Study Finds Romantic Comedies Can Take Fun Out of Real Relationships
The BBC reports that a study has found that watching romantic comedies can give viewers unrealistic expectations for real life relationships. The study involved student volunteers watching a romantic comedy.
The movies included You've Got Mail, Maid In Manhattan, The Wedding Planner and While You Were Sleeping.
The university's Dr Bjarne Holmes said: "Marriage counsellors often see couples who believe that sex should always be perfect, and if someone is meant to be with you then they will know what you want without you needing to communicate it.
"We now have some emerging evidence that suggests popular media play a role in perpetuating these ideas in people's minds.
"The problem is that while most of us know that the idea of a perfect relationship is unrealistic, some of us are still more influenced by media portrayals than we realise."
It would be interesting to see this study conducted on older subjects. Young people tend to be more idealistic and have less experience with relationships so it is possible romantic comedies have a bigger impact on them.
Lately, the Facebook social network has been under fire for violating users' privacy with its Beacon service. This is probably just a blip in what has become an important social tool for today's teenagers and college students. Facebook offers a number of relationship options including "complicated." This Reuters video says that for the Facebook generation, linking profiles as a couple makes a relationship official. If you do link your partner as someone you are having a relationship with on Facebook be sure they are also going to link you back or it could be really embarrassing.
Men Try Romantic Fixes to Solve Relationship Troubles
The Herald Sunreports on a study that found unsurprisingly that men get more romantic when they believe a relationship is in trouble. When there are relationship troubles the study found men trying romantic fixes while women were more likely to want to try and discuss the issue.
Couples most commonly tried to improve their relationships by spending time together -- but this was true for 33 per cent of women and only 23 per cent of men.
And when asked what the best thing about their relationship was, women were more likely than men to list friendship, love and support.
Men were more likely than women to list compatibility, the length of the relationship and doing things together.
Women are more open to discussing relationship problems with outsiders -- 70 per cent of women do so, compared with 60 per cent of men.
The study - called the Relationships Indicators Survey - also looked at what causes problems in relationships. The biggest problems were issues of careers and trying to balance work and family. Financial troubles probably ranked high but the article didn't list the percentages for financial woes.
The Ottawa Citizenhas created a list of the top ten celebrity meltdowns. They were clearly inspired to create the list because of Britney's recent problems. Tow of the celebrity meltdown entries listed were over relationships. One of them is Tom Cruise's couch jumping insanity on Oprah as he displayed his love for Katie Holmes. The other celebrity relationship meltdown listed is Anne Heche's strange display after her break-up with Ellen DeGeneres.
2) In August 2000, Anne Heche reacted to the end of her three-year relationship with Ellen DeGeneres by wandering around a Fresno neighborhood, mumbling that she was God and she needed to get back to her spaceship. In her 2001 autobiography, Call Me Crazy, Heche said she once believed she had an alter ego named Celestia, "a being from the fourth dimension here to teach the world about love." OK, then.
Looney Level: 9 straitjackets out of 10
Comeback Potential: Excellent. Anne has already landed the starring role in the ABC hit Men in Trees, and continues to be tabloid fodder, but not for her crazy talk. This time, it's for her alleged romance with Trees co-star James Tupper, who is rumoured to be the reason behind her recent divorce announcement.
The rumored Men in Trees romance may be tabloid fodder but it is going to be difficult for Anne Heche to top her Celestia incident.
The BBC 