Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus

To what extent do the texts such as The Ugly Truth (2009) & The Proposal (2009) follow the stereotypical views of women and relationships in a typical romantic comedy genre?

"Men Are from Mars, Women are from Venus" – Deborah Cameron

There are many rules that one must keep in mind to understand how to write or shoot a media piece, especially when wanting to create films with specific genres. Romantic comedies are films with, usually, light-hearted and humorous plotlines that end up covering romantic ideals like "true love" and how it conquers all. The texts that I will be approaching are typical examples of romantic comedies that challenge and exaggerate the codes of conventions of a classic romantic/comedy genre movie. Robert Luketic (The Ugly Truth 2009) and Anne Fletcher (The Proposal 2009) are directors that usually conform and direct movies that have a romantic and comedic structure. This gives the audience an awareness of what their auteur and style that they will portray throughout the movie, further helping the audience understand the stereotypes of women and relationships and how the movies are conformed to suit the romantic comedy genre.

The characters in The Ugly Truth (2009) are constructed in a social idealistic point of view, as the two main characters are white, very good looking and middle class. This tends to follow the usual stereotype of the main characters in any romantic comedy. The main female protagonist in this film, Abby, is middle class, heterosexual, blond and presumably in her early 30's – an image that is arguably pleasant to the male gaze. This is evident through the Mise-en-scene of her house as we notice her clothing and behaviour around the house with her cat. The male protagonist, Mike, is lower-middle class and this could be true due to the fact that he is living with his sister and nephew. He is single but a little older than Abby, making us guess that he is in his mid-30. Overall within this text, the audience is shown two single attractive individuals whose personalities and opinions are and them falling in love could possibly conform to a typical romantic comedy genre with the principle of "opposites attract in mind".

The characters in The Proposal (2009) are constructed in the opposite to the Ugly Truth, as we, the audience witness that the roles are reversed. The female protagonist of the movie, Margaret Tate, is a successful, attractive, single and middle class woman who will stop at nothing to advance her career. Props and angle shots are significant as we see her walking to work and running on her treadmill in the morning with her work script in front of her help show the audience immediately where she stands throughout the movie. We see her dressed in an all-black pencil skirt and blazer suit which connotes in this case professionalism and importance within in the