Is it true to say that the representation of women and femininity has had limited development over the last 25 years… or would it be more accurate to say that these representations have dramatically changed? Has stereotyping become less accurate and more common or has the Romantic Comedy genre developed its representations to break female stereotypes? This investigation aims to explore these questions and, ultimately, to evaluate if the representation of femininity has developed over the last 25 years.
Also, to find out to what extent the female role within Romantic Comedy has changed. Exploring the representations of female characters by comparing and contrasting the representation of femininity in the chosen texts; Pretty Woman (1990) directed by Garry Marshall and 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) directed by Gil Junger to Love, Rosie (2014) directed by Christian Ditter.
The shortened term “romcom”, first recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary in 1971, carries implications of a film consciously targeted at women cinemagoers’; it could be argued, that the audience, women, are sold their fantasy often to escape from their reality, this aspect of fantasy is then amplified with the cast being extremely attractive and always youthful. Although Laura Mulvey2 states ‘In their traditional exhibitionist role, women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness’.
As women have been placed in film for years, to be comely and exhibit the same attitudes and goals, which predominantly revolve around finding a male partner. Films have continued to stereotype and categorise such female roles within modern cinema, resulting in less leading women being depicted within cinema. Statistics show that females have been losing out in the film industry, female protagonists within film have dropped from 16% (in 2013) to 14% (2014 statistics) within the top 100 films on IMDB. This shows a decline equal representation of females.
Women make over 50% of the population in the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Japan. This would suggest, statistically, if there was to be any significant inequality between male and female lead characters, within film – female leads would be featured more often. After carrying out a self-conducted interview (of 20 participants), I found that, over 15 participants thought that females were represented inaccurately within Romantic Comedies3.
This highlights that the public recognise there to be a imited representation of females within the Romantic Comedy. It could be argued that over time female characters within Romantic Comedies have developed in being more identifiable, such as Rosie in Love, Rosie4. The audience sees her character experiencing multiple hardships in life, having a multitude of embarrassing moments, that the audience can relate to. For example, a re-encounter with an old school acquaintance that has since become a famous model whilst Rosie is on her hands and knees scrubbing the floor of a hotel.
Whether or not these characters are easy to relate to, similar traits will be given to each leading female character, which removes individuality from the characters and makes these types of female roles less distinguishable and blend into one. Both characters share a certain level of emotional instability and are attractive young women, even though these characters may seem relatable, they share the common stereotypical traits to other women within Romantic Comedies, lessening realist representation of femininity.
As in Pretty Woman5, although at the beginning of the film we see Vivian being rather independent, strong minded and in control, confident and strong minded, it is evident that she has gotten herself into a unfortunate situation, she has become a victim as she is depend on men for a living the film develops we see her dependency for men increase as she becomes emotionally vulnerable stating to Edward; “Baby I’m gonna treat you so nice, you’re never gonna wanna let me go”, who has adhered the role of the rescuer.
The epitome of Vivian’s acceptance to Edward would be seen during the ‘Necklace Scene’; Vivian is presented with a necklace which she wears, she leaves the hotel lobby smiling suggesting that Vivian accepts this new lifestyle she has received and that it is making her happy. This approval of materialistic beauty is then reinforced by the staff in the hotel lobby giving approving looks, contrasting with the judgmental look the first time she entered the lobby. The female audience may then desire to be in Vivian’s current situation.
Mulvey2 also acknowledges women can be placed in film as a representation of what the female audience desires. At this point a female audience member may envy and desire to be in Vivian’s current situation although this suggests that your personal situation cannot be fixed independently, hence only with the help of a male counterpart who decides you could be worth ‘saving’, this could be problematic as it isn’t a realistic way of thinking and fails to reflect a rational view how life should be lived.
A particular character stereotype in romantic comedies is that the female lead is often under 30 years old; in the case of Love, Rosie4 we see her character start off aged 18 and is followed until she is 30 years old, with the majority of scenes with her as a teenager or in her early 20s. The actress who plays her is only twenty-six years old throughout the whole filming period, which suggests to the female audience that in to be the most desirable age one must be young.
Similarly in Pretty Woman5 Julia Roberts who played the character of Vivian was aged twenty-one when she was cast in the role. Whilst Vivian breaks stereotypes in that she is depicted negatively (as a prostitute with a lack of manners) she does on the other hand fit other stereotypes as previously mention such as being attractive and dependent on men, she also fits into Prop’s ideas of ‘the hero’, ‘the heroine’ and ‘the helper’.
The ‘heroines’ within the Romantic comedy are often seen by females as an inspiration and an example of their desires in life and the only way the ‘heroine’ can achieve true happiness or a new equilibrium is when they have found a partner, this is problematic for application in real life, a female audience member may come to think that this is the only way to achieve happiness. Forbes7 magazine notes that, also, in action films that: ‘It is the fault of every action movie producer who puts in the ‘token girlfriend’ purely so they can pander to female stereotypes’.
Token girlfriends within film are often hypersexualised for the male gaze, as Roland Barthes8 suggests that the way women are dressed rather than the woman’s body itself , that sexualises the woman, so the way a woman is dressed will determine to what extent they are sexualised, such as the provocative short skirt and high black boots she wears in the scene where she is picked up by Edward, meaning that his sexualisation has to be planned through the wardrobe department, limiting development of females within the Romantic Comedy as an individual person rather than a sexual object.
In consideration of 10 Things I Hate About You6 (1999) (directed by Gil Junger) the film is known to break reoccurring stereotypes usually deemed essential in a Romantic Comedy, Kat, the main character is dressed rather modestly hence she is sexualised minimally within the film.
Also by following the plot of Shakespeare’s play: ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ the audience experience an unstructured story with types of characters that are not usually featured as main roles within Romantic Comedies as Kat (Julia Styles) is uninterested in dating boys or finding love, she is opposed to traditionally girly stereotypes and appears individual and intelligent and has no care about what people think of her, a complete contrast to her younger superficial sister, Larissa, who seems to embrace every stereotypical characteristic possible, her character enlightens the audience to the usual depiction of teenage girls within Romantic Comedies.
Although we see Kat with her wall up she eventually toward the end of the film she shows she has reached as she admits does love Patrick (Heath Ledger), and here achieves happiness again however this is only with the aid of a man (Patrick), who simply apologised and buys Kat a guitar to be forgiven which gives an impression that although Kat seems quite alternative and a unstereotypical character she is still shown to be materialistic.
Whilst 10 Things I Hate About You does manage to depict a more realistic and less generic female role it still insinuates a few stereotypical female traits which fails to represent women as fairly as the males within the film, whilst it depicts a female character which breaks Romantic Comedy stereotypes, Larissa is almost everything that comes to mind when a female is thought about in a Romantic Comedy.?? Further issues of representation are raised, as Jean Baudrillas9 makes the point that representation is problematic as it is a product of reality and fiction, what is shown is a form of hyperreality, this means that representation is unreal or original. In Love, Rosie4, predominantly close ups of Alex’s expression are used to position the audience to root for him and want him to succeed, making Rosie the one who has confused him disrupt the equilibrium.
More and more we see similar reoccurring main characters similar to those in Love, Rosie4, as it has become more socially accepted for the same female roles to reappear within film with just a slightly different plot and actress each time. Female representations like these have become what the audience has come to expect hence producers, writers and directors of mainstream Hollywood Romantic Comedies have shown consistency in their representations. ?In overview, whilst representation means to represent something, within romantic comedies this may not mean an accurate representation as characters within romantic comedies have increasingly been categorised and stereotyped.
In conclusion, representation of females with in Romantic Comedies has moved backward since 1990 (Pretty Woman5), and whilst the audience can identify with females within film, characteristics are very similar and seem to have strict guidelines (such as being of a younger age). This could be due to the fact female directors, writers, cinematographers and producers make up only 10% of all, this could be an underlining reason as to why women and representation of femininity has had negative stigma attached for so long. Representation of femininity had worsened over the last 25 years and has caused Romantic Comedies to be less varied and a product of character boundaries.