blog #4

in class we had to read the book Romantic Comedy: boy meets girl meets genre. it was quite an interesting read, and let me see those types of movies in a different light that I would not have thought of before. I actually have never been the biggest fan of romantic comedy movies, they are not very exciting for me, even though i'm a girl and should be into those types of movies. The "chick flick" is just not for me. In movies almost anything is possible like rising from rags to riches, thats the work ethic portrayed in movies sometimes, like when the poor woman or man end up getting the rich woman or man in the end. Traditional romantic comedies have the same or similar type of narrative: Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. Those types of movies have always been very unrealistic, they portray a false soul mate phenomena where if you do certain things like buy things (many things) to try and make yourself appealing in order to find love. Traditional romantic comedies focus much subtle attention to advertising, commodities, consumption, selling products, etc. In every movie, the man and woman dress their best when they go on dates, spend a lot to go out, their homes or apartments are generously luxurious with so much glamor and high tech gadgets surrounding the place, with the best phones, laptops, I-pods, stereo surround sound, dimming lights, etc. Movies are always advertising consumption, and they always try and tell you that buying this or having certain types of goods will get you closer to achieving love. even marriage is an industry, almost everything is hung by corporate strings, even love. Have you ever heard of an inexpensive wedding? probably not, right? There's the wedding cost or reception, flowers, food, rings, clothes like the dress and tuxedo. Everything. In order for the capitalist society to work or take hold it relies on monogamy, or heterosexual marriage. That is how they make a lot of money. Corporations use Romantic comedies to advertise what they want the masses to purchase. The way that romantic comedies show a couple that just met and about to go on a date, they must do so much to look their best like buy a new dress, tuxedo, shoes, accessories, make-up, hair gel/ shampoo/ hairspray, perfume, etc. But that's not even it! Going on the date is even more! Paying for a fancy dinner, entertainment and anything else that's going to be done on the date.

For our thursday class we were suppose to read chapter 3 of the Romantic comedy, but let me talk about chapter 2 first. In chapter 2 they focus on the screwball comedy that does not follow the traditional boy meets girl format. The screwball comedy was popular during the 30's where the couple in the movies we're already each others adversaries or equals, where they make fun, hit each other, scheme, and fight with each other, but they always have an intimate relationship, unlike the sex comedies of the 50's that do not focus on that, but more the woman's abstinence or willingness to withhold sex before marriage. Screwball comedies usually start with a "meet cute" where the couple meet in a cute way like they're about to reach out for the same merchandise at the same time. Screwball comedies also do a lot of mistaken identity and cross-dressing. The couple is very hostile with each other but they usually end up together in the end. The Sex comedy came about due to three events in time, (1) Playboy magazine introduced the urbane purchasing persona for men, like the "bachelor pad" or "lair", (2) the movie The Moon is Blue in challenging the PCA's strict movie making codes by freely discussing sexual topics in films more frankly, and (3) Alfred Kinsey's report on the Sexual Behavior in the Human Female which announced, much to the publics surprise, that women actually had sexual desires and impulses just like men. These three reasons led to the creation of the Sex comedy genre. I read the chapter about sex comedy but I didn't attend class that day so I wasn't able to watch any movie clips that day and won't be able to discuss them in my blog, but i will be attending class this coming tuesday September 28. I'm actually a little bit nervous because I will be presenting on the book Sula the next week on October 7, Thursday; I have never been good at presentations, so this one will not be an exception. I will take diligent notes this coming week and blog about the results or what I've learned next weekend. Thank you for reading!