Galician, Mary-Lou. Sex, Love, and Romance in the Mass Media: Analysis and Criticism of Unrealistic Portrayals and Their Influence.
Bosshart, Louis
Galician, Mary-Lou. Sex, Love, and Romance in the Mass Media:
Analysis and Criticism of Unrealistic Portrayals and Their Influence.
Mahwah, NJ and London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004. Pp. xxv, 252.
ISBN 0-8058-4832-0 (pb.) $49.95.
The main goal of this book is clear from the very beginning: It
should dis-illusion its readers!
As the author puts it:
"False-love" images and scripts of coupleship put pressure on both
women and men to measure up to media-myth.... Some
media-constricted unrealistic expectations can lead to depression
and other dysfunctions, and several can be downright dangerous" (p.
x). The problem seems to be that "the mass media rarely present
models of healthy, realistic romance and love. (p. 5)
The dismantling of the all-too-romantic portrayal of love and
romance by the media starts with "Dr. Fun's Mass Media Love
Quiz" that deals with stereotypes and myths that are perpetuated by
the mass media and with the 12 statements of which only the answer
"false" is right. Statement Number 12 aims again towards the
main goal of the author: "Since mass media portrayals of romance
aren't 'real,' they don't really affect you."
Since the right answer is "false," the question now is: and
how do they affect us?
Sex, Love, and Romance in the Mass Media is divided in two main
parts, a first one that deals carefully with terms, concepts, models,
tools of analysis, strategies and skills of media literacy (the main
purpose of which is "dis-illusioning"), and theories. The
second one is empirical in its approach and dissects carefully every
single myth of the love quiz. The theoretical part is very
comprehensive, sometimes leaving the reader with an embarrassment of
richness. Sometimes a slight need for more synthesis can be felt, which
on the other hand would save the book from being too redundant in some
parts. Very useful is the focus on Robert Sternberg's
"Triangular Theory of Love." For him love is made up by three
basic components: intimacy, passion, and decision/commitment.
The book starts with a "STOP! Before you begin to read this
book, take Dr. FUN'S Mass Media Love Quiz on the next page"
(p. vii) and it ends with an epilogue "DON'T STOP! The End Is
Where We Start From." It is correct to say that the Cultivation
Analysis of George Gerbner did focus too much on violence. After the
criticism of Paul Hirsch and Horace Newcomb, the very narrow approach of
the early cultivation research has been opened and it is time now to
study the impact of media stimuli on different areas of our lives,
romantic love included. Empirical research in this field would also
benefit from concepts like para-social interaction, transportability
(life in as-if-worlds), flow, social comparison, and immersion. From
this point of view the book of Mary-Lou Galician is a little bit too
Manichean. A very important goal of fictional narratives is to shorten
the distance between utopia and reality. To kill our dreams can also be
very unhealthy. Children need fairy-tales (Bruno Bettelheim) and so do
adults. There are worldwide 340 versions of the Cinderella motif in
popular cultures. That means that there is a demand for stories that
tell the dream of a better life. It would be much healthier to sensitize people instead of disillusion them. Or shall Harry Potter be banned from
the movie because he is highly unrealistic?
From an evolutionary point of view, entertainment is a playing
field (plays of illusion, pleasures of fantasy, dream worlds) with more
or less serious virtual experiments that deal with the solution of
adaptive problems. Entertainment produces realistic and/or utopian ideas
of love, success, and security thus corresponding with the need to
confront the human condition and show various options, even unrealistic
ones. Following audience research in Europe, people are well aware that
some portrayals of romance and love can be or are unrealistic.
Nevertheless, they enjoy it!
--Louis Bosshart
University of Fribourg--Freiburg
