Date

5-7-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

The formula of the romantic comedy is relatively consistent. The couple meets, they get closer, there are trials and tribulations in their relationship which lead to a confession of love, and they live happily ever after from that point on. Popularized by films such as When Harry Met Sally (1989), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), and You’ve Got Mail (1998), the rom-com genre had a modern resurgence in the 1990s led by the films of Meg Ryan, and has continued to have many moments of relevance in the decades since. Romance can be a divisive genre. People who enjoy it do so because it is often lighthearted and has feel-good messages, with the assurance of a guaranteed happily-ever-after. On the flip side, people who criticize it have concerns about the familiar tropes being too predictable, about stereotypical representations of gender and sexuality, and critiques that it lacks uniqueness in storytelling due to an adherence to formulas and genre conventions. However, given the collective popularity of romance-themed shows, films, novels and social media content, there’s no doubt that the genre continues to be a major part of our current media environment. This genre is important to study because romance-themed media are about so much more than just love: they touch on so many aspects of identity, including race, class, and gender. Through a feminist lens, this thesis project will examine the various depictions of representation through eight different romantic comedy films of two distinct eras: films from the 1990s, and films from the later 2010s through the 2020s. My research is guided by the following research questions: How are characters, particularly women, portrayed in the genre, especially in relation to a romantic partner? How are different aspects of identity examined through a romance-centered lens? How do aspects of gender studies help us examine the portrayals of the characters in these films? This topic is important to study because there are so many ways to make commentaries through film and popular media, and vehicles such as films continue to be a pedagogy of sorts when it comes to attitudes about gender and sexuality. This type of analysis of a specific genre contributes to the conversation surrounding the progressive nature of representation of varying identities along a spectrum, as highlighted in most recent work in the gender studies field.

Department

Communication Studies

Thesis Comittee

Dr. Jessica Birthisel, Thesis Advisor
Dr. Melanie McNaughton, Committee Member
Prof. Colleen Kelly Poplin, Committee Member

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Communication Commons

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