Okay, Can We Admit The Romance In ‘Clueless’ Is Actually Super Creepy?

Amy Heckerling’s Clueless stands out as one of the best teen films of all time.

It’s easy to get sucked into the fabulous world of Alicia Silverstone’s Cher Horowitz and all her friends in this oh-so-’90s story. Yeah, it’s all about coming of age, discovering who you are, blah, blah, blah… but is everybody ready to discuss how the main romance is, um, kinda creepy and gross? Seriously, it’s way too much like those sites that thrive based on videos operating under the premise of, “What are you doing, stepbro?”

Cher and Josh aren’t blood relatives in ‘Clueless’ – but yuck!

Cher and Josh Lucas (Paul Rudd) aren’t related by blood; however, Josh’s mother was married to Cher’s father, Mel (Dan Hedaya). Even though they’re divorced now, Josh still visits and stays over at Mel’s house. According to Mel, it’s because he divorced Josh’s mother – not Josh. In other words, he still views him as his son. And whichever way you look at it, Cher and Josh are stepsiblings. They’re family.

They have the natural brother-and-sister banter. They tease and provoke, which is also aided by the fact that Josh is a few years older than Cher, but they also know when to be there for each other. Yet, somewhere in Clueless, this takes a wicked right turn and evolves (or devolves) into a romance. Josh sees there’s more to Cher than just being a superficial airhead, while Cher starts to look at Josh through a different set of eyes. Eventually, they share a kiss, then she fights for the bouquet of flowers at the wedding and immediately heads over to Josh, where they kiss again – hinting at wedding bells in their future. 

Yo! Did George R. R. Martin pitch this story or what? Because this is seriously messed up!

This isn’t true love

Stop for one second and think about this. For years, Cher and Josh were part of the same family, eating family dinner, going on family holidays, and bickering about who gets the remote to watch their favorite television show. After the divorce, Josh continued to be included in the Horowitz family, even if Cher wondered why he still bothered to come over.

Unquestionably, Josh and Cher treated each other like siblings – you even see that vibe in their early exchanges. Then, one day, a lightbulb goes off in Cher’s head that says she likes Josh. Isn’t this even the taddest bit weird? Yeah, for all intents and purposes, they aren’t blood relatives – and their parents aren’t married anymore – but this still gives a major ick. There are many real-life stories about stepsiblings hooking up – and the heart wanting what the heart wants – but the nature of how Cher and Josh get together here is a giant red flag. In fact, it screams more of Cher experiencing teenage confusion rather than true love. Maybe the first instinct should be to NOT act on impulses with someone who is considered family.

Mel must be equally confused by this entire event. On the one hand, he wants to maintain his relationship with Josh and be a father figure to him. Now, he might not only have Josh as a stepson but also as a son-in-law. Having to reconcile all of this is a lot, and he probably wonders if he’s partially to blame for it. After all, he famously hated all of Cher’s dates and acted like an overprotective dad, but the biggest threat was always inside his own house.

It could have been worse – especially if the surname was Lannister 

In Game of Thrones, it isn’t weird to marry your own cousin or sister. Heck, some houses encouraged it to keep their bloodlines pure. Maybe they also liked the fact that it wasn’t a hassle to change your surname on any legal documents, so that was a plus point. But yeah, the real world isn’t Westeros, and time has proven that keeping it in the family isn’t exactly the best idea – not only from a social taboo perspective but also the biological consequences of playing genetic Russian roulette.

In that sense, Clueless could have been way worse – Cher and Josh could have been like Cersei and Jamie Lannister, who were twin siblings and couldn’t get enough of each other. Even so, the entire way they fall for each other in Clueless is a super creepy premise that hasn’t aged well. So, let’s make a deal, right here, right now: how about we don’t promote sibling, stepsibling, or cousin romances in movies or television shows moving forward, okay? There are eight billion people in the world – surely, you can find someone who isn’t related to you by blood or marriage.