I wanted to leap through the screen; Hec, you had just been rhapsodizing about 70s exploitation films! Do you kill Italian schoolgirls?!
::kicks limp hand under the bed::
I didn't do it! You can't prove a thing!
I actually think the love stories are more pernicious because they never get challenged. It's not simply that they're unrealistic, but underlying myth of "soul mates" is pervasive throughout the genre.
Unlike, Italian giallo most people will not stab a beautiful model through the eyeballs with an icepick. But most people will be in relationships with weirdly set expectations.
Thinking about it, it's not even the Twu Wuv aspect that I think is problematic, it has more to do with intimacy and sex. There's not much space in American film to explore positive sexual relationships that don't end in monogamous bliss.
I didn't do it! You can't prove a thing!
If only those black leather gloves could talk, eh?
Yeah, I'm all over breaking into song -- it's the backup singers and dancers who fall down on the job!
And the lighting! And the instantaneous costume changes!
There's not much space in American film to explore positive sexual relationships that don't end in monogamous bliss.
There's not all that much monogamous bliss, either.
I'm gonna have to side with bon on this one, the critique of romcoms as setting up "unrealistic expectations" implies that women are weak at reality testing.
That said, I'm not convinced women are the ones with the problem, or at least not the only ones. After all, wasn't it men who mistook "24" for effective interrogation techniques?
But most people will be in relationships with weirdly set expectations.
This would happen if fiction was never invented. It's the nature of relationships. Most people don't stab models with icepicks, but it's also not that case that violence has increased as we've been more exposed to violence (eta: in movies, VG, etc). Or marriage. Or pregnancy. I find it so weird that you, defender of nearly every genre ever invented, say that this particular one has socially undesirable effects.
Given that the vast majority of entertainment I have consumed since the age of 10 or so had contained at least one, and mostly many, murders, it is amazing that I am able to function in the world. I mean, given the apparent likelihood of my being killed, according to all (fictional) indications.
I'm gonna have to side with bon on this one, the critique of romcoms as setting up "unrealistic expectations" implies that women are weak at reality testing.
I'm not attributing this to women, but American culture. The problem is in how the culture conceives of love/sex/intimacy. Romantic comedies aren't responsible for that; they're just a symptom of it. I think men fully participate in this myth (though in different ways.)
I'm not that concerned with people having "unrealistic romantic expectations." Partly because that's just a byproduct of the larger problem and partly because...who doesn't?
HA! There's No Salmon Fishing In the Yemen, Warns Yemen Board of Tourism
Yet another way movies (or their titles -- I haven't seen the flick in question) do not reflect reality!
