As a self-confessed hopeless romantic and connoisseur of chick flicks, it will come as no surprise when I tell you that I was raised on rom coms. Looking back, my love for the genre had less to do with the formulaic romances and more to do with the cosmopolitan, career-focused leading ladies who I so desperately admired and dreamed of becoming. They made journalism look chic, sexy and glamorous. Newsflash! It’s not. I was duped, hoodwinked, bamboozled! After almost five years of devoting my life to the craft, I can confirm that it is not sexy; it’s just stressful.
They made journalism look chic, sexy and glamorous. Newsflash! It’s not.
From Andy Sachs in The Devil Wears Prada to Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City, female journalists are a staple of the contemporary rom com. The trend can be traced all the way back to the 1940 screwball comedy His Girl Friday which features Rosalind Russell as the first ‘Hot Girl Journalist’ Hildy Johnson. There are a handful of fictional female journalists that I can point to over the next few decades. In 1976, for example, Faye Dunaway starred in Network as Diana Christensen, a terrifyingly competent and extremely fashionable television executive.
However, the trend didn’t really cement itself into the genre until the late 1990s. In Never Been Kissed, a classic ‘90s chick flick, Drew Barrymore plays a baby-faced junior copywriter and ex-nerd who goes undercover at her former high school in search of a big break. Of course, the incredibly important investigation hits a snag when she falls for her English teacher. Dubious ethics aside, why is it always the English teacher? Has no one ever had a crush on their Maths teacher before? Algebra can be sexy, guys! It’s not all Shakespeare and Shelley. This is exactly why we don’t have more women in STEM.
Going into the early noughties, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days follows a women’s advice columnist (Kate Hudson) who butts heads with an equally competitive advertising executive (Matthew McConaughey). Andie Anderson is the ‘It Girl Journalist’ of my dreams. No one else can rock a pair of low rise jeans quite like a 2003 Kate Hudson.
Jenna Rink (Jennifer Garner) from 13 Going on 30 is another fictional female journalist who I worshipped as a child. To me, she was Jesus and Teen Vogue was my Bible. Much like 13-year-old Jenna, I was desperate to be “thirty, flirty and thriving.” I wanted to live in a ‘Big City’ and write ‘Very Important Things’ while doing the classic Carrie Bradshaw run-walk because I am oh, so very busy, but you could never tell because I am oh, so very glamorous. Two decades later, however, I have some concerns. No matter how cute Mark Ruffalo is, Jenna still has the mind of a 13-year-old which is deeply disturbing to think about. Furthermore, her drastic redesign of Poise magazine, without seeking approval might I add, should’ve resulted in her firing. Nevertheless, the nostalgia outweighs the negativity.
I wanted to live in a ‘Big City’ and write ‘Very Important Things’ while doing the classic Carrie Bradshaw run-walk because I am oh, so very busy, but you could never tell because I am oh, so very glamorous.
The 2000s were truly the golden age of female journalists in rom coms. Post-2010, the rom com landscape looks bleak. Set It Up from 2018 is one of the few examples I could think of, however, it never reached the commercial success or cultural status of its predecessors. Earlier this year, Kate Hudson made headlines after appearing on The View and discussing the lack of rom coms being made today. She attributed the problem partly to male movie stars not wanting to make rom coms, and partly to big studios for not investing in rom com writers or directors. She’s not wrong. Where is our Gen Z Nora Ephron? Bring on the rom com renaissance, please!
There are countless criticisms I could launch towards these movies. Namely, the heteronormative storylines and Eurocentric beauty standards that plague the genre. Furthermore, fictional female journalists are rarely allowed to be both good at their jobs and happy in their love lives. The professional and the personal are wholly incompatible (but only for women, of course). Despite my complaints, I do owe these movies a lot. It might sound silly but I credit my passion for journalism, at least in part, to these fictional women. While journalism may not be as glamorous as Hollywood promised me, I will always look back on these movies, and the little girl that loved them, with affection and nostalgia.
