I am not suggesting, of course, that what a woman likes to watch necessarily reflects what she actually wants in real life. I am also aware that women aren’t a monolithic bloc.
But with the genre of novels and movies where the woman says “no” and the creepy persistent man just won’t take “no” for an answer - is this a case of women actually liking to watch this (and thus generating the income to keep it going), or is it just that the movie directors who make such movies (or authors who write such novels) persist in it, and they just haven’t been displaced yet?
Exhibit #1 - 50 Shades of Grey. Tons of women love it but they wouldn’t actually want it in real life. It is escapism.
There is also the fact that all you have to do to turn any romantic comedy into a horror movie is change the background music and the desires of the woman. Many of them are straight up stalker movies if she didn’t like him.
Is the “charming stalker” trope really that common anymore? I always see it brought up, but I can’t think of many stories that fit, unless the actual plot is completely exaggerated.
If you ever want proof that there is a fundamental difference between men and women’s perceptions, Lifetime (aka “The Victim Channel”) is proof. Even my very strong, classically feminist mother gets addicted to it. All I know is that their movies are terrible and you are going to see to see a man abuse a woman in some weird way if you watch it for more than 10 minutes. Yet, it is one of the few cable channels that has stuck to original format and women still flock to it. There is no male equivalent because that would be pathetic. I have watched it before with women and burst out laughing while they were still glued to the screen and didn’t understand what was so funny.
and the original hallmark channel is just the non violent cutesy version of lifetime ………funny thing tho the people who owned the AMC channel tried an all romance channel ……it totally failed …… I did learn from one of its reran movies that fidel castros only child has/had an American mother ……
A variety, i.e., Twilight, 50 Shades, etc. - but there was also one in particular I can’t recall the name of, a chick flick involving Drew Barrymore, where a male suitor dangles by one hand from a height and threatens to fall to his death unless Barrymore’s character goes out with him.
There’s also this list:
It’s hard to think of anything that all women universally like. I’m sure some women must like them, or have in the past; probably same for some men.
I can’t say I’ve ever looked for that sort of movie, or enjoyed that kind of relationship dynamic in a movie. But I’m struggling to think of a primarily romantic movie I’ve enjoyed in general. If I enjoy a relationship in a movie, usually it’s a backdrop to other exciting things happening in the characters’ lives, and the stupid things they do to mess up and fix the relationship are in the background, as the couple works together (or slowly gets the hang of it, if it’s a relatively new relationship.) So a romance in the background of an action movie is more likely to appeal to me than a romance that is the sole focus of a film.
All of those recent movies you listed sound like things I would really not enjoy. I know from segments I’ve read I don’t care for Twilight, aside from not really being interested in vampires… or teenagers. I have nothing against consensual fetish play, but 50 Shades sounds pretty badly written, too, and if I wanted pr0n I wouldn’t want to sit through a whole badly written movie to get to it. And the last…
… Sounds like the kind of thing that might happen as a nightmare end to an unwanted courtship, complete with having to call authorities. “Relationship now or I kill myself!” Good lord.
Although I don’t watch lots of romantic movies, I do remember a “stupid clips” type show which had a love-sick gentleman who climbed down the chimney of the lady who had rejected him, and gotten stuck in the process, needing her to call for help to get him out of her chimney.
Her reaction to that expression of “boundless love” was to scream cursewords at him and throw things at him. Even as he was being led away from her porch. I believe the police threatened to arrest her for disturbing the peace. That was one lady who was just finding louder and heavier ways to say “no.”
So, that’s at least one real-life data point for “big, illegal gestures” to express… uh, I suppose it’s meant to be affection in some way. :smack:
There are a LOT of things common in movies that are terrible, terrible ideas when applied to reality.
For a horror theme, we might. As romance, no. That hasn’t really worked since The Graduate. Well, maybe since 10. But that wasn’t really romance. Just a hookup.