The Rom Com Problem
By Rosemarie O Byrne
TW: weight, body dysmorphia, fatphobia, sexual harassment
Romantic comedies and chick flicks push a certain narrative which allows fatphobia and misogyny to thrive. Body image issues are used as a means for the quirky female protagonist to appear relatable, and any woman who does not cater to the male gaze in a way deemed appropriate is ridiculed and made the butt of the joke.
Exhibiting female main characters who are down to earth and have insecurities is a good thing, right? The answer is a little more complex than you’d initially think. Representation is crucial in the film and entertainment industry, so it is important for women battling with insecurities and body image issues to see that they are not alone. However, this trope becomes problematic when the characters are used as tools in keeping women insecure about their bodies by normalising hating the way you look. These types of movies, such as Bridget Jones’s Diary, perpetuate fatphobia and ageism in the way they act as though the worst thing that can happen to a woman is her body changing as she gets older.
Films like the Bridget Jones franchise place an overwhelming emphasis on gaining male attention and winning over the male gaze. Instead of focusing on her career, her family or friends, Bridget is hyper fixated on achieving a certain body type that she believes will fix all of her problems. While the movie clearly tries to make this a relatable and funny part of the movie, what her character is actually doing is projecting a sense of guilt about how she perceives her weight. I have seen articles criticising the film series for Bridget’s ‘internalised fatphobia’, however, because Bridget is mid-size, she is actually just pushing fatphobic ideologies. She links weight gain with unhealthiness when in reality, the two are not in fact mutually exclusive concepts. She normalises not only body image issues but sexual harassment in the workplace and acts as though being single is the world’s most devastating tragedy.
This genre of romantic comedy sadly likes to use the boring trope of pitting women against each other. For instance, the storyline of Bride Wars centres around the feud between two lifelong best friends when it comes to getting a date for their wedding.
With the knowledge, understanding and language we have available to us today, there is no excuse for films to keep pushing these storylines. They are tired, boring and uninteresting as well as totally unoriginal. In fact, the rom-com genre has become out of date with very little of that film category hitting the big screen anymore.
Ticket to Paradise was a nice watch because its comedy was focused on the edgy banter between Lily Cotton’s divorced parents in the movie, George Clooney and Julia Roberts. This shows that there is potential to make a rom com that can actually be described as feel-good, rather than feel-kinda-crappy-after.
While these types of films are often considered light entertainment, which they very well have the capacity to do so, it is once again so important to watch them with a critical eye. Just because the female protagonist is acting like her life is ruined for reaching the age of thirty and owning a few cats, doesn’t mean these are credible ideas of any value in the real world. There is a danger with these movies in the way they push the idea that your life is capped at a certain age, or when you don’t conform to a certain timeline or a societal ideal way of life. I believe that there is a lot of potential for rom coms to do better in the future. They really needn’t rely on these outdated jokes and plots anymore.