Shall I Swoon?

Since I have been on the same chugging thought-train for the last couple of weeks, I decided I needed to go a bit further. I have commented on the basic human need of rescue and fantasy--and well, the fantasy of being rescued. However, I think there is an underlying issue and theme here that ties a lot of my ruminations together. I think about it before I go to bed, while I sleep, while I am supposed to be listening to Patty wax annoyed with her day...this central theme to countless famous stories and is partly responsible for a major American holiday. This theme is romance.

There is actually a fully-functioning industry of paltry trade paperbacks devoted SOLEY to this idea of women being swept off their feet by strapping, diamond-in-the-rough paperboys or whatever. Since I have already addressed the idea of fantasy in a previous post, I won't repeat myself (mostly). But there is something deeper (no Jon, NOT thats what she said,) going on here. We all fantasize about something greater than what we already have, but why do romantic comedies seem to trump all other genres when it comes to women's preferences in movies and/or television shows? Most of America's adult population is married and/or settled into a relationship, so why do we find the need to stare at someone elses for 2 hours or read about one for 48-hours (ahem, Twilight).

Why, because the best writers in Los Angeles tell us that THIS is what a relationship is supposed to be like. We are apparently supposed to be meeting handsome, brooding gentlemen in bars and gyms and when they ask us out, we are supposed to say "no" and make them play hard to get. Okay, I would like to know how many quality men hang out in bars that aren't afraid to go up to a woman in a group full of OTHER women and ask her out who isn't a total douche. But I digress. I am FULLY guilty of this. Why can't my relationship be this amazing? Why doesn't he look at me the way he looks at her? Why don't I get flowers delivered to my office...yada yada yada. This leads me to my next point.

Yes, we have been sold out by the WGA as to what a normal adult relationship entails, but whats worse, is that we have been sold out by our signifigant others as well. Now there is the excuse, "this isn't a movie--this is real life." You are right, this is real life, but I don't know why the two can't coexist and blend into a new hybrid of good relationship. When did we settle?

Now, men seem to send flowers when they have done something wrong--or worse, send flowers once and assume that will be good for a century of romantic credit. Why not take a cue from Hollywood and go to town? There is litterally thousands of hours of material on how to make a woman turn to mush, so why hasn't this been tapped? What is so ironic is that men neglecting their counterparts ends up creating the cycle all over again...when we need to feel good about the state of the world, we go see a romantic movie--giving Hollywood more money and a cue to make more of them--and more movies to make women feel underappreciated and unloved.

Funny enough, a book that does not exist had a quite a piqued interest this summer when it was featured in the creme-de-la creme of chick flicks, Sex and the City this summer. Carrie reads a book called "Love Letters of Great Men" in bed whilst researching her new book. She reads Big the words of Napolean, et al and you could almost hear the sighs emitting from the women surrounding me. So, women all over the country have tried to get their hands on said book, but alas, it doesn't actually exist--and they have apparently been settling on "Love Letters of Great Men and Women: From the 18th Century to the Present Day" that has had a sky-rocketing jump in sales since it's publication in 1924.

We are so emotionally dehydrated that we are willing to buy a book that doesn't even exist to fill our void. This wasn't always the case. It used to be "cool" to be a gentleman that lavished his mate and told the world how she was the only one for him. When did it go out of fashion? Did women's lib have anything to do with it? Maybe, maybe not. I however, do not like this trend. Instead of having to pay $12 to see it on screen I would rather be living it, breathing it, feeling it.

So, American men, step it up. There is a reason Matthew McConaughy stares at us from our screen savers.