Embedded Files
“Flipped.” Plugged In, February 24, 2020. https://www.pluggedin.com/movie-reviews/flipped/.
My research question is, How is the Nice Guy portrayed in American Romantic-Comedy Films? While collecting background information on the topic, I first had to decipher what the Nice Guy trope was, exactly. Because it is a fairly new term that hasn’t been defined by any scholarly article, I had to look into opinion pieces and briefly examine films and the patterns present in them. So, my sub-questions were, Who is the Nice Guy?, and What is wrong with the Nice Guy? I had to identify not only the subject of the research but also a conflict that makes the study not only significant but arguable.
Upon watching video essays and reading blog posts, I was able to collect a background on the general implications of what it means to be a Nice Guy. This led me to the term “nice guy syndrome”, which refers to the behaviors exhibited by the Nice Guy. When I put this phrase into a search engine, I was able to come across a few more articles from reputable sources, though it wasn’t much better than the initial search. I was, however, able to find a novel written by a psychologist who defines what “nice guy syndrome” is, why it is harmful to others, and why it is harmful to themselves. Still, this idea has never been applied to American film in a scholarly way.
“Nice Guys Finish Last.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, November 29, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nice_Guys_Finish_Last.
The term “Nice Guys finish last” was coined Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher. Since then this term has appeared numerously in pop culture, including songs like Green Day’s “Nice Guys Finish Last” and Alice Cooper’s “No More Mr. Nice Guy”, internet memes, and most notably, film. This concept later assisted the development of the term “friendzone”, which according to the English Cambridge Dictionary, refers to “the state of being friends with someone when you would prefer a romantic or sexual relationship with them”. In past years, the Nice Guy was a male who exhibited kindness and favorable traits, though somehow women also rejected him in favor of a manipulative, careless “bad boy”.
However, recently the media has shed a light on the sexist implications of this idea that genuine men are undesired. For Example, in the film, The Jane Austen Book Club, a male character mentions that “women never go for the nice guy”, to which a female counterpart argues, “[M]en say that, but when you get to know some of these men who complain the most, you find out they're not as nice as they think they are”. With this research I have determined the relevance and significance of my project.
In order to conduct my research, I will be examining multiple different movies released between 1991 and 2021. I have currently started a list of potential movies, which includes The Princess Diaries (2001), 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), She’s All That (1999), 500 Days of Summer (2009), A Cinderella Story (2004), Tall Girl (2019), Love Simon (2018), She’s the Man (2006), and Flipped (2010). I chose two movies from the 1990s, four from the 2000s, and three from the 2010s with a total of nine films. I chose the most movies from the 2000s because, of the twenty-five top-grossing romantic comedies (accounting for price inflation), fourteen were from the 2000s. And while ten were from the 1990s, they are less relevant to modern times. Though only one of the top-grossing romantic comedies was from the 2010s, I feel that these movies are important to include considering their relevance. Though I am not particularly focused on box-office success, the success of the decades represents the frequency of release for romantic comedies. Because so many of the top-grossing romantic comedies are from the 2000s, this time can be seen as a “peak” in the movie genre.
References:
Baseball Almanac, Inc. “Leo Durocher Quotes.” Baseball Almanac. Accessed December 13, 2021. https://www.baseball-almanac.com/quotes/quoduro.shtml.
Blizz, Tyra. Tik Tok, 2021. https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdjmDAgy/.
“Book Club.” IMDb. IMDb.com, May 18, 2018. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6857166/.
“Box Office Performance History for Romantic Comedy Movies.” The Numbers. Accessed December 13, 2021. https://www.the-numbers.com/market/genre/Romantic-Comedy.
Dorn, Lori. “The Romantic Fallacy of the 'Nice Guy' Trope Explained.” Laughing Squid, 24 Feb. 2020, https://laughingsquid.com/the-nice-guy-trope/.
Glover, Robert. “The Psychology behind the Nice Guy Syndrome - Dr ... - Youtube.” Youtube, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjHrowRGCMs.
Glover, Robert. “The Nice Guy Syndrome.” Dr. Robert Glover. Accessed December 13, 2021. https://www.drglover.com/no-more-mr-nice-guy.html.
Mashego, Lebogang. “Women Are Still Not Falling for the 'Nice Guy' Trope and This Is Why.” W24, w24, 2018, https://www.news24.com/w24/SelfCare/Love/Dating/women-are-still-not-falling-for-the-nice-guy-trope-and-this-is-why-20180524.
“Cambridge Dictionary: Find Definitions, Meanings & Translations.” Cambridge Dictionary: Find Definitions, Meanings & Translations. Accessed December 13, 2021. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/.
haunted_admin. “20 Bitter ‘Nice Guy’ Memes That'll Make You Cringe Til You Cry.” Cheezburger. Memebase, August 13, 2019. https://cheezburger.com/7208197/20-bitter-nice-guy-memes-thatll-make-you-cringe-til-you-cry.
Kubrak, Tina. “Impact of Films: Changes in Young People's Attitudes after Watching a Movie.” Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland). MDPI, May 2, 2020. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7288198/.
Nathoo, Zulekha. “'I Think People Have Been Thirsty for It': Netflix Targets Romantic Comedies at Teens | CBC News.” CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, August 6, 2018. https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/romantic-comedy-returns-netflix-1.4774924.
Glover, Robert. “The Nice Guy Syndrome.” No More Mr. Nice Guy, December 21, 2020. https://nomoremrniceguy.com/the-nice-guy-syndrome/.
“Nice Guy Syndrome.” Geek Feminism Wiki. Wikia, 2020. https://geekfeminism.wikia.org/wiki/Nice_Guy_syndrome.
O'Malley, Harris. “The Friend Zone Myth.” Paging Dr. NerdLove, August 24, 2011. https://www.doctornerdlove.com/friend-zone-myth/.
Redfern, Nick. “Quantitative Methods and the Study of Film - Researchgate.” Research Gate, 2014, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333641375_Quantitative_methods_and_the_study_of_film.
Ryan, Gery W., and H. Russell Bernard. “Techniques to Identify Themes.” Field Methods 15, no. 1 (2003): 85–109. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822x02239569.
S. Herold, Robin R. Milhausen, Edward. “Dating Preferences of University Women: An Analysis of the Nice Guy Stereotype.” Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy 25, no. 4 (1999): 333–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/009262399278788.
Weygand, Klara. “Qualitative Analysis of The Cutting Edge Movies and Their Gender Representations,” 2019. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/50089/Weygand-Klara.pdf.
“The Nice Guy Trope, Explained.” YouTube, The Take, 22 Feb. 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JkZ55np3z8.
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