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Representation of Males and Female Characters in Romantic Comedies

The way characters are presented in romantic comedies makes up the huge part of the film. Since romantic comedies tend to be female orientated their male representations to a certain extent tend to be stereotypical and unrealistic. Here are a few characters I will be talking about:Vivian Ward- Pretty Women (1990) Julia Roberts Career sky rocketed after this film was released. However she played a very unconventional character in the romantic comedy. She played a prostitute who through meeting a businessman through her job falls in love with him and they become a couple. This may be the only romantic comedy that showed shady protagonist since she played a prostitute. She is a attractive young women who uses her looks as a profession in life. Working as prostitute means she has to work late at nights connotes that she is brave and strong unlike most protagonists in Romantic Comedies. However her character falls prey to fantastical ending of happily ever after ending where she ends up with the man of her dreams. She may be unconventional but she only challenges the representation of protagonists portrayed in romantic comedies to a certain extent. Sally Albright-When Harry Met Sally (1989) Meg Ryan won the hearts of many die hard romantic comedy fans around the world with this film. She is bright and carefree and challenges the stereotype of men and women can never be friends by being friends with Harry. However she falls prey to the stereotype of damsel in distress after she feels no man will ever be interested in her after she finds out her ex-fiance is getting married. She becomes reliant on Harry and running their friendship and forging an emotional tie with him. This becomes the start of their relationship. Jamie Rellis- Friends with Benefits (2011) Again Mila Kuniss character Jamie is unconventional in the sense she is presented as young and carefree. Her attitude to sex is very casual as she accepts having casual sex with a friend on the basis of getting the benefits but staying away from

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emotional attachment. This however does not end up working in her favour as she being a women in the romantic comedy does end getting attached ending up with an emotional relationship. This ends up with her and the friend getting together.

Females are represented differently to each other in romantic comedies but still share the same over arching theme emotional attachment. This may be played out in romantic comedies the most as women stereotypically then men seem to be more emotionally natured and feel things harder than men. So how are men represented in Romantic Comedies? Men tend to be represented as careless in romantic comedies that do not care how they treat the female protagonist as long as they get one thing in return: Sex. For most men who are love interests for the female lead they are presented as arrogant, self-centred and selfish. Their womaniser qualities make them charming and attractive figure in the eyes of the female protagonist winning their hearts and then breaking them. However not all males are represented the same way as I just described above some have hearts and love the female protagonist whole heartedly regardless. Here are a few examples: Daniel Clever- Bridget Jones Diary (2001) Hugh Grant portrayed Daniel Clever to perfection. He is your typical womaniser and charming man who steals you for the night than breaks your heart. His character tricks the female protagonist of the film Bridget Jones into thinking he has fallen in love with her but in reality he uses her and then dumps her. He even executes that in a charming way. Men like him in romantic comedies are conventionally found. Noah Calhoun- The Notebook (2004) Ryan Gosling plays Noah the total opposite of someone like Daniel. He believes in true love and has faith in his love. He treats women with respect and doesnt take advantage of them like Daniel does. He is not a heart breaker and throughout the film stays by Allies side. He is the typical romantic hero who writes poetry and expresses his love passionately. He is a idealistic man to be in every womens life and is represented as a romantic envy. He is young and handsome ticking all the boxes on the female protagonists list.

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Dylan Harper-Friends with Benefits (2011) Justin Timberlake plays Dylan Harper a guy who believes that sex should not have so many emotional attachments. This lead him to having a friends with benefits relationship with Jamie and they both end up emotionally attached especially Jamie, the female protagonist. He is presented as somewhat unobservant to Jamies highly observant nature making him slightly dim-witted other than that he is somewhat unconventional but still sticks to the profile of handsome when it comes to being the lead male protagonist in a romantic comedy.

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