Another Cause of Female Depravity?

The author of this week’s article makes the point that novels—“tender tales abounding with fine feeling”—fill young women’s heads with unrealistic ideas about love. He (like always, I just assumed upon the first reading that the author was a male) believes that female readers will aspire to mimic the romantic experiences of their novels’ heroines. One of the article’s most interesting passages is that after she has fallen, “too often does the infatuated fair one take pleasure…because, forsooth, she is just in the same point of view as the hapless, the distressed, the love-lorn Sappho of some novel or other.” I can’t imagine that a woman who has been abandoned by a rake, wound up pregnant, or shunned by society would be feeling blissful. However, the author’s overall point is one that easily translates to the modern day.

Given our media-infused society, I think that the author would be extremely critical of movies aimed at a female audience—the romantic comedies and sappy tear-jerkers. Although our present-day culture provides us with stronger portrayals of women, the damsel in distress hasn’t disappeared. By the end of two hours, even Miss Independent has often been swept off her feet. Moreover, the “chick flick” is certainly not a genre that lends itself well to sad endings. Regardless of how many tissues it takes to get there, the characters and viewers usually get their happily ever after.

I think that most women are smart enough to separate fiction from reality, but the author would probably disagree. He would propose that women, filling their minds with “fine feeling” and “soft ideas” in the movie theatre, develop a desire to find the type of romance depicted onscreen. The problem, he would scoff, is that it’s an unrealistic, grownup fairytale. We can sigh over Noah Calhoun in The Notebook all day, but good luck finding a man who takes you rowing among swans and then kisses you in the rain. These situations are literally too good to be true, but—the author would say—the deluded woman wouldn’t recognize this. Enamored with the thought of having that kind of love, she would place all her high hopes on the next man who enters her life.

I think that the author would also be scandalized by the rampancy of sex scenes in today’s movies. In the article, he seems concerned about a young couple’s choice to “dispense with the ceremony,” winding up instead with a “base-born infant.” If he were writing today, I’m sure that the author would make a big point about the poor example set by promiscuous heroines and how that influences a woman to give up her virtue. She would discover too late that “happily ever after” only happens in the movies.