I’d like to think it’s no longer standard to impulsively demonize a partner’s ex. But even the super secure are not immune to a bit of what experts call retroactive jealousy. In pop culture, it’s still a common theme: in Obsessed, Olivia Rodrigo fixates on a boyfriend’s ex. Most of Gracie Abrams’s Secret of Us, Sabrina Carpenter’s Taste and Banks & Doechii’s I hate your ex-girlfriend also betray similar compulsive thoughts about a partner’s former lover.
Yet as common as the feeling is, fixating on a partner’s ex(es) remains taboo for many reasons – least of all the social imperative that healthy people are meant to be above all that.
