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Original poster

So what would a feminist Rom Com look like?

68 replies

Scarletohello · 06/08/2014 22:11

So we've had Four Weddings and a Funeral, Pretty Woman, Bridget Jones Diary, even Bridesmaids but I am struggling to envisage what a feminist rom com would be like.

Any ideas..??

OP posts:
weatherall · 09/08/2014 11:02

'The truth about cats and dogs' was quite feminist from what I can remember.

HoVis2001 · 09/08/2014 08:56

CKDexterHaven

Great point about screwball comedies. Just thinking about the plot of His Girl Friday. The main female character is planning to marry a safe, conventional man who expects her to give up her career in journalism and to basically care for her like a nice little woman. Over the course of the film she gets drawn back into chasing a story and eventually ends up not marrying him but going back to her ex husband (a newspaper editor). From a feminist POV there are perhaps some problematic bits - her ex very much wants her back and kind of manipulates her into a situation in which she gets drawn into a story and thus misses her train to get married! - but at the end of the day she ends up with a man who respects her for her profesionnal skills, and doesn't just expect her to sit at home making bread and babies. A film produced in 1940, based on a 1928 play.

Then just a single song from another film of the sameish era comes to mind - Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, "Let's Just Call the Whole Thing Off" (you say tomato...). It's obviously intentionally silly, but does do a good job of realistically portraying the fact that a relationship is made between two individuals who may well duffer in lots of days, and that's OK.

Honestly, I think plays / films of a romantic bent from the first half of the century featured much better female characters than we see now... Confused

PetulaGordino · 08/08/2014 22:03

ah i hadn't heard of roxanne before

PetulaGordino · 08/08/2014 22:03

yes i remember muriel's wedding being reasonably feminist. not sure about the rom part though?

YouGotTime · 08/08/2014 21:49

I was just coming on to say Muriel's Wedding.

WhentheRed · 08/08/2014 21:44

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Message withdrawn at poster's request.

OublietteBravo · 08/08/2014 21:42

I quite liked Muriel's Wedding. But it is a long time since I watched it, so I might be mis-remembering it as tending towards being feminist.

FairPhyllis · 08/08/2014 21:39

feminist rom com:

Meet cute
Fall in love
Lovers tiff
Guy does creepy stalkerish gesture of love
Woman takes out restraining order, lives happily ever after

PetulaGordino · 08/08/2014 21:31

it's cyrano de bergerac isn't it?

WhentheRed · 08/08/2014 21:23

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Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
Scarletohello · 07/08/2014 05:30

*CATS not cars!! ( that would be an entirely movie altogether) :)

OP posts:
Original poster
Scarletohello · 07/08/2014 05:28

Ooh what about, The truth about cars and dogs? Good female friendship, and the man eventually chooses intelligence and personality over looks...

OP posts:
MummyBeerest · 07/08/2014 02:03

Kissing Jessica Stein...basically Pride and Prejudice with lesbians.

However, she ends up with a man at the end. Scratch that.

Chasing Amy? Confident, professional and sexually experienced woman with both men and women, has a relationship with a guy, they break up because he's insecure, she becomes successful and her relationship status is a non-issue, he sees what a dick he was to her.

Seems legit?

That movie

CKDexterHaven · 07/08/2014 01:35

Actually from my username you can probably tell there is a certain romcom that I love (but it's far wittier and more knowing than modern romcoms).

CKDexterHaven · 07/08/2014 01:33

I think I remember Gail Dines saying that, despite being a massive hit, there could be no sequel to Pretty Woman because every time they have an argument Richard Gere would remind Julia Roberts she was a prostitute and threaten to throw her back on the streets.

WhentheRed · 07/08/2014 00:16

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SpeverendRooner · 07/08/2014 00:05

Life in the movies ends when the main characters have got together. If there's a sequel, they've split up and have to get back together. Breaking out of the "marriage is the end of the interesting part" paradigm sounds to me like a feminist move.

Perhaps a trilogy? Part I: meeting and getting together. Part II: married life - ends with a hook for... Part III: children.

Original poster
Scarletohello · 07/08/2014 00:04

Actually, 'Desperately Seeking Susan' was quite a feminist film and in the original ending, the two female leads, Roxana Arquette and Madonna ( who wasn't very well known when the film was made) were intended to ride off into the sunset together while their men anxiously waited for them at home!

desperatelyseekingsusanfab.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/normal-0-false-false-false-en-gb-ja-x.html?m=1

OP posts:
almondcakes · 07/08/2014 00:00

Sylvia Pankhurst and the Italian anarchist.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 06/08/2014 23:53

Yes, or it's 'OMG, I might be attracted to women!' taking up 3/4 of the plot so there's no need to get into anything unappealing like ... actual lesbianism ...

(Can you see why I dislike 'Imagine'?).

Original poster
Scarletohello · 06/08/2014 23:51

CKDexter. That is a very good point about romance. Have just been reading the book, 'Wifework' and that ties in with the point about women doing all this domestic labour for 'love'. I agree women get sold a crock of shit about romance to the extent that they see the pinnacle if their lives as their wedding day. And interestingly that's where most rom coms end...

OP posts:
CKDexterHaven · 06/08/2014 23:51

I think the problem with lesbian romcoms is that usually one of the lesbians is just given the bloke's role from a traditional romcom.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 06/08/2014 23:42

'Imagine Me and You' (from that list) is ever so cute, but it's not feminist.

gamescompendium · 06/08/2014 23:33

I was slightly concerned what would come up when I googled it!

LRDtheFeministDragon · 06/08/2014 23:31

Mmm. I've seen some lesbian rom-coms that were definitely not feminist.

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