Personally, I think the romantic comedy genre is far from innocuous. It pushes an ideological agenda that is anything but healthy to the average human psyche. For what do we learn from this gimmicky variety of film? Happiness and fulfillment come only to those who are in a couple. It does not matter what you do for a living, what your social circle is like, what your habits and hobbies might be. You will have a big, black vortex in your life until you find that other person to COMPLETE you. But in reality if you aren’t a complete you when you meet someone, the relationship has little chance of survival. So the rom-com sets people up for failure.
Where are the movies that demonstrate what it is actually like when you are in love? It isn’t all roses and candlelight, and it isn’t all witty banter. In real life when you lie and manipulate you don’t end up with a perfect make-up and a happily ever after. You end up with hurt feelings and emotional baggage. They yell cut after the couple gets back together the first time in these films for a reason. They don’t want you to see that the cycle is going to continue another seven times and that it might also end in divorce court.
But my real issue is WHY they do this. More than any other genre of film, it seems that the rom-com pushes a consumerism culture and a social agenda on its viewer. We have to buy, buy, buy all this stuff so that we can be better, like the couple we see on the screen. This way we can attract the perfect heterosexual life mate and live the rest of our lives out in monogamous bliss.
The problem with this is we do not all fit the mold. And if we don’t, this genre of film leaves us feeling bad about ourselves.
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