Women Read Romance-week 3

The Article "Women Read The Romance" by Janice A. Radway, discusses the role of romance novels and the reasons women read them. One of the main points made in the article is the use of romance novels as an escape for women. Many of the women interviewed in the text describe these stories as an outlet to escape from the reality of their lives. The article mentions how romance novels can cause women to have unrealistic expectations. After reading the same happy endings time after time, fantasy might translate into a women's sense of reality.These fantasies have been translated across movie screens as well. Happy endings and true love are present in countless films. It also seems that stereotypical "love scenes" repeat throughout many movies. For example, there are countless movies were lovers "kiss in the rain". This can be one aspect of that romantic moment portrayed in romance novels and dreamed about by numerous women. That romantic moment is usually when a big gesture is done, by a man, to prove his love to the leading lady. After this gesture they promptly ride off into the sunset to enjoy their happily ever after. In the movie "A Cinderella Story" this unrealistic moment occurs. Although I feel most women know the line between fantasy and reality, watching scenes like this leads them to hold onto hope that something that "magical" might happen in their lives. Here is a youtube video of the kiss scene in "A Cinderella Story".

Escape, He's Just Not That Into You.

In "Women Read the Romance" by Janice A. Radway, a lady in her group points out "We read books so we won't cry". In romances these women seem to not only escape from the daily routines of their lives but find an ideal man who gives the love and attention that they have learned not to expect.
In the movie, "He's just not into you" Nine ladies look to attain their romantic ideals, usually troubled by the differing ideals and desires of their chosen partner. This movie ties in very well to Radways idea's and findings as these women are searching for their perfect man. Like the men admired by Radway's group the male stereotypes shown are strong, independent, and intelligent. Some of these guys pay little attention to the women but they still chase, longing to be loved back. How does that work? The fact is women long for security and romantic story love in a partner as we see in this clip. So they escape through their books to find this.

Expectations vs. Reality

In this modern day of age the notions of “true love” and “happy endings” are prevalent. Even at a young age we are introduced to Disney’s Cinderella, where the conflicts are always resolved by a generally handsome prince in some form or another. Aside from the rare cases such as “Shrek”, the beast usually turns into an attractive man who ultimately saves the damsel in distress. This idea of chivalrous strong men and weak dainty woman has been played out through the ages as the “normal” fairytale and desire. At a young age we have been programmed with the idea that woman are to be saved and should therefore always be waiting for her prince charming to arrive. Janice Radway explains that this patriarchal idea is something that has been assumed about the woman reading romance novels. The statistics look at the fact that the subject surrounds this patriarchal idea, rather than representing what women are actually taking away from reading these novels. By the time we as a society are reading romance novels we have gained a lot more experience with reality and the world past our original “happy ending” time warp. This idea of reality is better represented in the film “500 Days of Summer” where the main character is introduced to the reality or lack of fairytale endings in his relationships. Women know that in life prince charming rarely arrives in the same manner and perfection as romance novels and by reading them we are not clouded into thinking so. Radway states that many believe that literary readings are the result of a complex; however I believe that the complex doesn’t revolve around the fact that fairytales aren’t true, but rather that from birth society has programmed us to think otherwise. That’s one reason why I found “500 Days of Summer” extremely refreshing because it represents a modern take on romance, and most often the disappointment of failed expectations. This YouTube video gives an overall view of the film and emphasizes how the romantic novel’s stereotypical roles are opposite; instead the man chases the woman.

Radway and Unforgivable

I believe that this youtube video embodies, with comedy, stereotype, and exaggeration, many of the main points of Radway’s “Women Read the Romance.”

We see in this video a man in a singular relationship with a woman. We see this man rely on his girlfriend (wife as related to the text) by staying at her house. The women in the house are watching “The Legend of Bagger Vance,” a romance film in which two of the main characters, Junnah and Adele, fall in love before WW1 and then rekindle their romance long after the war. By watching this film, these women can escape into a virtual reality where “the people do not resemble the people and occurrences they must deal with in their daily lives,” and the men are respectful, contrasting their “reality” of man in this video. This video is an obvious (and exaggerated) portrayal of the stereotypical view of male sexuality, which was implied to the males of the “real world” that Radway describes as the husbands of these romance readers. With the male’s obvious lack of appreciation for his girlfriend in the video, we can see where she would feel the same lack of appreciation as Dot does when she describes her husband’s questioning of her day in Radway’s book. Finally, with a stretch of comparability, we can see Radways point “If she is depleted by her efforts to care for others, she is nonetheless expected to restore and sustain herself well,” through the male video character’s almost expectation that his girlfriend wouldn’t bleed when hit over the head with a gun.

Not Much To Say...

To me, the readings for this week seemed fairly straight-forward and did not bring up many points of discussion. There was, however, one aspect of the Radway piece that bothered me. Radway had a clear feminist stance concerning the entire issue, but she failed to ever consider the other sides of things. For example, she mentions that "the Smithton women overwhelmingly cite escape or relaxation as their goal [for reading]." (Radway 68) I would contend that both women and men read with the intent of "escaping" reality. Also, she mentions the idea that the patriarchal system established back then (1983) is a probable cause for the escapist mentalities of these women. This could most certainly be true, but could it not be true for men as well? This may have been a very roundabout and confusing way of saying it, but my essential complaint is that Radway loses legitimacy by failing to take multiple points of view into account, especially considering that other angles could bolster her argument.

This article made me think of Paul Rudd's character in I Love You, Man because the character is sensitive, nurturing, and extremely close with his wife, but the issue is that he does not have any male friends to do "dude stuff" with. Even though she essentially has this almost perfect man (although a little on the "soft" side), she still desires him to fill the basic gender roles expected of men.

I hope this first entry is at least somewhat close to what the blog posts are supposed to be.

Sex and the City

Sex and the City follows Carrie Bradshaw and her three best friends, all single thirty-something women looking for love in New York City. In the series finale, Carrie's longtime love interest, Mr. Big, shows up in Paris, acting as her knight in shining armor, Prince Charming and savior all rolled into one. He whisks her away from her current boyfriend back to New York where they can be together. Carrie's strong feminine character succumbs to society’s pressure for women to be married and nurture others. Unmarried women are seen as a “cat lady” or a “spinster” where as an unmarried man is a “playboy” or “bachelor”. In "Women Read the Romance" by Janice A. Radway, she states that "...women have been taught to believe that men must be their sole source of pleasure." (Radway, 71) Radway argues that in romance novels when a man expresses his love for a woman, "...she is gently caressed, carefully protected, and verbally praised with words of love." (Radway, 73) Sex and the City is similar to a romance novel in the sense that the main characters are looking for love and "the One". Readers of romance novels prefer a plot where "[the heroine is attended to] by a man who reassures her of her special status and unique identity." (Radway, 71) Mr. Big is definitely attending to Carrie in this clip from the series finale, which shows her falling into his arms and breaking into tears at the sight of him.