From a young age, the fairy tale romance has always had a soft spot in my heart; whether it was cliche Bollywood films or Disney Princesses. However I started realizing the content I absorbed, didn't always give the best role models. Many critics at the Stanford Daily, believe rom-coms are detrimental to feminism; however many believe women aren't blank attractive slates but are extremely developed characters. When I started I wanted to analyze the different roles caucasian women vs women of color played in romantic comedies. Yet, I wasn't able to find a methodology to pick the movies in this cross cultural studies leading me to widen my topic. When I googled information in research sites such as JSTOR or EBSCO I couldn't find any information on the evolution of female characters through the genre of romantic comedies. This led to my question: How has the portrayal of women in romantic comedies through factors of film feminism evolved from the 1950s to the 2020s in response to historical changes in gender roles and social movements?
Ross,Herbert,Footloose(1984),Paramount Pictures
Marshall, Garry, Pretty Women, Touchstone Pictures
My methodology was something I struggled with for quite a bit of time in October and November, but I finally decided on using Feminist Film Theory (FFT) as a foundation piece from Feminist Film Theory and Women at the Movies a paper by Judith Mayne. Feminist Film Theory can be be viewed as two different versions of thoughts with the association of women through a historical lens and combining that with the filmography or writing of a piece. There are six different factors utilized; representation of women through female or male gaze, objectification of women women, do they challenge societal constructs and go past one or the other but are shown in a complex sense for that historical time period. In order to measure this I will be using strict definitions from other papers to minimize the bias that can be shown through my data collection. In order to add a quantitive perspective in a qualitative study is by, counting how many times these categories appear in the movies and compare to see if feminism grew or decreased in the romantic comedy film genre. In my selection of the films I will choose three movies from each decade for beginning,middle, and end that were the highest grossing of that period to analyze.
Films I have chosen with price of renting them on the side. The highest grossing was chosen off IMDb.
Romantic Comedies are some of the most streamed movies of our generation and aren't about to have a decrease of popularity in the next few decades. Studies have been done on the growth of power that women have in film from Superhero Films to Fantasy, however, Romantic Comedies have not received any accredited research on feminisim in there films except Vogue and Vanity Fair articles. A genre whose main audience is women needs to have research done on how women are appearing in the films they are consuming. Films are the emblems of our culture and there growth and perspetcives show the changes in society or commentaries on society. I hope my research can push directors and audiendes to value romantic comedies as social commentaries, but also as critical think pieces that deserve to have growth.
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