Imagining “We” in the Age of “I”: Romance and Social Bonding in Contemporary Culture

243 Pages·2021·42.575 MB·English

by  Mary Harrod (editor), Suzanne Leonard (editor), Diane Negra (editor)

IMAGINING “WE” IN THE AGE OF “I”

In the early twenty- first century, shifts in gender and sexuality, work and mobility
patterns and especially technology have provoked interest in perceived threats to
social bonding on a global scale. This edited collection explores the fracturing of
couple culture but also its persistence.
Looking at a variety of media sites— including film, television, popular print
fiction, new media and new technologies— this volume’s diverse range of
contributors examine how mediated scenes of intimacy proliferate, while real-l ife
experiences are cast in a newly uncertain light. The collection thus challenges a
latent but growing tendency towards perceptions of romantic decline, in a variety
of cultural contexts and with attention to the impact of COVID- 19.
This is an accessible and timely collection suitable for scholars in gender studies,
media, cultural studies and communication studies.
Mary Harrod is Associate Professor in French Studies at the University of Warwick,
UK. She is the author of From France with Love: Gender and Identity in French Romantic
Comedy (2015), Heightened Genre and Women’s Filmmaking in Hollywood (2021) and
the co- edited collections The Europeanness of European Cinema (2015) and Women
Do Genre in Film and Television (2017, winner of the British Association of Film,
Television and Screen Studies Best Edited Collection Prize 2019).
Suzanne Leonard is Professor of English and Director of the Master’s Degree in
Gender and Cultural Studies at Simmons University in Boston, USA. She is the
author of Wife, Inc.: The Business of Marriage in the Twenty-F irst Century (2018) and
Fatal Attraction (2009) and co- editor of Fifty Hollywood Directors (2014).
Diane Negra is Professor of Film Studies and Screen Culture at University College
Dublin, Ireland. A member of the Royal Irish Academy, she is the author, editor or
co-editor of 12 books, the most recent of which is Shadow of a Doubt (2021). She
is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Television and New Media and Chair of the Irish Fulbright
Commission.
“The notion of romantic love may be just a few centuries old, but human
connections and intimacy in one way or another have always been essential to
our existence. This accomplished collection arrives at a historical moment when
we have been painfully reminded of all this. With welcome insight and inclusive-
ness, and with unimagined timeliness, the writers here bring new and illuminating
approaches to bear on the many forms our bonding (and our isolation) take in
today’s increasingly networked world.”
Deborah Jermyn, Reader in Film & TV,
University of Roehampton, UK
“A brilliant collection of essays held together by a common thread merging awareness
of changing attitudes to gender, social and personal relationships, with analysis of
the ever- same, ever- changing creative forms of romantic love and other expressions
of intimacy. This is a seminal book for our uncertain times, every chapter addressing
with clarity, sharpness and wide-r anging scholarship key questions related to the
challenges of life in the shadows of the pandemic.”
Peter William Evans, Emeritus Professor of Film,
Queen Mary University of London, UK
“What perfect timing for an anthology exploring the new technologies and stories
of romance! The writers in this collection offer savvy insights into recent cultural
remakes of romantic love, shifts that were evident even before the pandemic unrav-
eled our emotional lives and relationships. Engaging and surprising, these essays
address the transnational scope of these transitions and the impact of both social and
fictional media in reshaping the practices and meanings of intimacy.”
Linda Mizejewski, Distinguished Professor of Women’s,
Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Ohio State University, USA
IMAGINING “WE” IN

THE AGE OF “I”
Romance and Social Bonding
in Contemporary Culture
Edited by Mary Harrod, Suzanne Leonard
and Diane Negra
First published 2022
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 selection and editorial matter, Mary Harrod, Suzanne Leonard and Diane Negra;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Mary Harrod, Suzanne Leonard and Diane Negra to be identified as the
authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Harrod, Mary, editor. | Leonard, Suzanne, editor. | Negra, Diane, 1966– editor.
Title: Imagining ‘we’ in the age of ‘I’ : romance and social bonding in contemporary
culture / edited by Mary Harrod, Suzanne Leonard, and Diane Negra.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2021. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021009966 (print) | LCCN 2021009967 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367483289 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367483272 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003039365 (ebook) | ISBN 9781000404616 (adobe pdf) |
ISBN 9781000404623 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Sex in popular culture. | Sex in mass media. |
Intimacy (Psychology) | Sexual attraction. |
Couples in literature. | Couples in motion pictures.
Classification: LCC HQ23 .I43 2021 (print) |
LCC HQ23 (ebook) | DDC 306.7–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021009966
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021009967
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 48328- 9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 48327- 2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 003- 03936- 5 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Newgen Publishing UK
CONTENTS

List of figures vii

List of contributors x

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction: Romance and social bonding in contemporary
culture – before and after COVID- 19 1

Mary Harrod, Suzanne Leonard and Diane Negra
1 Abject desires in the age of anger: Incels, femcels and the
gender politics of unfuckability 29

Jilly Boyce Kay
2 Love technologies: Televisual matchmaking and algorithmic
attraction 47

Misha Kavka
3 Negotiating romantic relationships in the cell phone age:
The Jamaican context 63

Roxanne Burton and Michael Yee Shui
4 Facing the fig tree: Contemporary intimacy culture in
Master of None 77

Beatriz Oria
vi Contents
5 Open (to) marriage: Saving sanctioned coupling through
consensual nonmonogamy narratives 93

Maria San Filippo
6 Aliens, mermaids and cartoons: Neoliberal gender politics in
twenty- first- century South Korean dramas 110

Ji- yoon An
7 Romantic, transnational and messy: Intimate spaces/
cosmopolitan spaces in Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong 127

Celestino Deleyto
8 Mixed feelings: (Inter)raced romance and the post- millennial
romantic comedy 142

Jacqueline Ballantine
9 The bittersweet queer romance: Affect and temporality in
Weekend and Paris 05:59: Théo & Hugo 160

Jonathan Cicoski
10 Plaisirs d’amour: Love and popular fiction in contemporary
France 175

Diana Holmes
11 His baby daddy is an alien?!: Mpreg fantasies and queer
reproductive intimacies in contemporary M/ M science
fiction romance 191

Andrea Wood
12 Bibliographic traces: The material book and the quest for
intimacy in Spike Jonze’s Her 208

Gillian Silverman
Index 224
FIGURES

0.1 In 2020, masks quickly became the preferred metonym through
which to explore and depict the myriad romantic obstacles
precipitated by the COVID- 19 pandemic 2
0.2 The contrast between Charlotte’s elegant gown and Fred’s
sweatshirt and baseball cap in Long Shot points toward the film’s
reliance on the conventions of the “slacker/striver” romance.
© Lionsgate Films 4
0.3 Italian fitness trainer Laura Mesi’s lavish 2017 wedding to
herself exemplifies (a luxury version of) the recent trend toward
self- marriage 9
0.4 Indian Matchmaking matchmaker Sima Taparia typically meets
with prospective mates and their eager families to discuss what
constitutes a suitable pairing 11
0.5 Run centralizes the premise that digital intimacy culture readily
facilitates the revival of previous relationships (with ambivalent
results) 18
0.6 The window display of the clothing chain Primark’s store in
Hammersmith, London in July 2018 demonstrates Love Island’s
cultural visibility beyond television 20
0.7 The lesbian dating app Her was rebranded in 2018 to be more
welcoming to trans and non- binary users 22
1.1 The character of Arthur from the 2019 film Joker, whose
humiliating experiences of social and sexual exclusion have drawn
comparisons with the contemporary plight of incels 33
2.1 Predating online matchmaking cultures, “Operation Match” relied
on telephone and postal services 50
viii List of Figures
2.2 An advertisement for eHarmony featured in the London
Underground underscores the company’s claims to privilege
“science” above all 53
2.3 Press coverage of Are You The One? reiterated a sense that the
pleasures of reality TV were tied to experiencing and consuming it
as a mathematical puzzle 60
3.1 In the video for “Unanswered” Govana’s distress is obvious, as he
pleads for his cell phone call to be answered 70
4.1 Dev’s reverie in Master of None expresses his hesitation and
uncertainty about whether he and Rachel have a future 81
4.2 Dev and Rachel literally use pencil and paper to calculate the likely
success of their relationship 86
4.3 In a bittersweet ending to an ambiguous love story Dev leaves for
Italy alone 90
5.1 In a public service announcement parody, The Freebie’s Dax
Shepard and Katie Aselton promote National Freebie Day 100
5.2 Insecure’s Dro makes it hard for Molly to forget she’s the
other woman 102
5.3 Joy and Alan meet again, with the church as backdrop to their
renewal of vows, in Wanderlust 106
6.1 Legend of the Blue Sea’s mermaid is depicted with dark eyebags,
shifting attention from her supernatural intelligence to
her appearance 113
6.2 A visual comparison between the mermaid and Bruce Lee uses
humor to offset the threat posed by her super- strength 114
6.3 In My Love From the Star, the alien’s theoretical lectures on
human emotions are juxtaposed with his vulnerable behavior
as he falls in love 119
7.1 In Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong, Josh and Ruby’s exposure to
cosmopolitan Hong Kong is as troublesome as it is magical 135
7.2 Romantic intimacy and messy cosmopolitanism in the magic space
of contemporary Hong Kong: Ruby and Josh court trouble in the
borderlands 139
8.1 What Happened in the Tunnel (1903) staged the first cinematic,
interracial kiss, albeit as an intentional deception 143
8.2 The Incredible Jessica James’ use of split screens recalls genre stalwarts
such as Pillow Talk (1959) and When Harry Met Sally … (1989) 148
8.3 The romantic reconciliation in Someone Great appears as a wish
fulfillment but is instead revealed as a false reverie 152
9.1 In Weekend, the use of a mirror emphasizes the social and public
nature of Glen and Russell’s first meeting 168
9.2 (left and right) The “stranger logic” employed by Ducastel and
Martineau uses editing to mark the sequence of gazes between
members of L’Impact, from the unnamed older man to his love object
(Théo), who in turn pairs with Hugo, in Paris 05:59: Théo & Hugo 169
List of Figures ix
9.3 (left and right). The “stranger logic” employed by Ducastel and
Martineau uses editing to mark the sequence of gazes between
members of L’Impact, from the unnamed older man to his love object
(Théo), who in turn pairs with Hugo, in Paris 05:59: Théo & Hugo 169
10.1 The image of the thin, blonde sun- kissed woman who adorns
the cover of Musso’s Girl on Paper exemplifies the physical
idealization of white femininity 180
10.2 Ton arrogance, mon insolence’s egalitarian positioning of male and
female protagonists and suggestion of mutual sexual pleasure
attest to the romance genre's evolution 183
11.1 Pregnant man Thomas Beatie wrote about his pregnancy in
The Advocate in 2008, using the opportunity to highlight trans
discrimination in health care 197
11.2 The title of Gala’s novel suggests a concerted attempt to interrogate
normalized reproductive identity 198
12.1 In Her, the operating system, Samantha, with its hinged opening
and privileged place on Theodore’s nightstand, resembles a
paperback book 212
12.2 As Theodore reads Catherine’s manuscript the warm sepia- tinted
lighting and handmade ceramic objects in the background
suggest an older historical moment 213
12.3 Her’s camera lingers on melting icicles, suggesting matter in
transition 219