Romance Movies and Real Life Relationships

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Recommended: portrayal of love and romance in films

Today, romance is one of the most popular genres to watch on television. Unlike most, romance is a genre where the plot revolves around the love between two main characters as they experience the highs and lows of love. “Common themes that revolve around romantic movies are kissing, love at first sight, tragic love, destructive love, and sentimental love” (Taylor). These themes appear in many historical films and the pattern still continues in modern films as well. Watching romantic movies has a giant negative influence on the viewer's analysis of what love and relationships should really be like. These films give the wrong impression of reality when it comes to dating, marriage, having children, and even how to manage a relationship in the first place. Even though romantic movies are commonly watched, there are many effects on personal real-life relationships after watching these types of films.
To begin with, romantic movies mold expectations of what love is really like. They portray that love is the only thing that matters. In the past, love was secondary. Relationships were arranged by parents because they wanted their children to join lands or kingdoms, and whether or not the couple actually loved each other was irrelevant. Today, parents have almost no say in who their children fall in love with. Romance movies over-emphasize love when it comes to “falling in love at first sight” and the idea that “true love conquers all”. I’m sure that almost everyone knows that real-life love doesn’t work like this, but that doesn’t mean that those illustrations of love that movies characterize doesn’t affect viewers’ hope for romance and true love in their own life. For example, after watching The Notebook, viewers might portray Noah’s l...

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...tionships in a appositive or negative way, all depending how we choose to compare the Hollywood romance to our real-life romance.

Works Cited

Hefner, Veronica. "From Love at First ASight to Soul Mate: Romantic Ideals in Popular Films and Their Association With Young People's Beliefs About Relationships." Dissertation (2011): 1-241. Print.
Johnson R. Kimberly, and Holmes M. Bjarne. "Contradictory Messages: A Content Analysis of Hollywood-Produced Romantic Comedy Feature Films." Communication Quarterly 57 (2009): 1-22. Print.
Riskind, Arlyn G. "Romantic Comedies Affect Beliefs About Relationships Less Strongly Than Expected." National Communication Association (2013): 1-3. Print.
Taylor, Laramie D. "Cads on Dads on Screen: Do Media Representations of Partner Scarcity Affect Partner Preferences Among College-Aged Women?" Communication Research (2011): 1-20. Print.

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