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September 4, 2012 - So this is Sophie, the friend Ellie talked to online in this comic. Sophie is NOT the same character as the woman in this comic, and I didn't even realize the similarities in their designs until I'd already drawn this comic (but look at the differences in their noses).
Meanwhile I dare anyone to come up with a "romance film" that doesn't meet at least one, if not all three, of the criteria Sophie mentions (When Harry Met Sally does not count, the first time they sleep together is totally based on lies and misunderstandings (though admittedly the secondary romance is actually fairly healthy) -- and despite what Nostalgia Chick says I would much rather watch Sleepless in Seattle than When Harry Met Sally, though Sleepless in Seattle is totally sacrificing common sense for love is awesome).
I also considered including a reference to how frequently women in romance films suffer from mental disorders (Kate Winslet in Titantic and Robin Wright in Forrest Gump are each portrayed as so depressed they contemplate suicide while Drew Barrymore's character in 50 First Dates and Rachel McAdams in The Vow both suffer from amnesia to name a couple examples) but mental disorders tend to overlap with other problematic representations of "love" in media. And there's also the even larger questions about the representation of women in media in general.
Anita Sarkeesian talks a lot about some of these issues on her website, Feminist Frequency, and while I agree with many of her points, I do find faults in her conclusion of frequently blaming the writers and directors in Hollywood without any acknowledgement of the audiences that watch these films. It is not easy to make it in Hollywood. Most people are on the outside looking in, desperate for a big break and don't have the finances to fund a production on their own. The people with money are then largely interested in making money and have little artistic integrity beyond what will sell. Right now audiences have proven they will watch crap that poorly represents women, creating a vicious cycle of artist wants to be seen by audience, producer only funds artist for product that audience watches, audience demonstrates to producer that poor representations of women are profitable, artist does what audience tells producers is successful to be seen. Until abominations like Crazy Stupid Love (by far my least favorite film of last year, and yes, I saw Sucker Punch which is admittedly pretty bad as well) are boycotted by audiences, they'll continue to get made. This isn't just Hollywood's problem, it's society at large, but at least when I saw Crazy Stupid Love and Sucker Punch I didn't pay for my ticket (having snuck in from far superior films of The Smurfs (actually one of my favorite films of last summer, which says a lot about what came out then) and 127 Hours, one of 2011's best films).
Meanwhile, not to foreshadow anything, but the relationship between Aaron and Ellie also qualifies as totally based off misunderstanding, so we'll have to see where that's going because I'm not going to give you any direct spoilers.
-D
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