In romantic comedies, female characters fall over. They fall over a lot.

It’s something of a Hollywood trope: a woman starts out strong and independent, then (literally) topples off her pedestal and humiliates herself in a spectacular and symbolic revelation of her own innate helplessness. Shortly afterwards, when our heroine is suitably humbled, a man will save her, they will live happily ever after, and the picture will fade to credits.

It’s strangely akin to the scene in so many horror movies where a soon-to-be victim tries to flee from a predator through dark, misty woods, then takes an undignified but inevitable tumble into the mud. Yet in romantic comedies, it’s love that awaits our heroine, not death.

Why should this be the mass-marketed template for dating? To be desired – or even tolerated – by a man, non-fictional women shouldn’t have to be demeaned beforehand, their high statuses destroyed, some unseen narrative crushing them into a state of submission worthy of a man’s love. And thankfully, they’re not. No healthy relationship starts out like that (aside from the overtly non-abusive 24/7 BDSM kinds, of course, but that’s another story).

So why do so many romantic comedies follow this exact pattern? Just how much has this kind of crap influenced how women grow up believing they should behave, in the hope of being loved? Why has this become a standard plot device, why are films containing this generic storyline so regularly commissioned, and why are women the majority consumers of this sort of thinly-veiled misogyny?

The last word comes from The New Yorker, on screenwriting for female characters: “Funny women must not only be gorgeous; they must fall down and then sob, knowing it’s all their fault.”

Quite. Just take a look at a few examples: