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/
More concerning is that so many romantic movies contain an element of cheating… IE the main characters meet while one or both are seeing someone else and often don’t break it off with the other person. In the comedies they are often sneaking around and not getting caught is played for laughs.
This has always bothered me. They write it so you want them to cheat.
This bothers me too. In movies, when women cheat, it always turns out that the guy they were with is somehow bad for them or also cheating after the woman has already cheated, but that apparently doesn’t matter, and completely absolves them of any guilt or responsibility