America loves happy endings, we were just raised that way.
From the time we were young, we were told fairy tales about love, success, lessons learned, and of course magic. Girls especially take a liking to the classic romance story where two people, who would ordinarily never be together, are forced together by some tragic event and by the end of the story they're in love. One of my favorite romantic comedies, which is the genre of movies where you can always find a happy ending, is Life as We Know It. It was released in 2010 and to me is one of the best examples of the ideal romantic comedy. Romantic comedies and love stories generally have the lead woman being independent, successful, and not very lucky in the love department. They almost always feature a lead male who is strong, arrogant, and also doesn't have much luck in the love department either. This genre of movies plays into the dominant ideology of gender roles. The classic romantic comedy involves all of three things; a comedic dialogue, two people who don’t start off on the best of terms but grow to love and care for each other, and lastly a generally predictable ending. Life as We Know acknowledges all of these requirements and shows how America likes happy endings.Usually the plot of romantic comedies can be described, in the simplest of forms, in three to four sentences. Holly (lead female) and Messer (lead male) hate each other. When their best friends die in a tragic car accident, Holly and Messer become the legal guardians of Sophie, the oprhaned baby girl. After hardships, fights, awkward moments of passion, and months of tension in the house, Messer is given a job oppurtunity that he thinks it would be best to take because it would mean him leaving. Long story short he comes back to visit Sophie and Holly for Thanksgiving, and Holly realizes (after being let out of her current relationship) that Messer is the key for strength and stability in both the house and her own life.
Holly and Messer become the stereotypical family despite the fact they were brought together through the most unlikely events. The gender roles are portrayed as the ideal stereotypes with Holly being successful, strong and steady, all traits that independent women enjoy seeing on the big screen, yet by the end of the movie you see she is dependent on a man. Messer starts out as the classic bachelor but soon becomes the family man that makes our hearts melt. Life as We Know It portrays, as many romantic comedies have come to show, the accepted family values of America and the gender roles that fall in step with them. No matter how many romcoms you watch, these gender roles will pop up somewhere in the movie, and Life as We Know It is no exception. This movie would be considered a builder of the dominant ideology and honestly, happily ever after is overrated anyway.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_as_We_Know_It_(film)
2 comments:
I really agree with this post too! The common ideology is that women are dependent on men, their lovers. Which is probably part of the reason we, as teenage girls, are so "dependent" on stupid boys in high school! In actuality we honestly are just fine without a boyfriend, but the dominant ideology tells us otherwise.
I concur with all your main points! The "happily ever after" is too common and I feel as though some romantic comedies should have some kind of "tweak" to it. And your ideology on women is also very true. Women tend to over think sometimes which makes them want the man even more.
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