My wife has been on a rom-com binge over the last year or so and something I’ve noticed when I’m vaguely paying attention or walking past is that almost every single rom-com features people who are, at the very least, middle to upper-middle class. These characters all live in gigantic houses/apartments, have beautifully sparkling brand-new cars, take month-long vacations to their beachfront properties… it’s just so unrealistic and out of line with the life that the vast majority of us lead.
I understand some concepts - large rooms are easier to film in, rich people own nice things that set a beautiful scene, it’s not interesting to discuss financial issues all the time etc. but this seems (from my anecdotal perspective) to almost be a rule of the genre.
Some more food for thought:
https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a867107/rom-coms-diversity-wealth-income/
Because it’s easier to be impulsive and generous in a luxurious romantic setting if you’ve got cash.
There are some great romantic tales about people sharing when they don’t have much - or when they’re well off… the middle ground is rarer because the middle class essentially doesn’t exist and it’s not as fantastical or compelling.
I’d say a good-sized part of it is simply the American preference for watching beautiful, weathly people doing beautiful, wealthy people things. Hollywood rom-coms and US TV shows in general clearly skew towards upper middle class settings when compared to the equivalents from, say, the UK.
In other words, I reckon US media prefer their fictional characters to be aspirational whereas other cultures prefer theirs to be relatable.
Yeah, the whole observation needed the adjective American.
Long so I noticed US soaps we’re all wealthy people being miserable, while British soaps were all working class people being miserable, but Australian soaps were all working-class people being happy (after resolving some minor difficult situation).
It is escapism. Romance usually has very few things that’s real. I mean that most romance stories are more alike to a fairytale than reality.
Most movies and books are 98% predictable with the well-known cliches. And that makes them work. Beig wealthy is just an other thing that makes it going.
Most girls were raised on the price charming idea, and a rich, wealthy and emotionally available person fits the bill.
Reality of barely making rent and having no money to fix your car or even just daily struggle to find childcare for a date would break the dream.
When you are watching romance you want the fuzzy feels, the safe environment that everything going to be alright and happy ending is guaranteed. Love, money, heath and safe environment - with tons of loving friends and family - now that’s what people want to dream of.
Entirely escapism, most romantic movies involve felonies lol.
Stalking is the most popular, harassment, sexual harassment, assault, lack of consent.
…. But it’s all portrayed as romantic. You want to talk about rape culture? The romance films are peak “rape culture”
Twilight vampires secretly watching you sleep without your consent? Hawt! The guy refusing to take no for an answer? How devoted! The guy just grabbing you and kissing you out of nowhere? Swooooon! My ex inserting herself into my current relationship to wreck it and get back together with me? It MUST be true love. . I assure you, those things are unpleasant in real life, but I’m really curious as to how people think they’re romantic in movies. I don’t get it.
From a showrunner perspective, you want to have a diverse set of sets, activities, and situations you can perform in. That leaves you either with wealthy characters, who can justify doing these things in these exotic places. Or poor characters who behave wealthy inexplicably.
Ie friends where people working dead end jobs had housing better than most millionaires.
Do you really think a guy that breaks his back all day in a construction site has time or energy to be romantic or chase girls? Is actually very realistic these rich fucks are the only ones who manage to get some romantic company and very creative lives
Idk, the romance in Rocky is believable. Not a romcom, i know, but it’s romance. The creative bankrupt is really the issue with writers these day.
Not really. Good movie but it’s a huge fantasy. Very idealized working class idea, rocky is a brute creep that somehow gets the “ugly” Hollywood girl and somehow almost becomes world champion. For me is as fantastic as 50 shades of grey but thankfully way less cringe
Maybe not real for you, but from my perspective it’s believable. I myself are a blue collar working 6 days a week and with paid of the lower income group, still get the time to date someone for two years few years back. Sure, it doesn’t worked out, but it happened. I can see the same with other blue collar i know.
Also, i feels like the problem here is you focus on how they looks rather than focused on who they are. Rocky is a debt collector that’s friend with Paulie, and Adrian work as a store keeper for a pet shop. Not sure how’s that “idealised” working class.
