FYS Guest Speaker Presentation- Gender Bias/Perpetuation of Hetero Coupling in Romantic Comedies

Well that titles a mouthfull...

NOTE: I'm posting a bit late, but Hannah gave me the ok!

This week I was lucky enough to attend a presentation given by a professor at Ohio State (I've already forgotten her name-- I blame sleep deprivation). She spoke to us about romantic comedies and the imagery they use to impose certain social-cultural norms on the american public. She drew our attention first to the frequency with which these films are made, and the tremendous amount of money these films represent for Hollywood. Next we were shown clips of typical climactic scenes in these films, scenes featuring the leading man and woman. These films shared more in common than just the basic plots found in most rom coms, all of them featured only white, affluent, straight couples. It seems that Hollywood is reluctant to present gay/lesbian films to the public. The very few same sex films that have made it to the big screen are barely comparable with the stereotypical romantic comedy films we are familiar with. The same sex couples are rarely seen expressing intimacy, especially not of a sexual nature, and if they are shown kissing or being intimate with eachother, it is downplayed with undercurrents of comedy.

How does this all relate to gender bias?

During the guest lecture, we were shown many clips from romantic comedies made after 1990, and all of the films shared the same climactic scene. The scene featured climactic "make up" or kissing scenes, in which the reconciled couples were usually surrounded by a cheering crowd. Many of the women cried tears of joy, while the men comforted them and played the hero. Our guest speaker made it clear that there were many more instances of this in other movies. With the ecsatic spectators and the feeling that the woman is being saved, Hollywood is telling the audience (mostly female for rom coms), that you must be heterosexual, and you MUST have a husband or boyfriend to be happy, to be worth something. Everyone knows the formula. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. Marriage is implied, everything is perfect. But we never see boy meets girl, boy loses girl, girl goes on to cure cancer. No, that would defy traditional gender roles, which Hollywood can't seem to let go of.