American Cinema And Culture By John Belton

The change in culture and the value of society as a whole has greatly contributed to the evolution of the romance genre. In the book American Cinema and Culture by John Belton, he describes the women’s movement as turning into a sexual revolution. In the 1960s, the amount of working women grew tremendously (Cohen). Mothers began to encourage their daughters to marry at a later age and pursue a college education and career. In 1996 a women's movement organization named the National Organization for Women (NOW) was established. Belton states that a big source the oppression of women was marriage. Before this revolution, it was the job of the woman to take care of the children, clean the house, and cook the food. The sexism of the student revolution led to an uprising for the

Another advancement was the invention of birth control. This gave women the choice as to when they wanted to have children which led to an increase of sexual activity in society. This is seen in the movie Friends with Benefits. Although the main character Jamie is an independent woman who has a strong career, she shows how sexuality outside of the confines of marriage has become an increasingly common occurrence in American culture. The modern day contraceptives make it easier for people to have multiple sexual relations. This has affected the romance genre greatly. The plot has gone from the two people being attracted to each others personalities and seeking a long term relationship, to two people having one night stands after drunken nights out on the town. Hollywood produces films in which this type of sexual behavior is seen as the norm, it is often called “hookup culture”. Belton discusses how some radicals of the women’s movement argued that the the sexual revolution served as a “field day” for men while women became “sexually exploited”(Belton 346). The culture shift has led to more romance films in which sexuality has become an increasingly important