There was a lot of information packed into this post:
https://kit10phish.wordpress.com/?s=Problematic+RomCom&submit=Search
So I'm going to do a series to split it up into smaller chunks.
It's Endocrinology, Emotional, Comfort
Oxytocin is more commonly recognized as the "love hormone," and is naturally produced more highly in biologically female individuals than male. The hormone can be found in correlation with the budding stages of romantic attraction, and be vicariously felt by the audience as the on-screen romance unfolds. Oxytocin can contribute to the popularity of romantic comedies because of its association with positive relationship memories and its connection to "happy hormones." Dopamine and serotonin are in relation to oxytocin, and the pleasantries felt while watching romantic comedies elicit these neurotransmitter signals. Romantic comedies are more closely related to the responses of each, meaning that when they are viewed, the body is rewarded by these feelings. Oxytocin is linked to success in romantic relationships because of its promotion of empathy and understanding. In some instances, there is sympathy for the characters in romantic comedies and there is the tendency to apply emotional responses taken from media to other aspects of everyday life.
It's Not Not Indoctrination:
rom-coms remain a constant in the lives of many girls and women. Those easygoing, light-hearted stories could became a staple in any context: mom-and-daughter dates, “sick day” movie marathons, birthday pizza parties, long trips — you name it. When you factor in time spent re-watching favorites during snow days and slumber parties, a typical gal could have spent more than 150 hours consuming rom-coms in one decade alone ().
To put that in perspective, consider this:
150 hr (9,000 min) estimated watch time / 107 min per typical movie = about 84 romcoms in a decade (or 120 months or 520 weeks).
It's 8.4 romcoms per year, which actually, seems like a low estimate at not even 1 every month.
A typical school year is 180 days. Let's imagine your biology class is 90 minutes twice a week and 45 minutes every Friday (block schedule) for a total of 3hr 45min (225 min) per week. And say you want to major in bio so you take the course from 7th grade through your 4 years of college (10 years)
225 min bio class per wk * 520 weeks in a decade = 117,000 min (1,950 hours) of bio from 7th grade through college.
The number of romcoms watched in a decade that would equal a whole ass biology degree is 117,000 min bio studied in 10 years / 107 avg running time of romcom = 1093.46 romcoms in a decade. That's 109.35 each year. Which is 2.10-- just over 2 romcoms every week for a decade.
That doesn't seem out of reach for an average film consumer. It's one every Sunday and one every Fri OR Sat for a decade.
Taking into account neuroplasticity, how much does consuming a lot of romcoms impact or feelings, emotions, expectations, and the way we conduct our real lives?
The more exposure to something, the higher number synaptic pathways are devoted to that activity. The more we repeat an action or emotion, the stronger and faster those pathways become. Doing something a lot literally changes the structure of our brains and how it functions!
Sources:
https://www.thealinemag.com/entertainment-socialmedia/the-toxic-reality-of-rom-coms
https://womensmediacenter.com/fbomb/the-problem-with-rom-coms
https://movieweb.com/romantic-comedies-popular-why/
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/gallery/highest-grossing-romantic-comedies-419302/10-confessions-of-a-shopahloic-108333222/
https://www.34st.com/article/2021/02/romantic-comedy-diversity-bipoc-hollywood-representation
https://bouqs.com/blog/valentines-day-statistics-survey
https://business.yougov.com/content/45117-how-will-americans-spend-valentines
https://today.yougov.com/entertainment/articles/45146-americans-relationship-romantic-comedies-poll
https://www.movieguide.org/news-articles/who-goes-to-the-movies-4.html
https://www.jonathanwstokes.com/blog/2015/04/18/are-romantic-comedies-profitable
https://skoobywatchesmovies.com/recent-movie-news/2019/3/16/rom-com-bracket-vote-on-the-sweet-16-kj8bk-bg7nl-87f6x
https://www.mindlabpro.com/blogs/nootropics/neuroplasticity-rewire-your-brain-for-learning-memory-and-mood
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2021.630829/full
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-16592-y
https://www.vice.com/en/article/3kxzpv/rom-com-queer-viewer
https://www.autostraddle.com/queering-the-canon-where-are-all-the-trans-rom-coms
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