Love for Jerry McGuire (1996)

Love is commonly demonstrated in motion pictures as pertaining to two persons, and in most cases between  man and woman, in which gender roles govern the romantic structure of the plot. In the case of Jerry McGuire (1996), for Jerry (Tom Cruise), apart from his career, love is also considered a key facet that must be secured before claiming genuine happiness, concluding that even if with a successful career, a man is incomplete without a love and partner at hand. In this picture, it seems, a romantic union can not be fulfilled if Jerry should be coupled with a wrong stereotype: Avery Bishop (Kelly Preston). While a union is fulfilled when Jerry is paired with right stereotype: Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellweger). As analyzed by Diana Meehan, who identifies a list of common stereotypes categorizing women in U.S. television, Jerry is unable to achieve true companionship with Avery, who effortlessly fits in one of Meehan's identified stereotypes, The Bitch or The Harpy. Consequently, Jerry eventually is able to establish a successful relationship with Dorothy Boyd, who surrenders to Meehan's The good wife stereotype (Barker, 307). 

Avery Bishop is considered The Bitch  as she delivers an aggressive, single, sexually-driven, career-oriented role who might be perceived as an equal to Jerry. It seems a woman who is strong, independent, and sexually liberating and an equal to her male counterpart, will fail to establish a successful relationship with him. Dorothy Boyd, however, stands opposite  to all things that Avery Bishop encompasses; she is a single young mother with a modest and compliant personality, who isn't career driven, and presented as the passive supportive wife to Jerry and all his career oriented needs. Although Jerry's story eventually leads to a flourishing career, he admits that he is unable to celebrate his achievement without Dorothy, and she is unable to be happy without him; he needs a career and a supportive  woman, while Dorothy needs Jerry to fulfill her life. As such Jerry and Dorothy have achieved their objectives and have established roles needed for an everlasting relationship. Typical of many romantic relationships in pictures, the woman usually assumes the modest and supportive role to her strong, career-ambitious male counterpart. As endearing the love between Jerry and Dorothy is, and delivers heart-felt entertainment value, it sadly encourages stereotypical roles for women as the cooperative opposite to the aspiring male character. 

Cited Works

Barker, Chris, and Paul Willis. Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles [u.a.: SAGE, 2008. Print. 

Jerry Maguire. Dir. Cameron Crowe. 1996.