Meet-Cutes & Motherhood: Roles of Women in Recent Rom-Coms ______
A Thesis Presented to The Honors Tutorial College Ohio University
______
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Graduation from the Honors Tutorial College with the degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater
______by Melanie Bailey Umbaugh April 2018
! ! Umbaugh! 2! ! Table of Contents 1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………..3 2. Working Girls: Career Agency…………………………………………………………5 3. Sexuality: What Women Want………………………………………………………..12 4. Motherhood: Modern Mom-Coms…………………………………………………….17 5. Endings: Happily-Ever-Afters………………………………………………………...22 6. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….25 7.Reflection……………………………………………………………………………...26 8. Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………30 9. Hypothetical…………………………………………………………………………33
! ! Umbaugh! 3! ! Introduction
A couple meets. They fall in love, break up, but then—just when all hope seems lost, a romantic gesture reunites them in the nick of time. They share a kiss as the credits roll. Is that what makes a romantic comedy? Tamar Jeffers McDonald identifies a rom- com’s integral characteristics as a main focus on a “quest for love” portrayed “in a light- hearted way and almost always to a successful conclusion” (9). Leger Grindon emphasizes the same elements with the genre summary of: “If humor establishes the tone, courtship provides the plot” (Grindon 2). Celestino Deleyto underlines the importance of a comedic perspective to the genre and, in lieu of devotion to a particular point of view, identifies “love and romance, intimacy and friendship, sexual choice and orientation” as the themes most relevant in romantic comedies (Deleyto 18).
Many romantic comedy texts exhibit postfeminist points of view. Fien Adriaens and Sofie Van Bauewel, in their analysis of Sex and the City, describe postfeminism as most relevant within the context of popular culture and television, as opposed to being a political movement, for example (175). It’s difficult to ascribe a specific definition to postfeminism, because the term is often used in different ways. Elana Levine asserts postfeminist culture describes an ideology wherein feminism is a “historically specific outlook” and as such is no longer necessary (5). Postfeminism turns some aspects of feminism into a commodity that a woman, as “empowered consumer,” can obtain, without regard to economic disparities or gendered power structures at play (Tasker and
Negra 2). Despite often serving as a counterpoint to third-wave feminism, postfeminism shares some common ground with third-wave feminism—especially the position that second-wave feminism can be “old-fashioned and suffocating,” and both movements ! ! Umbaugh! 4! ! “situate themselves within popular culture and mention themes as contradiction, diversity, personal and sexual pleasure, lifestyle, and individualism” (Adriaens and Van Bauwel
177). Postfeminism can be seen to reject second-wave feminism, in the opinion of
Adriaens and Van Bauwel, whereas third-wave feminism tries to build onto and improve upon it.
Second-wave feminism’s main accomplishment is often distilled down into the entrance of women into the workplace, an analysis that ignores both the economic and racial reality that working class women and women of color have always worked outside the home. While third-wave feminism tries to acknowledge the inherent privilege behind earlier feminist movements, postfeminism does not. A lack of intersectionality is also obvious in postfeminist texts which generally focus on white, upwardly-mobile, heterosexual women. Feminized popular culture places a high value on “choice” and
“empowerment,” while ignoring how only privileged women have those opportunities
(Levine 5). Rebecca Brasfield uses Sex and the City to discuss this in more detail, elaborating on how the show “unequivocally demonstrates a distinct school of feminist theory that is most often associated with liberal feminist politics and hegemonic feminist agendas” (132). While romantic comedy texts profess to celebrate female empowerment, these narratives are narrow in their scope of what that “empowerment” looks like—it is usually restricted to white, upwardly-mobile women, and it still involves a heterosexual romance of some kind.
Here, I will be examining Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001), Bridget Jones’s Baby
(2016), Sex and the City (1998—2004), and The Mindy Project (2012—2017). While the term “romantic comedy” is mainly applied to films, I believe these two television ! ! Umbaugh! 5! ! programs also fit the genre well, and by discussing them I hope to expand upon the conversation by including some works that are usually discussed separately. In these four texts, I will analyze representations of four different themes: careers, sexuality, motherhood, and finales. By looking at how much control the women in these narratives have over their own stories, I hope to gain a clearer picture of how women are or are not bestowed agency. Depictions of female sexuality are sometimes fraught with cultural anxieties, but I feel these four texts present a much more positive image of the subject.
Motherhood carries with it its own responsibilities and three of these texts deal with single motherhood, which I want to look at for how it influences the genre-obligatory romance of each work. Finally, finales. How a story ends (especially in a genre typically categorized by happy endings) reveals much about what is valuable in a narrative, and in these texts, it’s romance.
In many ways, these texts reinforce negative postfeminist stereotypes that restrict women’s acceptable options in society—or exclude huge groups of women from even participating in the narrative. At the same time, I think these texts also push against the boundaries of traditional womanhood to present alternative possibilities, and I want to explore those moments to reveal a larger picture of what these texts are actually saying about women’s lives.
Working Girls: Career Agency
In the modern-day romantic comedy, the economic necessity for women to marry is removed. Marriage is a choice, and often the object of the female protagonist’s ambitions, but not a means of survival, so the pressure felt by many a Bridget Jones-type to couple up is social, not economic. The working woman as presented onscreen is ! ! Umbaugh! 6! ! overwhelming white, middle to upper class, and educated, a construction based around second-wave feminist ideas about woman’s imperative to work as a means of securing her economic independence from men—therefore separating the institution of marriage from financial necessity (Leonard 100-101). Reproduction of this narrative in film come from a place of privilege, so by propagating these stereotypes, postfeminist media culture ignores working class women and women of color (Leonard 101). In many ways, the texts I’ve chosen to discuss here propagate those same stereotypes, but some of them have also taken steps to engage with a more nuanced view of women and their careers.
Scenes of female characters at work serve to establish their personalities within the context of the show and set the stage for romance. The women of Sex and the City all have different jobs that help reveal information about their character, while The Mindy
Project is about the employees of an OB-GYN office who all work in different capacities in that field. The actual work happening in the Bridget Jones cinematic universe is less important than the romantic opportunities the job provides, though the latest film, Bridget
Jones’s Baby, does show Bridget’s professional growth by presenting her as a boss instead of a clumsy secretary.
Each of the four women in Sex and the City works in a high level of their field.
Even Carrie, whose weekly column in a fictional newspaper might not have the same level of prestige or income as her friends, is able to support herself entirely with that one writing job. Despite a brief financial scare and the ensuing conversation about money— where it’s revealed that Carrie has spent forty thousand dollars on shoes—all four characters live lives of comfort and luxury (“Ring a Ding Ding”). Fashion is a huge fixture on the show, and the characters all spend money with ease—from regular dinners ! ! Umbaugh! 7! ! at fancy restaurants to always taking a cab, there are few economic obstacles for these women. This is a far cry from the rom-com’s predecessor, the courtship plot wherein female characters ultimately married the men of their dreams, but not just because they were in love with their male partners, but because the women had to marry in order to survive. For example, in Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet and her sisters must get married before their father dies and a distant relative inherits their house. Because the rom-com came into existence as women were taking to the workforce en masse, marriage is not the only acceptable way for middle and upper class women to subsist.
Part of the core premise of Sex and the City is that these women are all independent. Female success is celebrated, with splashy restaurant opening and designer clothes paid for with their own money, and their professional credentials help establish these characters as capable and intelligent. Yet, there is a disconnect between the control these women are proven to display in the workplace and their frequent emotional outbursts in their personal lives (Whelehan 139). The characters discuss the necessary separation between emotion and their professional lives as they recognize that as women they are already considered overly emotional by society. In “Belles of the Balls” the women lament how they must present themselves as emotionless in order to succeed in mostly male-dominated workplaces. Charlotte describes how, in ten years of working at the same gallery, she cried one time and then, afterwards, all of her coworkers acted if she was now more fragile and emotional. Her one display of strong emotion became a signifier to her coworkers that she was less capable of doing her job. The other women share similar experiences and sympathize, and the episode climaxes with Samantha, in tears, fleeing the office of a potential employer before he notices her crying. These scenes ! ! Umbaugh! 8! ! all demonstrate the social pressure these characters experience to behave in a proper, unfeeling manner professionally—something coded as masculine behavior and the need to hide unprofessional, “feminine” behavior like crying or displaying any strong emotions in the work place.
While providing dialogue on the gendered pressures women face in the workplace,
Sex and the City also manages to highlight its frequent stance about the differences between men and women. To its credit, the “weakness” these women display by experiencing strong emotions in the workplace is not presented as negative, though it is still comical, and the real target of the episode’s signature catty one-liners is the expectation that women should refrain from appearing emotional. The women of Sex and the City seek to be the equals of the men they date—but, as Rebecca Brasfield examines, they seek to find this power within the existing white, hegemonic social structure in which they live, so their struggle remains somewhat conservative despite its emphasis on female empowerment (133).
Money still matters in the world of Sex and the City, however, despite the ease with which all of its characters spend it freely, and on multiple occasions Carrie finds herself dependent on either her friends or her boyfriend for money. After then-boyfriend
Aidan buys Carrie’s apartment for them to live in, the two break up and Carrie finds herself unable to afford the place alone (“Ring a Ding Ding.”) Her attempts to save money are laughable—she is, unsurprisingly, rejected for a loan, and then she balks at taking the bus (with an ad for her column plastered across it.) These moments are all played for comic effect, but the end result is that Carrie actually is not capable of maintaining the independent lifestyle the show glorifies her for having. She asks for the ! ! Umbaugh! 9! ! money, first from her ex-boyfriend Big, then from her friends—all of whom are capable of loaning her the thirty thousand dollars. All of these characters, except for Charlotte, offer up the money, but instead Carrie storms to Charlotte’s apartment to demand to know why she wouldn’t make the same ridiculous promise. Eventually, Charlotte gives
Carrie the engagement ring from her failed marriage to Trey so that Carrie can make the down payment on her apartment. Part of the reason that Carrie’s relationship with Aidan failed was because she was unable to fully commit to him, to give up her independence, and yet in the aftermath she demonstrates just how reliant she actually is on those in her life.
The comic nature of Carrie’s money struggles, and the show’s position that a true friend would offer up thirty thousand dollars so that Carrie wouldn’t have to move to a worse apartment due to her own carelessness with money, reveal how Sex and the City’s idea of independence is built on a fantasy even the show can’t uphold. Carrie’s reckless shopping habits cannot always be played off as just another quirk. In the show’s final season, her latest boyfriend actually takes over paying her rent so she can quit her job and move with him to Paris—but eventually, Big meets her there and flies her back to New
York to be reunited with her friends. Carrie’s lack of financial stability puts her at a disadvantage to her friends and consistently makes her reliant on the men in her life in a manner contrary to the show’s central premise that these women are autonomous.
In Bridget Jones’s Diary, Bridget works in publishing, where she “fannies about with press releases,” according to her rakish boss and sometime lover, Daniel Cleaver.
Our first impression of Bridget in the workplace is a flashback to drunken holiday party karaoke, then she sits quietly behind her desk, gazing longingly at her boss. Scenes of ! ! Umbaugh! 10! ! Bridget at work all either focus on her inappropriate flirtation with Daniel or Bridget’s professional slip-ups, whether that means getting caught on a personal phone call or giving a rambling introduction in front of a crowd of people. Her character is portrayed as clumsy, but endearing, and the audience is left with an impression of Bridget Jones as not especially competent in the workplace—though her failures are due more to awkwardness than to lack of intelligence.
Fifteen years later, Bridget in Bridget Jones’s Baby is presented at work in a starkly different light. When we first join her at work, the camera follows Bridget, now a top news producer, walking at a brisk clip, portfolio in hand, and wearing a smart pair of glasses, as she gives instructions, and passes papers to two employees following behind her. She is informed about current events, where in the first movie her lack of knowledge was a continued source of comedy, and the audience is presented with a highly competent professional woman instead of one who fumbles around and happens to find some success. This development shows growth in Bridget’s professional agency—she becomes a leader in the workplace and shows real skill in her job. Bridget Jones’s Baby takes
Bridget’s career change from merely a device to show her independence from her ex- boyfriend in the first movie to a space that demonstrates her genuine talent and professional ability. This trend continues throughout the film as this time the love triangle sees Bridget holding most of the cards, as Jack and Mark compete for her affections, instead of relying more on the secretive whims of the men in her life as she did in the original film.
Of these texts, The Mindy Project devotes the most time to the workplace, as much of the show revolves around the happenings at the titular character’s gynecological ! ! Umbaugh! 11! ! practice and her coworkers. Workplace ambition is clearly important to Mindy, and all the show’s characters work to ensure their practice’s success. Significant plot points center on the workplace, like when Mindy opens her own fertility practice in addition to working as a gynecologist. The show also repeatedly turns Mindy’s unprofessional behavior into comical situations, like her harassment of the nurses or her hooking up with coworkers. At the same time, Mindy performs difficult surgeries and proves herself a talented doctor—like in “When Mindy Met Danny,” when she uses a new technique so a woman can deliver naturally instead of by caesarian section, thus proving to the male doctors at her new practice that she is just as capable as they are.
The Mindy Project is also the only one of these texts that stars a woman of color.
While race is not a central issue of the show, it does come up. By virtue of having a female Indian doctor as the show’s protagonist, The Mindy Project avoids the postfeminist trap of ignoring people of color altogether and takes the time to examine how women of color might have to navigate work and romance differently than white women.
In all of these texts, the workplace serves as a setup for romantic relationships as well as a vehicle for character growth, but most plots revolving around the workplace have a personal component. On Sex and the City, the four main characters’ jobs also serve to tell us about their personalities—brash, confident Samantha works in public relations, while cynical Miranda is a lawyer, hopeful Charlotte runs an art gallery, and
Carrie, our narrator, is a writer. These jobs are also meant to demonstrate that women are successful, and, therefore, capable of taking care of themselves without any husbands’ help—though in Carrie’s case this is proven to be untrue. Bridget Jones shows real ! ! Umbaugh! 12! ! professional growth from Bridget Jones’s Diary to Bridget Jones’s Baby and her growing control over her romantic life mirrors this development as well. The Mindy Project, as a workplace sitcom, devotes the most time of any of these to its titular character’s career, which functions similarly to these other texts. Mindy’s work provides opportunities for flirtation and romance, but also reveals the strength of her character when she succeeds professionally.
Looking at how the female protagonists of these texts are portrayed at work is helpful in examining what kind of power they have in their larger worlds. Their jobs help characterize them and tell the audience whether or not they are generally capable or independent.
Sexuality: What Women Want
While romantic comedy films are powered by female desire, sex is often not a major part of the picture—the object is marriage, not just hooking up, and sexuality is usually expressed implicitly. Tamar Jeffers McDonald identifies the dominant form of romantic comedy since the 1980s as “neo-traditional,” and argues that one of its essential characteristics is the de-emphasizing of sex (85, 92). While not completely ignored, sex is a mostly off-screen, mainly implicit part of these neo-traditional rom-com romances. The typical female protagonist of these texts is de-eroticized and “rendered adorable and endearing” rather than sexual—the kind of woman men marry, not just sleep with
(Schreiber 115).
Despite the many traditional elements of the texts discussed here, however, none of them treat sexuality as distantly as many other works of the genre. Sexuality throughout both Sex and the City and The Mindy Project is presented as important, both ! ! Umbaugh! 13! ! inside and outside of romantic relationships. Even Bridget Jones’s Diary, where sex is the least explicit, still ends with an assurance to the audience that Mark and Bridget will have a passionate, fulfilling sex life through their kiss (Ritrosky-Winslow 244). Bridget
Jones’s Baby goes further to show Bridget engaging in casual sex with the film’s two different love interests and ultimately as more secure in her own sexuality.1
In Bridget Jones’s Diary, Bridget dresses up in provocative outfits and flirts with her boss in the hopes of forming a romantic relationship with him. When she receives an inappropriate IM from Daniel while at work, she imagines their future wedding date.
Angela McRobbie describes this scene (and the movie’s approach in general) as a moment of fantasy unrestrained by the “censorious politics” of feminism and therefore more enjoyable than a moment where Bridget holds herself back from the traditional desires feminism supposedly tells her not to have (McRobbie 37). Bridget’s wedding fantasy does reveal what possibilities a sexual relationship with Daniel might hold and her desired result. Bridget and Mark never have sex in the movie, but their passionate kiss at the end of the film is intended to imply their sexual compatibility to the audience
(Ritrosky-Winslow 245).
While Bridget in Bridget Jones’s Baby worries about having passed her “sexual sell-by date,” the first hour of the film has her stumbling into the wrong yurt at a music festival and having sex with Jack, after the advice of a friend to “sleep with the first man she meets,” then reconnecting with her ex, Mark. The setup to her tryst with Jack is comical, but once in bed, the audience sees close up shots of the two kissing in soft lighting while Ed Sheeran serenades in the background. The morning-after shot pans !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1!Though perhaps not more informed about contraceptive measures, as her unplanned pregnancy is the cornerstone of the entire film.! 2!So what if Mindy needs her male nurse to grind up her birth control into her coffee for ! ! Umbaugh! 14! ! across condom wrappers on the nightstand to a just-waking up Bridget who, in voiceover, attempts to affirm that she is “an elegant older woman taking men for my own pleasure” after her initial shock at her actions the previous night. Bridget then recounts the encounter to her friend and they gush about the details.
Unlike her scheming from the first movie, wherein Bridget tries to use her sexuality to attract Daniel’s attention and ultimately his affection, here Bridget does not attempt to “wield” her sexuality to any particular effect. In Bridget Jones’s Baby, sex and sexuality can be fun and sensual, though not necessarily indicative of anything more serious, and it is sometimes an expression of greater intimacy and love. The film’s reboot gives Bridget more agency over her sexual life—she is the center of the narrative’s central love triangle, and the one with most of the control, as opposed to being entirely dependent on the whims of her male partner as she was in her relationship with Daniel previously.
Sex is an essential and important part of a relationship in Sex and the City, something which Bridget Jones’s Diary implies, but does not outright declare. The audience is led to assume that because Mark and Bridget share a great kiss at the end of the film, they will have a passionate sex life as well, whereas in Sex and the City, the characters will directly tell the audience what their sex lives with their current partners are like (Ritrosky-Winslow 240). Reoccurring plots revolve around the sexual quirks of the quad’s latest boyfriends as the four women all talk about sex explicitly, and often.
Sex scenes, while frequent, are usually played for laughs. However, sex is also something to be navigated consciously for its potential mitigating effects on romantic relationships. ! ! Umbaugh! 15! ! In “Secret Sex,” Charlotte admonishes Carrie for having sex with Mr. Big on their first date, something she believes guarantees the relationship will not work out.
Despite the name of the show and its raunchy reputation, Sex and the City is about relationships as much, if not more, than it is about sex. Even its most promiscuous character, Samantha, a self-proclaimed non-monogamist, finds herself in three serious multi-episode, exclusive relationships. The characters’ open discussions about their sex lives also serve to reinforce traditional gender roles despite the nontraditionally explicit female environment in which these conversations take place. Trying to figure out what men really want is a frequent fixture. Carrie’s weekly column usually serves as a marker for the specific sexual or relationship topic of that episode, starting with the pilot about
“women who have sex like men,” meaning sans emotion.
The Mindy Project regularly tackles issues of sexual health in the plots of many episodes. The show is, despite its general rom-com persuasion, still a workplace sitcom, after all, and this workplace happens to be the OB-GYN office, Shulman and Associates.
Many of the subjects we see addressed in episodes of Sex and the City at length over witty brunch banter are focal points of The Mindy Project, where birth control, unprotected sex, and STDs are discussed not through innuendo and sometimes misinformation, but directly by the healthcare providers the show portrays. While the educational bent can skew towards the didactic, these plots usually serve to further the audience’s impression of Mindy Lahiri as both a woman confident in her sexuality, and as an authority on the matter.2
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2!So what if Mindy needs her male nurse to grind up her birth control into her coffee for her so she doesn’t forget to take it! She still knows what she’s talking about. ! ! Umbaugh! 16! ! In “An Officer and A Gynecologist,” Mindy argues with a patient’s father, a police officer named Charlie, after prescribing his daughter birth control. The situation provides a setup for the two to date, but it also presents an opportunity for Mindy to declare the importance of birth control as a way for women to take control of their own lives. The episode ends with a heart to heart between Mindy and her patient, where she advises the college student not to rush into sexual experiences, but to take her time.
Mindy’s responsible approach to sexuality demonstrates to Charlie, who overhears the conversation, that she is a viable candidate to date. By taking advantage of the show’s setting to frankly portray reproductive health issues, The Mindy Project reimagines formerly taboo subjects as sources of humor and potential sites for romance.
By addressing sexual topics head-on, all three texts avoid the social pressure to consider female sexuality taboo. Overall, these texts resist the de-eroticization of their female characters, allowing these women to instead explicitly express their own sexuality, on their own terms. In Sex and the City, this is usually done with humor—presenting sexual situations comically as the women discuss last night’s date’s sexual hang-ups over brunch. Bridget Jones’s Diary and Bridget Jones’s Baby only feature the moments leading up to the implied sexual activity, but these scenes are all portrayed as sensual and enjoyable for Bridget, especially in the newest movie, which sees her seeking out sexual satisfaction as a single woman, and finding it. The Mindy Project talks about sexuality the most of these texts, since its setting allows it to address sexual issues that are sometimes personal and sometimes professional. Its protagonist takes a progressive stance on sexuality and the show provides her with a soapbox on which to openly advocate for women’s sexual rights. ! ! Umbaugh! 17! ! Motherhood: Modern Mom-Coms
At some point in each of these texts, the subject of motherhood is raised—or more accurately, one of the characters finds herself accidentally pregnant and must confront the topic head-on. Kelly Oliver distinguishes romantic comedy texts which feature pregnancy and motherhood as a subgenre of “Mom-Coms” in which pregnant bodies are the physical stand-in for the emotional transformation into ideal partners the characters go through (57). Pregnancy becomes the site of this transformation and also generates the text’s romance and comedy (Oliver 56). The romantic conflict in Bridget Jones’s Baby is powered by the question of who is Bridget’s baby’s biological father, while on Sex and the City and The Mindy Project babies ultimately serve to reunite their parents romantically.
Children in Bridget Jones’s Diary serve as just another example of what kind of life is out of reach for Bridget as a single woman. She doesn’t express any particular interest in motherhood, including bombing an interview for a children’s television network by expressing relief at not having any kids (“God, no!”). Still, children are presented as part of the package—boyfriend, then marriage, and then kids—all something
Bridget lusts after, but can’t seem to find. The plot in the latest installment in the franchise, Bridget Jones’s Baby, revolves around motherhood—or at least Bridget’s impending motherhood and the question of whom her co-parent (and presumably boyfriend) will be.
The love triangle between Bridget and her baby’s two potential fathers is a competition wherein the prize is twofold, both Bridget and the baby. Both men coddle her and attend doctor’s appointments as an awkward threesome. Each man tries to prove ! ! Umbaugh! 18! ! himself as the best father and romantic partner, roles that seem to go hand in hand. Mark
Darcy backs away from Bridget and abandons the situation after the other competitor,
Jack, implies that instead of a contraceptive failure, there was no contraceptive at all between him and Bridget. The narrative’s implication is that Bridget will end up romantically with whomever the biological father is, and Mark’s behavior demonstrates that he believes that ending would be best.
Miranda’s pregnancy on Sex and the City is similarly accidental, after she has sex with her ex-boyfriend, Steve. In “Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda,” Miranda finds out she’s pregnant, and she immediately plans to have an abortion. At the clinic, Miranda follows the nurse when her name is called, then the scene cuts to Miranda’s apartment where her friends are caring for her, and we find out that she’s keeping the baby, after all. She never expresses any particular desire to be a mother, but wonders aloud at the clinic, “Is this my baby? I mean, what am I waiting for?” The choice to have a baby seems like the only one to make because the biological clock is ticking.
Though she plans to raise the baby herself, Miranda’s ex-boyfriend Steve is excited at the opportunity to become a father, and, after dating other people, the two get back together at their son’s first birthday party (“One”.) Their baby becomes something that Miranda and Steve have in common, and provides opportunities for them to spend time together, but also pressure that a relationship between the two of them is the right thing to do for their child. The issues that the couple had in their two previous attempts at a relationship somehow disappear once they share a child.
The Mindy Project is the only text discussed here wherein the two characters who get pregnant are in a relationship at the time, however the pregnancy is still accidental (a ! ! Umbaugh! 19! ! rather ironic plot point considering both characters are gynecologists). After their son,
Leo, is born, Mindy and Danny’s relationship takes a turn for the worst. The episodes after Leo’s birth revolve mostly around Mindy and Danny’s relationship problems, namely his control issues. He tries to pressure her into having more children, as well as into becoming a stay-at-home mom and leaving both her current job at their OB-GYN practice and quitting the fertility clinic she’s trying to establish. Unlike Steve and
Miranda’s relationship on Sex and the City, parenthood highlights Mindy and Danny’s issues instead of making them unimportant.
In “When Mindy Met Danny,” we see Mindy silently measuring her son’s crib, as her boyfriend sleeps, then taking the subway alone to her old apartment, where she walks into its now-empty closet and measures its width. The crib will fit. We see Mindy sobbing, then the camera follows her as she removes the “FOR SALE” sign from the window. She returns to bed with Danny at his apartment, and the episode ends, but the audience now knows that it’s over between Mindy and Danny. More importantly, they know Mindy can do this alone. There’s room in her old world for her son, and Danny isn’t invited.
By showing Mindy making the decision to leave her boyfriend and become a single mother, The Mindy Project reinforces her as a strong, independent character, especially since she goes to great lengths to find romantic relationships in many episodes.
Because we as an audience know how much Mindy wants to be in a relationship, her choice to leave the man she loves, the father of her baby, is a powerful one. Their breakup returns Mindy to the single life, which also lets the show return to plots about her dating escapades, but it also reminds the audience this oftentimes-frivolous character ! ! Umbaugh! 20! ! has real conviction. In the show’s final episode, (“It Had To Be You”), Mindy and Danny are reunited. Danny has to clearly state that he won’t try to change Mindy’s decisions and he loans her the money to continue her fertility practice, but their getting back together weakens the show’s presentation of their earlier breakup—as well as making Mindy indebted to Danny financially, an economic imbalance they didn’t have before. Danny tells us that he’s changed, but we don’t see physical evidence of this outside of his loan to
Mindy, so their romantic reunion feels unearned compared to Mindy’s choice in earlier seasons to leave Danny.
All three of these pregnancies were unplanned, and none of these women decided to pursue motherhood or pregnancy, but they all accepted once it happened. Each of these characters were in a secure enough place economically to support themselves and their babies as single mothers. Despite that, none of them sought to become mothers. Because all three of these women were in their thirties or older, their pregnancies were also presented as something they should probably go through with in part because of their age—the idea that they have a dwindling number of chances to become mothers is present in each text. Even Charlotte, in Sex and the City, who’s single-minded desire to become a mother (be it biologically or through adoption) breaks up her first marriage, does not pursue motherhood or pregnancy independently once single. Evidently, becoming a mother requires a man, even if it doesn’t require a romantic relationship.
While abortion is discussed frankly on Sex and the City, Miranda’s ultimate choice not to have one is presented as the right decision. Samantha is unapologetic about the two abortions she’s had, but for Carrie, a past abortion is much more problematic. She hides the truth from her boyfriend when he asks about it, and when, while at the clinic, ! ! Umbaugh! 21! ! Miranda asks Carrie how long it took her to get over her own abortion, over ten years ago,
Carrie replies, “any day now.” Despite the show’s seeming acceptance of abortion, one of its characters is celebrated for deciding against abortion, and another seems to still be processing hers emotionally, so the show altogether skews conservatively into which reproductive choices are presented as best.
In every one of these three texts, the female protagonists end up in committed romantic relationships with their babies’ biological fathers. Whether these couples break- up after giving birth (Mindy and Danny), or aren’t together at all when they get pregnant
(Miranda and Steve, Bridget and Mark), they still reunite by the end of the movie or the series. While parenthood provides a situation for romance, it also provides a biological imperative for these couples to end up together. The romantic union between these sets of biological parents is a triumph in each text, even though each woman pursues other options for romantic partners before this—none of these partners becomes permanent, as if they aren’t a serious enough option to become a husband and step-father. At the end of the day, the message in all three texts is that the biological parents should also be together.
The message that a traditional family, mother and father with their child, is what each of these women want and need (even if they say or act otherwise in the meanwhile), is ultimately conservative. Despite portraying three women who are capable, both economically and temperamentally, of parenting a child single-handedly, the narratives all ensure that they end up with their child’s biological father. All issues between these women and their exes—issues significant enough to break the couples up in the first place (multiple times) are surmounted because they now share a child.
Endings: Happily-Ever-Afters ! ! Umbaugh! 22! ! Tamar Jeffers McDonald delineates several distinct types of romantic comedies, but the two that are relevant here are the radical romantic comedy and the neo-traditional romantic comedy. While some earlier films, those Jeffers McDonald would call radical, such as The Graduate, ended either with the couple apart or the couple together, but not guaranteed to remain that way, the neo-traditional romantic comedy ignores this possibility for the promise of a lifelong relationship as the compulsory ending (Jeffers
McDonald 86). Despite women’s greater economic independence, marriage is still
“relentlessly mythologized as both the greatest achievement and the producer of the greatest happiness” by American culture (Leonard 102). While all of these texts seem to introduce the possibility that their protagonists will end up single, none of them do.
Mindy and Danny are reunited in a parody of rom-com conventions; Bridget and Mark kiss in the falling snow, then at their wedding. The final episode of Sex and the City (“An
American Girl in Paris: Part Deux”) sees two big romantic reunions, between Carrie and
Mr. Big, and between Carrie and her friends. The show flashes to show us each character’s happy ending: Charlotte and Harry walking their dogs; Miranda and Steve feeding their son; Samantha and Smith having sex; and Carrie calling Mr. Big. Despite the show’s emphasis throughout on the importance of female friendship, its vision of happy endings for each of these women still requires a male partner.
Because The Mindy Project and Sex and the City both ran for a number of seasons
(The Mindy Project ran for 117 episodes and Sex and the City for 94), they each really see many different endings, plenty of them happy, all leading up to the finales (and the biggest, happiest ending). Plenty of these other episodes concluded with their protagonists single, but still happy. The third season finale of Sex and the City (“Cock a ! ! Umbaugh! 23! ! Doodle Do”) shows Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha clad in bright colors, laughing and toasting drinks on a rooftop at a barbecue. Carrie, in voiceover, tells us
“Don’t worry, they have a very lovely life,” as the camera pans out to show the city, and the credits roll. Though the voiceover technically refers to some roosters at the animal hospital near Carrie’s house, the show applies this statement to its protagonists as well— and although there are no men in sight, we believe it. It’s a lively, joyful moment to end the season.
Most season finales of The Mindy Project feature some kind of grand, romantic gesture as an ending, from Mindy agreeing to go to Haiti for a year with her pastor boyfriend (“Take Me With You”), to kissing Danny at the Empire State Building
(“Danny and Mindy”), or proposing to her boyfriend, Ben, albeit with mixed feelings (“A
Decent Proposal”). Though the male figure changes, a “happy ending” for The Mindy
Project almost always includes a man. While the premiere of season five (“Decision
2016”) has Mindy turning down both Danny and Jody in favor of being single (and reaffirming her ability to take care of herself and her son without any help), the season still ends with Mindy getting engaged. The Mindy Project goes a long way to show the audience how capable Mindy is of being independent, but it never portrays those realities as a suitable ending. Sure, there are some endings where she is single, but those are never the really “happy” ones. Mindy’s independence is always a stop along the way to another
(hopefully, better) relationship with a man.
Despite all four of these texts generally establishing their female protagonists as independent women, they still require a man before the ending qualifies as truly happy and the credits can roll. Of course, this genre is “romantic” comedy, so without romance, ! ! Umbaugh! 24! ! these texts wouldn’t live up to their name. However, in many of these narratives the ultimate romantic pairing feels more as if it is checking off boxes on a to-do list than stemming from genuine love and compatibility. Carrie and Mr. Big in the Sex and the
City finale find themselves together more because Carrie’s previous relationship with
“The Russian” was unsatisfying than due to any particular merit of their own relationship.
Mindy and Danny reunite despite breaking up over serious irreconcilable differences that are (surprise!) quickly reconciled with a few lines in the series finale.
By prioritizing a romantic reconciliation over all else, these stories sometimes lose the admirable qualities they’ve worked hard to establish. Mindy’s decision to leave
Danny when he failed to support her personal and professional choices showed the audience her character’s strength, as did Carrie’s typical refusal to settle in romantic relationships. The obligatory romantic endings of these stories can hinder real progress in the genre as to what constitutes a rom-com, and whether or not happy endings exists without the big romantic scene at the last moment. As McDonald’s genre divisions delineate, romantic-comedy movies have been made where the couple does not end up together, or where some other kind of ending is still presented as happy, so the necessity to end with the happy heterosexual is enforced by societal pressure. The rules of the genre aren’t absolute, but for these rom-com texts, a romantic heterosexual reunion is the only possibility for a real happy ending.
Conclusion
All four of these texts focus on professional women, each of whom is working at a high level in her respective field. Sex and the City discusses the pressures its characters experience as women in the workplace, and Bridget Jones’s Baby steps up its portrayal of ! ! Umbaugh! 25! ! Bridget at work from a moon-eyed receptionist to a boss and an expert in her field. By taking place at a OB-GYN office, The Mindy Project features many plots about women’s health issues and sexuality, and presents its titular character as a highly-accomplished woman of color. As outlined earlier, many rom-coms choose not to openly discuss sex, but none of these texts take that same stance. On the subject of sexuality, these texts are usually more radical than the average rom-com, and in doing-so, they give their heroines more power and sexual agency. Plots about single motherhood feature into these texts as well, and while storylines about nontraditional parenting can be seen as a positive step for representation outside of the heteronormative ideals of society, these plots still end in the compulsory coupling up of biological parents. Every one of these texts ends with the protagonists in a committed relationship with a man (including all four of Sex and the
City’s heroines), so none of them live up to the possibility of the radical romantic comedy as laid out by McDonald.
In some ways, these texts are progressive and push back against gender norms, but in many ways they reinforce postfeminist points of view that ignore greater societal forces at play and focus instead on female empowerment as an individual choice. I’m not proposing that these texts need to be held to some kind of impossible standard—they’re movies and television programs, not political propaganda but by analyzing them more thoroughly, I hope to promote a more active method of viewership. Rom-coms have been around for a long time, and they’re definitely here to stay, but they can also be better.
They can be frank, like Sex and the City, or talk explicitly about women’s health issues like The Mindy Project. The growth in Bridget’s character from Bridget Jones’s Diary to
Bridget Jones’s Baby also demonstrates that a narrative can always improve. I hope more ! ! Umbaugh! 26! ! rom-coms will follow that lead, and also show me more new and exciting ways to tell better stories about women.
Reflection
I wrote the first draft of what would become my thesis play over a year ago, in early spring 2017. It’s completely different now, barely a trace of the original dialogue remains, but the general idea is the same. Two people in a gas station, and maybe something happened between them. It was originally a twenty-page one act that tripled in length as I decided to make it my thesis play, then shot back down again to around the same length it was originally.
I knew I wanted to write something set in a gas station because I find them interesting. They are simultaneously local and transitive spaces. And gas stations remain timeless to me in a way—either because the florescent lighting blots out all evidence of the outside world or because the branded selection of snack foods never changes. I also wanted to look at what a flirtation might look like in the aftermath of trauma. Lots of stories about trauma of some kind are about recovery, but I wanted to write a story about a sexual assault survivor that isn’t really about her sexual assault at all—how do you tell the guy you like that you have a crush on him in the wake of something like that? And then what happens?
In the first couple drafts of this play, the couple got together at the end. I wrote a couple versions of a romantic kiss while the lights fade-out ending before realizing that wasn’t truthful to this story. Especially as I dove into the academic side of this thesis, looking at different romantic comedy texts, that pressure to find a big romantic ending dissipated for me. I found myself disappointed by how, in some rom-coms I love, despite ! ! Umbaugh! 27! ! going to great lengths to prove their heroines were strong, independent, and happy without a man, these stories all ended the same way—no happy endings without a male partner to provide one. That research made me sure I wanted my thesis play to end differently and gave me something more solid to work towards.
I think it’s hard to create a story that is definitively “feminist,” as that term is so often applied to any story that just happens to be written by or talk about women, but I wanted to avoid some of the postfeminist pitfalls I discuss in my analysis of romantic comedies, like only presenting white characters or ignoring economic realities. Race is not specified for either character, so this could play could be produced with actors of any ethnicity in each role. As for economics, Isaac’s business aspirations are partially motivated financially, and I think the necessity he feels for the gas station improvements to succeed comes through. Both characters do have these motivations with regards to their careers and their futures that are completely outside of however they might feel about one another. There is a flirtation going on, but both of them are trying to find what they need in their own lives, and how they can get there themselves just as much as they are interested in the person they’re with. Both characters also ultimately choose to pursue their own professional ambitions, and to make hard choices in order to follow those dreams. So often other desires are pushed aside in favor of only the romantic ones in rom-coms, and I wanted to write what felt true for these characters, and acknowledge that the romantic path does not always win. Just because the curtain does not close on a kiss, however, does not mean I think the ending is not a happy one. Both characters are true to their desires in the end, and that, to me, is a happy ending. ! ! Umbaugh! 28! ! I tried to write somewhat explicitly with regards to sex, which is a subject often obscured or altogether avoid in some romantic comedies. Here, I felt it was important both because of Audrey’s past trauma that she try to initiate things in order to show that she could take control of her sexuality and make her own sexual decisions. Writing
Audrey as the pursuer was also a way of mitigating the potential issue their age difference presents, and her forwardness helped give her agency in her decision to see
Isaac. Things do not progress that far, in the end, but the characters do talk blatantly about sex, and that was important to me. Audrey is, in part, trying to have a normal sex life again, and I do think that stance is a feminist one—that Audrey is explicit about how sex matters to her.
I spent most of fall semester developing various drafts with my playwriting classmates in our workshop. I also began work on my academic thesis with Dr. Cornish and started to gather sources and decide exactly what about romantic comedies I found interesting and wanted to talk about. I wasn’t sure exactly what my thesis play would be until the beginning of fall semester, and ended up choosing a different idea than one I had begun research for earlier, so I had to work at a bit of an accelerated timeline. Spring semester, I began working with Dr. Schulmf on the academic thesis and Merri Biechler on the thesis play.
I produced a staged reading of my thesis play with the help of the Student
Organization of Undergraduate Playwrights, which I’ve been a member of since freshman year, and on Saturday, March 24th, Hypothetical premiered in the Create Space at Putnam Hall. Olivia Rocco directed Daisy Bentley as Audrey and Nick Wilson as Isaac, and the three of them were able to create something wonderful out of the words I’d been ! ! Umbaugh! 29! ! working on for months. In addition to my thesis play, two one act plays by Beth
Greenman and Luke Woodward were also performed, so we had a full line-up for the evening. The one act plays were written with the theme “Fire & Ice” in mind, a concept drawn from a line in my play. We ended up having to add another row of chairs in the
Create Space to accommodate our audience, and a couple people even had to sit on the floor, which was exciting. Especially since we had some trouble securing a space for the performance and we were worried about having to push the dates or change our plans, so we hadn’t had very much time to advertise and promote the actual event. Overall, I was happy with how the performance went. I think both of my actors were well-suited to their parts and were able to accomplish a lot in such a compressed rehearsal time. Olivia
Rocco was also a wonderful director, who really helped situate the action in the gas station and find the emotional moments.
After the production, I was able to turn my attention wholly over to the thesis itself. I returned to my research, and worked with Dr. Schlumpf to develop my ideas further. I talk about a few specific rom-com texts from a couple different angles, and I enjoyed re-watching these texts after doing some research to engage with them in a new light. I don’t think I ever thought when I first watched Bridget Jones’s Baby over a year ago on an airplane that I would be discussing it in depth in my thesis. In some ways, I think I was also dismissing romantic comedies as frivolous in a way I’ve always resented when I notice it elsewhere. I hope that this thesis has been able to shed some light on the ways in which rom-coms are and are not feminist, but I know that I’ll continue consuming them regardless. ! ! Umbaugh! 30! ! This project has been a really interesting way to delve more deeply into something that I’ve always been fascinated by (and a bit confused by my own fascination). Looking at romantic comedies as an academic subject has been a fruitful way of examining more closely the kinds of media produced for primarily female audiences. As a playwright, working with my rom-com research has also taught me a lot about what I personally value in narratives. The moments in the texts I discuss when their female characters broke against the traditional rom-com mold stand out to me as significant and interesting, and I really treasure those scenes. Conversely, some scenes contained more stereotypical romantic moments that felt unearned when I considered what the characters’ narratives had been previously. It’s this kind of information that I hope to take forward with me in future as I keep writing (and keep watching romantic comedies) so I can try to build a better rom-com each time. ! ! Umbaugh! 31! ! Bibliography
Primary Sources
Bridget Jones’s Baby. Directed by Sharon Maguire, performances by Renée Zellweger,
Colin Firth, and Patrick Dempsey, Universal Pictures, 2016.
Bridget Jones’s Diary. Directed by Sharon Maguire, performances by Renée Zellweger,
Colin Firth, and Hugh Grant, Universal Pictures, 2001.
Sex and the City Episodes
“An American Girl in Paris: Part Deux.” Sex and the City, written by Michael Patrick
King, directed by Timothy Van Patten, HBO, 22 Feb. 2004.
“Belles of the Balls.” Sex and the City, written by Michael Patrick King, directed by
Michael Spiller, HBO, 29 July 2001.
“Cock-a-Doodle-Do.” Sex and the City, written by Michael Patrick King, directed by
Allen Coulter, HBO, 15 Oct. 2000.
“Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda.” Sex and the City, written by Jenny Bicks, directed by
David Frankel. HBO, 5 Aug. 2001.
“One.” Sex and the City, written by Michael Patrick King, directed by David Frankel,
HBO, 14 Sept. 2003.
“Ring a Ding Ding.” Sex and the City, written by Amy Harris, directed by Alan Taylor,
HBO, 27 Jan. 2002.
The Mindy Project Episodes
“An Officer and a Gynecologist.” The Mindy Project, written by Mindy Kaling and Jack
Burditt, directed by David Rogers, Fox, 22 Apr. 2014. ! ! Umbaugh! 32! ! “A Decent Proposal.” The Mindy Project, written by Mindy Kaling and Charlie Grandy,
directed by Michael Spiller, Hulu, 28 Mar. 2017.
“Danny and Mindy.” The Mindy Project, written by Mindy Kaling, directed by Michael
Spiller, Fox, 6 May 2014.
“Decision 2016.” The Mindy Project, written by Mindy Kaling, directed by Michael
Spiller, Hulu, 4 Oct. 2016.
“It Had To Be You.” The Mindy Project, written by Mindy Kaling, directed by Michael
Spiller, Hulu, 14 Nov. 2017.
“Take Me with You.” The Mindy Project, written by Mindy Kaling, directed by Michael
Spiller, Fox, 14 May 2013.
“When Mindy Met Danny.” The Mindy Project, written by Mindy Kaling, directed by
Michael Spiller, Hulu, 8 Dec. 2015.
Secondary Sources
Adriaens, Fien, and Sofie Van Bauwel. “Sex and the City: A Postfeminist Point of View? Or
How Popular Culture Functions as a Channel for Feminist Discourse.” Journal of
Popular Culture, vol. 47, no. 1, Feb. 2014, pp. 174–95.
Brasfield, Rebeeca. “Rereading: Sex and the City: Exposing the Hegemonic Feminist
Narrative.” Journal of Popular Film & Television, vol. 34, no. 3, Fall 2006, pp. 130–39.
Levine, Elana. Cupcakes, Pinterest, and Ladyporn: Feminized Popular Culture in the Early
Twenty-First Century. University of Illinois Press, 2015.
McDonald, Tamar Jeffers. Romantic Comedy: Boy Meets Girl Meets Genre. WallFlower
Press, 2012. ! ! Umbaugh! 33! ! McRobbie, Angela. “Postfeminism and Popular Culture: Bridget Jones and the New Gender
Regime.” Interrogating Postfeminism: Gender and the Politics of Popular Culture, edited
by Yvonne Tasker and Diane Negra, Duke University Press, 2007, pp. 27—39.
Oliver, Kelly. “Momcom as Romcom: Pregnancy as a Vehicle for Romance.” Knock Me Up,
Knock Me Down: Images of Pregnancy in Hollywood Films, Columbia University Press,
2012, pp. 56–80. EBSCOhost, doi:10.7312/columbia/9780231161091.003.0003.
Ritrosky-Winslow, Madelyn. “Colin & Renée & Bridget: The Intertextual Crowd.” Quarterly
Review of Film and Video, vol. 23, no. 3, May 2006, pp. 237–56.
Schreiber, Michele. American Postfeminist Cinema: Women, Romance and Contemporary
Culture. Edinburgh University Press, 2014. JSTOR,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt9qdqwx.
Tasker, Yvonne, and Diane Negra. “Introduction: Feminist Politics and Postfeminist Culture.”
Interrogating Postfeminism: Gender and the Politics of Popular Culture, Duke
University Press, 2007.
Whelehan, Imelda. Overloaded!: Popular Culture and the Future of Feminism. London!:
Women’s Press, 2000. Hypothetical By Melanie Umbaugh Cast of Characters Audrey: 19, female. Isaac: 30, male.
Scene
A gas station somewhere in rural America.
Time
Now. ACT I Scene 1 A small gas station with a few aisles of snack food, coolers of beer and water bottles, and several large moving boxes almost blocking the entrance. ISAAC is on the floor, assembling a small cafe table. There’s an instruction booklet laid out in front of him and some tools. AUDREY enters. AUDREY Hello?
ISAAC Down here. I can check you out whenever you’re ready. AUDREY No, I--Isaac, it’s me.
ISAAC Shit--I mean, hi, sorry. AUDREY What a greeting.
ISAAC Sorry, I didn’t mean anything, I’m just surprised to see you here. AUDREY I, um... ISAAC Audrey? AUDREY Sorry, I just-- ISAAC Here, sit down.
He pulls the stool out from behind the counter and sets it down for Audrey. She sits down, still hyperventilating. AUDREY Um, I was at the library... 2.
ISAAC It’s okay, take your time. Isaac grabs a bottle of water from one of the back fridges and hands it to Audrey. She opens it and takes a drink, catching her breath.
ISAAC Can I get you something else? AUDREY No, that’s okay. ISAAC So, what’s wrong? AUDREY I was at the library, and I--Well, I saw his mom. ISAAC Who? AUDREY His--Buddy’s-- ISAAC Oh. Shit. AUDREY Yeah. ISAAC Did she... did she say something to you? AUDREY No, she just--the way she looked at me-- ISAAC She was probably just surprised. AUDREY I was about to wave at her or smile or something--it was just instinct, you know? But then she saw me, and she just stared at me and I ran out. ISAAC She didn’t do anything? AUDREY No, she just looked at me like--like I was the worst thing in the world. The worst person, like how I dare I step foot there. 3.
ISAAC That bad? AUDREY I don’t know. It felt that bad.
ISAAC She probably just didn’t know how to react around you. AUDREY Maybe. But--she knows me, you know? She’s known me my whole life, and she was always so sweet and so happy to see me and it was just so clear that she hated me. And, maybe I’m just super naïve, but I guess I thought, at least on some level, she’d get it, you know? ISAAC Get... what? AUDREY She’s a woman, too, isn’t she? I know that’s dumb, but--
ISAAC It’s not. AUDREY I thought maybe we were both blindsided, but I don’t think that’s true anymore. There were signs, you know, he was never really a good guy, not like everybody thinks he is-- ISAAC I know.
AUDREY And she’s not stupid. As much as I saw when we were dating, I’m sure she saw more. ISAAC Maybe she did. AUDREY Yeah, and she still blames me. ISAAC You don’t know that for sure. AUDREY Maybe if it were me, I’d blame the girl, too, but-- 4.
ISAAC You’re not like her. AUDREY I’ve never been in her position.
ISAAC Maybe she’s never been in yours. AUDREY Yeah, but she probably has been, right? (Beat.) At some point in her life, some man probably tried something. And he was somebody’s son, too. ISAAC You’re giving her a lot of credit.
AUDREY Maybe I’m just being sentimental, but she was always so sweet, before--Well, she can think it’s my fault, I can’t stop her. I know better. Buddy knew what he was doing--what he tried to do--and he’s the one-- I’m sorry, is this bothering you, are you-- ISAAC Jesus, Audrey, it’s not about me. AUDREY You look like you’re about to cry. ISAAC Well, it’s not my favorite story. AUDREY I know we’ve never really talked about that night, but, um, it would have been worse if you hadn’t been there. ISAAC Anybody would have done the same.
AUDREY Yeah, maybe, and maybe it’s just a coincidence, but not everybody just intervenes when they hear some couple fighting in a parking lot, and it would’ve been so much worse and you vouched for me with Sheriff Rodgers and you didn’t leave my side that night because I asked you not to and I was just a girl that you kind of knew, and I know you want me not to say that, but I can’t help it. 5.
ISAAC You don’t have to say anything. I was just the one that was around. AUDREY Thanks. ISAAC Fuck. AUDREY It’s okay. ISAAC It’s not okay. AUDREY Okay, yeah, no, it’s not. But I am, right? I’m here, I’m alright. ISAAC Yeah?
AUDREY Yeah. ISAAC So, here you are.
AUDREY Hey, I mean, where else would I go to get gas? ISAAC (Standing up) Oh, right, of course, what pump?
AUDREY I actually, I mean I don’t need gas, I just came because, you know.
ISAAC Yeah. You haven’t been in for a while, I thought you went back to school? AUDREY No, I’m taking some time off. I’ve just been, um, at home. Haven’t really needed gas cause I haven’t really gone anywhere. ISAAC It’s been weeks, you’ve just been, what at your mom’s? 6.
AUDREY Yeah, I mean, basically. (Beat.) Sorry, is that weird? I wasn’t sure where else to go. ISAAC No, that’s, yeah, that’s fine. Do you mind if I keep working, though?
AUDREY Yes, of course, I’m sorry to interrupt-- ISAAC You can stay.
AUDREY Really? ISAAC Yeah, sure.
AUDREY Just for a little bit. ISAAC I get it.
Isaac kneels back on the floor and resumes looking through the manual. ISAAC You can sit down, if you want.
He gestures towards a chair. Audrey sits. AUDREY Has this always been here and I just never noticed?
ISAAC No, I built that today. AUDREY You built it?
ISAAC Don’t sound so impressed, I just screwed the legs on. AUDREY Still. I didn’t know you were so handy.
ISAAC It took me almost an hour and I practically sliced my palm open with the little plastic wrench. 7.
AUDREY Oh my god, are you okay? ISAAC Yeah, it’s fine. Just slowing me down a bit.
AUDREY Wait, is this all furniture? ISAAC Yup. Waiting to be constructed by my very own hands.
AUDREY Don’t they offer assembly? ISAAC Not in my price range. I can get it done.
AUDREY Is there a rush? ISAAC It’s gotta be done by tomorrow morning.
AUDREY What for? You don’t really need chairs to run a gas station. ISAAC You know how some gas stations are attached to like, a Pizza Hut or something? AUDREY Sure.
ISAAC Well, we’re too small for a Pizza Hut, but this town could still use someplace, you know? AUDREY You’re opening a restaurant? ISAAC Not a restaurant, no. I’m expanding outside. AUDREY Like an extension? ISAAC Like a bunch of tables and chairs. Al fresco dining. Or al fresco gas station food and coffee, but still. Bought an espresso machine. And as soon as I figure out how to use it, we can start serving real coffee drinks 8.
ISAAC and people can sit out and have a cappuccino. After I get this all set up, and convince Maggie Westbrook to write about us, it’ll be a nice place, I think.
AUDREY Maggie Westbrook? ISAAC You don’t know her work? The St. Charles Inquirer?
AUDREY Her name does sound familiar. Oh my god, she wrote my grandfather’s obituary! ISAAC She also writes the lifestyle section. It’s a small paper. AUDREY And you want her to write about the gas station?
ISAAC The area’s first soon-to-be gas station and cafe. AUDREY That’s really cool.
ISAAC It will be if I can get it done in time for her monthly stop in town. AUDREY When’s that? ISAAC Tomorrow morning. AUDREY And how much do you have left to set up? ISAAC Just almost everything. Besides that chair you’re sitting in.
AUDREY I can help, if you want! ISAAC You don’t have to do that. Besides, if I keep going at the pace I’m going, I’ll be done... uh-- 9.
AUDREY Really, it’s no bother. ISAAC You must have better things to be doing.
AUDREY I really don’t. ISAAC Alright, do you know how to use a screwdriver?
AUDREY In theory. ISAAC Why don’t you read me the instructions?
AUDREY That I can do. kasdjglfas;hfahiofa SKHDFAOaf
stuff They finish assembling the table and turn it upright. Isaac leans on it to test it. ISAAC Not bad, right? AUDREY Looks great. ISAAC And it only took, jesus, an hour and a half? AUDREY But it looks great.
ISAAC I’m never gonna finish this. AUDREY You will, I’m sure of it!
ISAAC Yeah, we’ll see. You mind grabbing me a beer? Just from that fridge back there. AUDREY Sure. Do you mind if I-- 10.
ISAAC Help yourself. Wait, no, you’re what eighteen?
AUDREY I’m nineteen. ISAAC Help yourself to one of our many lovely non-alcoholic options.
AUDREY Come on, I helped. ISAAC An Arizona Iced Tea, on the house.
AUDREY So, ten years ago, you wouldn’t’ve asked for a beer? ISAAC Ten years ago I was working morning shifts at an Arizona biker bar, so didn’t really have to ask. AUDREY You worked at a biker bar? ISAAC Yeah, during my whole rebellious youth-in-revolt phase. AUDREY Is that a thing? ISAAC I thought it was when I was nineteen, so I dropped out of college, moved into my car, tried to do the Kerouac kinda thing. AUDREY You’re a writer? ISAAC No, turns out my "On the Road" phase shit, much like On the Road itself pretty much sucks. But it was a cool time in my life. I saw a lot of the country, met a lot of interesting people, you know, it was worth it. AUDREY So why aren’t you still out there? ISAAC Well, living out of your car is one thing when you’re nineteen, but, I mean, I’m thirty, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that shit like walls and indoor plumbing are pretty essential for me. 11.
AUDREY You must miss it. ISAAC Sure, it was a great time. But, it’s easy to be nostalgic about it now.
AUDREY Are you nostalgic a lot? I mean, would you say you’re a nostalgic person by nature?
ISAAC Is that a thing? AUDREY I don’t know, I just think I am.
ISAAC What do you have to be nostalgic about? AUDREY I don’t know, everything? Life before this summer, before Buddy. College, or last summer, hanging out with my friends. It all feels really far away now. ISAAC You can go back to college. AUDREY Yeah, but it wouldn’t be the same. ISAAC I guess not. That’s okay, though, isn’t it? AUDREY Well, a year ago I was happy to be going to college only a couple hours away from home with a bunch of my high school friends, and I could study education, and I’d still be pretty near my boyfriend, and I thought all of that was what I wanted, and it would be just this exciting time. And, it was, and I mean, I did want all of that, but it’s all different now. ISAAC Well, yeah, the boyfriend--
AUDREY Yes, the boyfriend. But also my friends then aren’t my friends now, and I’m not sure I want to be there anymore or here, for that matter, or anywhere near here. 12.
ISAAC And education? AUDREY I still like it.
ISAAC You wanna teach? AUDREY I wanted to be a guidance counselor?
ISAAC Yeah? That’s so cool. AUDREY That’s cool?
ISAAC Yeah. Kids are terrible, they could use some guidance. AUDREY Not sure I’m in a place to guide anymore.
ISAAC That could change. AUDREY I hope it does. But for right now, that’s not gonna work. (Beat) Can I ask you a hypothetical? ISAAC Uh, alright.
AUDREY Would you rather be burned alive or freeze to death? ISAAC What? AUDREY I mean, like if you had to choose? ISAAC Is that a situation you expect to find yourself in? AUDREY Of course not. 13.
ISAAC I’d rather burn.
AUDREY You would? ISAAC No, I’d rather not die horribly.
AUDREY Well, most people say freeze. ISAAC Are there published statistics or something?
AUDREY No, but freezing is just, kind of drifting off, right? But being burned alive--your entire body would be in pain up until the very end. ISAAC Yeah, but sensation’s kind of all we have isn’t it? If you aren’t feeling anything, you aren’t really living. If all I have left are those few moments I would wanna feel them before I don’t exist at all anymore. AUDREY That’s the braver choice, isn’t it? ISAAC It’s just a hypothetical.
AUDREY I know, but you have a point. I would have said freezing before, but I don’t wanna just be numb to everything. ISAAC Good thing it’s not a real situation. AUDREY Sure, I know, but still. ISAAC You’re not numb, Audrey. You’re alive. AUDREY Yeah. ISAAC If you think what you need is to go live out in the desert waiting tables to get by or whatever, you can do that. You have your whole life ahead of you to... not freeze to death. 14.
AUDREY Are you sure you’d pick burning?
ISAAC I don’t know. AUDREY Your whole rebellious phase, or whatever, why are you so sure you’d never do anything like that again?
ISAAC I made a commitment to be here, to do this. AUDREY Yeah, but that doesn’t mean you have to stand behind a gas station counter for the rest of your life. ISAAC Excuse me? AUDREY How do you know you haven’t already chosen? How do you know you’re not already freezing to death? Just letting yourself drift off and before you even know it-- Isaac reaches out and kisses Audrey.
ISAAC Sorry, I shouldn’t have-- Audrey kisses him again.
AUDREY I was hoping you would do that. ISAAC You were?
AUDREY Well, yeah... They kiss again. After a few moments... ISAAC I’m sorry, I really am, but I really have to get this done tonight. AUDREY Right, I shouldn’t have--
ISAAC No, I’m not trying to--I really can’t right now. What are you doing tomorrow? Once this is done, we can celebrate--or drown our sorrows, either way-- 15.
AUDREY I can’t tomorrow. ISAAC Audrey--
AUDREY No, it’s just, I’m leaving tomorrow. ISAAC Leaving?
AUDREY Yeah, there’s this program, it’s like a charity for children’s literacy, so we’re going to like impoverished parts of the country to work with kids. If I can’t guide or study right now, I can at least do something, you know? ISAAC Why didn’t you say something? AUDREY We were having a good time! And I just thought... maybe, if I came here-- ISAAC You thought what?
AUDREY I just... before I left, I needed to make sure I was still okay, that I could still-- ISAAC Are you saying you came here to fuck me to prove to yourself you still could? AUDREY No, absolutely not, just, I mean, kind of, but--
ISAAC Jesus, Audrey, you can’t use people like that! AUDREY I’m not using you, I just wanted--I wanted to know I could still be with somebody if I wanted to--
ISAAC You can’t use me to prove that you’re okay. It doesn’t work like that. 16.
AUDREY It’s not like I asked you to do some terrible thing--I thought you’d want to, you’d enjoy it-- ISAAC I did--I mean, I would have, but I can’t be the guy for you. I don’t want to be that guy. AUDREY Well, I wanted you to be. Not just because of all that.
ISAAC "Not just," that’s great, that makes it totally fine! AUDREY Yeah, not just! I like you, you know, and I wanted to--I wanted you, I still do.
ISAAC But not enough, not that much, just to make you feel okay about yourself before you head on to bigger and better things.
AUDREY I have to get out of here, you must see that. You, of all people, should understand that. ISAAC I do. And I don’t blame you for leaving, you should go. But I don’t wanna be a part of your to-do list before leaving. AUDREY You make it sound so clinical.
ISAAC Isn’t it? AUDREY No, of course not!
ISAAC Don’t say of course not, like it’s so obvious. AUDREY I can say "of course not" if I want to say of course not. ISAAC Yeah, of course you can, but, jesus, I’m not gonna keep doing this. I have work to do. 17.
AUDREY So you want me to leave? ISAAC I can’t keep having this conversation with you.
AUDREY Is that your idea of a goodbye? ISAAC It’ll have to suffice.
AUDREY Okay, so I should have been more understanding, I’m sorry for not being honest. But, it’s my last night here for who knows how long and I don’t think it’s so terrible that I wanted to spend it with you. Even without sex, I still would’ve wanted to be here tonight. Okay? Does that make me a totally terrible person? ISAAC You’re not a totally terrible person.
AUDREY Thanks. (Beat.) Look, I just, I wasn’t even gonna go tomorrow, I thought I wasn’t ready and I didn’t know how I could do something like that. I mean, in theory, sure, but actually getting up and leaving and not knowing when I’m coming back--that terrified me. And then I saw Buddy’s mom today, and I guess I finally realized if I stayed here, it would always be like that.
ISAAC It could get better. AUDREY Maybe. But it’ll always be there. No one is just going to up and forget that I’m the girl who got Buddy Stevens arrested. ISAAC I guess not.
AUDREY I really did want to see you before I left. ISAAC Yeah, you said that. 18.
AUDREY I needed to know I could still be a real girl again, you know? ISAAC You never stopped being a real girl. AUDREY I haven’t felt real in a long time, not until tonight. ISAAC Okay, well I’m glad about that part. The rest of it... I’m gonna forget. AUDREY I don’t want you to forget it.
ISAAC No, I’m gonna forget about it, and I’m gonna do you a favor, and I’m gonna remember you fondly. AUDREY You don’t have to do that.
ISAAC I do care about you, Audrey. But, come on. AUDREY Yeah, okay.
Isaac goes back to the still-mostly-disassembled furniture. AUDREY (Cont.) So, I’ll leave you to your... building. ISAAC Thanks.
AUDREY Are you gonna get it done in time? ISAAC We’ll find out.
AUDREY Good luck. ISAAC Thanks. And, you, too. With the charity thing. I’m glad you’re getting out there. 19.
AUDREY Me too. About time. A moment. AUDREY (Beat.) Hey, you know what? I still don’t have anywhere to be. Let me help you finish up. ISAAC What, really? AUDREY Yeah, I said I would help, didn’t I? ISAAC You did. AUDREY Is it super awkward now? ISAAC Only because you had to say it out loud. AUDREY Couldn’t help it. ISAAC Alright. Let’s do it. AUDREY Yeah? ISAAC Yeah. They smile at each other. Audrey joins Isaac. Lights down.