love story.
Unlike some rom-com protagonists, Olive isn’t pre-occupied with a man. Sure, she falls in love, but she doesn’t lose herself in the process. Her one true love, arguably, is science. The movie also charts her journey as she strives to obtain funding and a lab to work on her groundbreaking research on pancreatic cancer. Before we go any further, it should be noted that there are spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t watched the movie yet, proceed with caution.
Imposter Syndrome In The Love Hypothesis
A big theme in this film is the idea of taking up space, especially as a woman. At the very start of the movie, when Olive is about to have her post-grad interview, she expresses her fear about not being good enough. Then, once she gets into Stanford, her default on the first day is to sit at the back unnoticed, until future friend Ahn intervenes and reminds her that, as women, “we’re not here to hide.”
As the movie progresses, Olive’s imposter syndrome continues to cause her to doubt herself, as she lacks the confidence to talk about her research around other academics. When she overcomes this fear and speaks at a conference, she experiences what can only be described as internalised misogyny, as she overhears women in the bathroom gossiping about how she’s only at the conference because she is ‘dating’ the keynote speaker: a well-worn, dog-eared page in the sexism handbook of how to undermine a woman’s success, intelligence, and abilities.
Taking Up Space
After being sexually harassed by Dr. Tom Benton, Olive refuses to take up a position in his lab at Harvard. Despite his threats, she ultimately doesn’t back down or give up on her research. She instead backs herself enough to pitch her academic advisor, Dr. Juliet Aslan, to work in her lab in Stanford instead.
Following this, Dr. Aslan gives some of the most sobering advice in the whole film: in institutions like STEM, women are expected to be “flawless.” And so Olive becomes just that. From there, she works day and night in order to make her dreams come true, refusing to allow her experiences to compromise her visions for the future.
It’s a moment that reminds me of the climax of Legally Blonde, where, after being harassed by Professor Callahan, Elle Woods shows up as her unapologetic self and proves to the court that she has every right to be there. In both cases, these women don't let men in powerful positions break their spirit or ambitions, and ultimately, they end up prevailing. It says a lot that, over twenty years later, such a scenario remains relevant.
By the end of the movie, in the epilogue, we learn that Olive hasn’t just succeeded in becoming a doctor — she’s also become a force of nature herself, with students nicknaming her ‘Dr Smite.’ It’s a moment that encapsulates how she has grown into herself and embraced her destiny, making it clear that she will never sit in the back of a lecture hall again.
Why We Need The Love Hypothesis More Than Ever
As the aforementioned statistics show, we have a long way to go before women in STEM can be considered to be on an equal footing with their male counterparts. But The Love Hypothesis’ feminist messaging can also be applied more broadly than that.
You’d think that by 2026, gender equality would be more pertinent than ever, but in actuality, it feels like we are going backwards. Between the rise of ‘tradwives’ and the dangerous messaging perpetuated by manosphere podcasters like Andrew Tate, it is arguably more difficult than ever for women to get a seat at the table.
Because of this, I would argue that The Love Hypothesis couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. Beyond its purpose as a charming love story, Olive as a protagonist encourages women to be brave, ambitious, and, most importantly, to embrace their talents and intelligence instead of dimming their light in order to appease the (usually male-dominated) status quo. Falling in love is great. But surpassing men out of pure grit and spite is, in my opinion, even better.
