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/

  • frightful_hobgoblin
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 months ago

    I was complaining about this on !noyank@lemmy.ml

    About 10% of pop culture stories, maybe more, are about billionaires. Are 10% of people billionaires?

    And even in a medieval fantasy settings, it’s about gold-decked kings: the billionaires of the setting.

    It’s to perpetuate a class bias.

    • frightful_hobgoblin
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      5 months ago

      I mean, if the bias was based on skin-colour or sex, would you feel differently about it?