Tuesday, 1 May 2012
Monday, 30 April 2012
Thursday, 19 April 2012
Friday, 23 March 2012
The Romantic Comedy
The romcom is not a direct representation of a nuclear family (although the parents of the main protagonists are usually a part of the narrative). Nevertheless it is part of the reification (making normal, natural and inevitable) of the idea of heterosexual love leading to marriage, permanent monogamy, and reproduction. The female state in the movie is one of LACK, or incompleteness, UNTIL SHE FINDS MR RIGHT... Even romcoms which play around with this notion, like Friends With Benefits (2011), which is all about trying to avoid the "Hollywood cliches" of happy ever love, marriage and nuclear families, still actually ENDS UP reinforcing it, because we know from the start that "in the end" they will be together, thus resolving her incompleteness or lack. So the ideology is that women are not WHOLE until they are incorporated into the male ownership system of the marital relationship (Miss becomes Mrs) and the nuclear family. The ideology of familialism states that only incorporation into the nuclear family COMPLETES female identity.
Thursday, 22 March 2012
Outnumbered
This is a sitcom with a supposedly 'contemporary' approach to the classic sitcom narrative. But the nuclear family representation seems pretty close to the conservative hegemonic image. Watch the opening scene.
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