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Why do the vast majority of romantic comedies depict people who are wealthy? (aussie.zone)

submitted 5 months ago by Instigate@aussie.zone to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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My wife has been on a rom-com binge over the last year or so and something I’ve noticed when I’m vaguely paying attention or walking past is that almost every single rom-com features people who are, at the very least, middle to upper-middle class. These characters all live in gigantic houses/apartments, have beautifully sparkling brand-new cars, take month-long vacations to their beachfront properties… it’s just so unrealistic and out of line with the life that the vast majority of us lead.

I understand some concepts - large rooms are easier to film in, rich people own nice things that set a beautiful scene, it’s not interesting to discuss financial issues all the time etc. but this seems (from my anecdotal perspective) to almost be a rule of the genre.

Some more food for thought:

https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a867107/rom-coms-diversity-wealth-income/

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[–] aleph@lemm.ee 18 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

I'd say a good-sized part of it is simply the American preference for watching beautiful, weathly people doing beautiful, wealthy people things. Hollywood rom-coms and US TV shows in general clearly skew towards upper middle class settings when compared to the equivalents from, say, the UK.

In other words, I reckon US media prefer their fictional characters to be aspirational whereas other cultures prefer theirs to be relatable.

[–] sping@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 5 months ago

Yeah, the whole observation needed the adjective American.

Long so I noticed US soaps we're all wealthy people being miserable, while British soaps were all working class people being miserable, but Australian soaps were all working-class people being happy (after resolving some minor difficult situation).

[–] Alice@beehaw.org 1 points 5 months ago

Even our "relatable" characters never deal with housing insecurity, and their cars may have rust and dents but they're reliable.