The mass media portrays traditional forms of marital status in contemporary films despite changing demographics. This thesis argues that romantic relationships are presented as a normative and significant part of completing a predetermined life course in adulthood. Specifically, recent films are entrenched with ideological messages regarding heterosexual marriage and fail to represent singles adequately. In Canadian society, legal marriage is becoming less frequent, common law relationships are increasing, family formations are more diverse, and individuals are happily choosing to be single. Therefore, it is crucial to explore if the media, a powerful socializing agent, communicates a preference for marriage by promoting the ideology of marriage. A content analysis was performed on nine top grossing films that were released in 2010. Overall, the findings demonstrate that regardless of changing demographics, the media privileges marriage and marginalizes singlehood. These films contribute to strengthening traditional ideologies of marriage and family and reinforce discrimination against singles.

The mass media portrays traditional forms of marital status in contemporary films despite changing demographics. This thesis argues that romantic relationships are presented as a normative and significant part of completing a predetermined life course in adulthood. Specifically, recent films are entrenched with ideological messages regarding heterosexual marriage and fail to represent singles adequately. In Canadian society, legal marriage is becoming less frequent, common law relationships are increasing, family formations are more diverse, and individuals are happily choosing to be single. Therefore, it is crucial to explore if the media, a powerful socializing agent, communicates a preference for marriage by promoting the ideology of marriage. A content analysis was performed on nine top grossing films that were released in 2010. Overall, the findings demonstrate that regardless of changing demographics, the media privileges marriage and marginalizes singlehood. These films contribute to strengthening traditional ideologies of marriage and family and reinforce discrimination against singles.

The mass media portrays traditional forms of marital status in contemporary films despite changing demographics. This thesis argues that romantic relationships are presented as a normative and significant part of completing a predetermined life course in adulthood. Specifically, recent films are entrenched with ideological messages regarding heterosexual marriage and fail to represent singles adequately. In Canadian society, legal marriage is becoming less frequent, common law relationships are increasing, family formations are more diverse, and individuals are happily choosing to be single. Therefore, it is crucial to explore if the media, a powerful socializing agent, communicates a preference for marriage by promoting the ideology of marriage. A content analysis was performed on nine top grossing films that were released in 2010. Overall, the findings demonstrate that regardless of changing demographics, the media privileges marriage and marginalizes singlehood. These films contribute to strengthening traditional ideologies of marriage and family and reinforce discrimination against singles.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze DVD covers for the genre romantic comedy from the 2000s as a way to obtain patterns and codes provided by the genre. The theoretical framework consists of previous research that analyzed various posters, theories about semiotics, genre, and visual rhetoric.  These theories will help answer the main question and help with the analysis. The objects for observation are ten DVD covers from the genre romantic comedy and a qualitative content analysis is used for this thesis. The movies are from the US and they are all high in Box Office. Box Office stands for how many tickets were sold and how much money a film has earned. The use of numbers from Box Office shows that the movie had a successful marketing prior coming out as DVD. The analysis focuses also on movies from the year 2003 – 2012 as a way to get a ten years gap and also get the contemporary movies. The results show that there are codes and patterns provided from various DVD covers. Visual expressions as clothing, angles, perspectives, postures, facial expressions and colors say a lot about how the genre is visualized. It's also important for these visual expressions to work together – as they tell a story about the relationships and the characters, and also what the movie is going to be about. The main conclusion is that the woman is usually the one who is in focus and she is the active one. This doesn't necessary mean that the woman is in a higher position when it comes to the society or that she'll always have the upper hand in the relationship, but she is the one that has the upper hand right now. It's also clear that the DVD covers show when the couples aren't happily ever after. / Syftet med uppsatsen är att analysera DVD-omslag för genren romantisk komedi från 2000-talet för att få fram mönster och koder som ges från genren. Det teoretiska ramverket består av tidigare forskning som analyserat olika affischer - samt teorier om semiotik, genre och visuell retorik. Dessa teorier används för att svara på frågeställningen och för att hjälpa till vid analysen. En kvalitativ innehållsanalys har analyserat tio olika DVD-omslag för genren romantisk komedi. Filmerna som analyserats är från USA och anses som höga inom Box Office. Begreppet Box Office står för hur många biljetter som har sålts och hur mycket pengar en film tjänat in. Användingen av siffor från Box Office visar att filmen hade en lyckad marknadsföring innan den kom ut på DVD, vilket gör att den används för denna analys. Analysen fokuserar sig också bara på filmer från år 2003 – 2012 då man får ett mellanrum på tio år och filmerna blir samtida. Resultatet från den kvalitativa metoden visar att det finns koder och mönster som ges från olika DVD-omslag. Visuella uttryck som kläder, vinklar, perspektiv, kroppshållning, ansiktsuttryck och färger påverkar mycket hur ett DVD-omslag uppfattas och säger mycket om hur genren visualiserats. Det är också viktigt att dessa visuella uttryck arbetar ihop då de tillsammans berättar något om relationerna, karaktärerna och vad filmen kommer att handla om. Slutsatsen visade att kvinnan oftast är den som är i fokus och aktiv. Detta betyder inte nödvändigt att kvinnan är i en högre position i samhället eller att hon kommer alltid att ha övertaget i relationen, men att hon styr just nu. Det är också tydligt att DVD-omslagen inte visar när paren är lyckliga i alla sina dagar.

Le stéréotype, représentation caricaturale sur un groupe social, est dénoncé tout le temps mais présent partout. Les diverses productions culturelles auxquelles nous sommes quotidiennement confrontés, des émissions télévisées aux articles politiques, du discours quotidien aux films hollywoodiens, participent à reproduire ces représentations caricaturales. La persistance de certaines représentations, non perçues comme stéréotypées, participent à des processus de stéréotypification : par leur récurrence et leur évidence, elles sont posées comme allant de soi, comme le reflet objectif d’une réalité tangible. Sous cette catégorisation qui est parfois questionnée dans la sphère publique, ce n’est pas la validité d’existence de ce classement qui est remise en cause mais la volonté d’appréhender le caractère véritable des qualités essentialistes de ce que l’on regroupe sous une étiquette. Or, le stéréotype, malgré sa capacité à revendiquer une universalité, est le fruit d’un travail culturel, historiquement et politiquement construit. De fait, le stéréotype est un vecteur hégémonique qui peut traduire des tendances idéologiques dominantes sous-jacentes à son expression : il incarne la façon dont sont légitimées et naturalisées ces représentations à un moment donné et dans une conjoncture particulière. Je tenterai de définir théoriquement dans ce mémoire le stéréotype au sein du discours social et plus particulièrement au sein des mediacultures. J’investiguerai sa circulation, son caractère politique, son incidence normative et, par corrolaire, sa fonction hégémonique. Puis, à l’aide d’une analyse intertextuelle critique, je tenterai empiriquement de discerner les stéréotypes et les idéologies qui les sous-tendent au sein de trois comédies romantiques hollywoodiennes. A partir de l’observation de ces productions culturelles de divertissement, ce travail m’amènera à dégager deux idéologies prégnantes - l’idéologie capitaliste et l’idéologie patriarcale -; sous-tendues par un ensemble d’autres idéologies qui, d’une façon ou d’une autre, rejoignent les principales : idéologie de la masculinité, de l’hétérosexualité, d’un idéal socio-économique, etc. / Stereotypes, caricatural representions about social groups, are always denounced, still present everywhere. The diverse cultural productions surrounding us everyday, from tv shows to politic articles, from everyday life discourse to hollywood movies, contribute to reproduce these caricatural representations. This persistence of certain representations – unperceived as stereotypical – participate in stereotypical process : by their recurrence and supposedly evident nature, they seem taken-for-granted, as an objective mirror of a tangible reality. Even if this categorisation is sometimes questionned, it is not the nature of this classification that is called into question but which essentialist qualities, which true inherent characteristics, should be enumerate under this label. Yet, the characteristics presented by the stereotype are not universal : this is the work of an ongoing, historical, cultural and political construction. Thus, the stereotype is an hegemonic vehicule which translates ideological trends underlying its expression : it embodies the ways by which are legitimized and naturalized these representations in a specific context. In this paper, I shall define theoretically the stereotypes and probe how function their underlying ideologies within social discourse, and more precisely within mediacultures. I shall investigate their political nature, normative impacts and ideological functions. Then, using a critical intertextual approach, I will try to detect empirically which stereotypes and ideologies are pregnant in three hollywood romantic comedies. From the observation of this cultural prouctions of entertainment, I will extricate two main ideologies : one capitalistic and one patriarchal; which will lead to underline other underneath but linked ideologies of heterosexuality, masculinity, socio-economic ideal, etc.

Le stéréotype, représentation caricaturale sur un groupe social, est dénoncé tout le temps mais présent partout. Les diverses productions culturelles auxquelles nous sommes quotidiennement confrontés, des émissions télévisées aux articles politiques, du discours quotidien aux films hollywoodiens, participent à reproduire ces représentations caricaturales. La persistance de certaines représentations, non perçues comme stéréotypées, participent à des processus de stéréotypification : par leur récurrence et leur évidence, elles sont posées comme allant de soi, comme le reflet objectif d’une réalité tangible. Sous cette catégorisation qui est parfois questionnée dans la sphère publique, ce n’est pas la validité d’existence de ce classement qui est remise en cause mais la volonté d’appréhender le caractère véritable des qualités essentialistes de ce que l’on regroupe sous une étiquette. Or, le stéréotype, malgré sa capacité à revendiquer une universalité, est le fruit d’un travail culturel, historiquement et politiquement construit. De fait, le stéréotype est un vecteur hégémonique qui peut traduire des tendances idéologiques dominantes sous-jacentes à son expression : il incarne la façon dont sont légitimées et naturalisées ces représentations à un moment donné et dans une conjoncture particulière. Je tenterai de définir théoriquement dans ce mémoire le stéréotype au sein du discours social et plus particulièrement au sein des mediacultures. J’investiguerai sa circulation, son caractère politique, son incidence normative et, par corrolaire, sa fonction hégémonique. Puis, à l’aide d’une analyse intertextuelle critique, je tenterai empiriquement de discerner les stéréotypes et les idéologies qui les sous-tendent au sein de trois comédies romantiques hollywoodiennes. A partir de l’observation de ces productions culturelles de divertissement, ce travail m’amènera à dégager deux idéologies prégnantes - l’idéologie capitaliste et l’idéologie patriarcale -; sous-tendues par un ensemble d’autres idéologies qui, d’une façon ou d’une autre, rejoignent les principales : idéologie de la masculinité, de l’hétérosexualité, d’un idéal socio-économique, etc. / Stereotypes, caricatural representions about social groups, are always denounced, still present everywhere. The diverse cultural productions surrounding us everyday, from tv shows to politic articles, from everyday life discourse to hollywood movies, contribute to reproduce these caricatural representations. This persistence of certain representations – unperceived as stereotypical – participate in stereotypical process : by their recurrence and supposedly evident nature, they seem taken-for-granted, as an objective mirror of a tangible reality. Even if this categorisation is sometimes questionned, it is not the nature of this classification that is called into question but which essentialist qualities, which true inherent characteristics, should be enumerate under this label. Yet, the characteristics presented by the stereotype are not universal : this is the work of an ongoing, historical, cultural and political construction. Thus, the stereotype is an hegemonic vehicule which translates ideological trends underlying its expression : it embodies the ways by which are legitimized and naturalized these representations in a specific context. In this paper, I shall define theoretically the stereotypes and probe how function their underlying ideologies within social discourse, and more precisely within mediacultures. I shall investigate their political nature, normative impacts and ideological functions. Then, using a critical intertextual approach, I will try to detect empirically which stereotypes and ideologies are pregnant in three hollywood romantic comedies. From the observation of this cultural prouctions of entertainment, I will extricate two main ideologies : one capitalistic and one patriarchal; which will lead to underline other underneath but linked ideologies of heterosexuality, masculinity, socio-economic ideal, etc.