I interviewed two freshmen who lived next to my dorm. I only met them on the hallway from time to time, thus I did not have the opportunity to chat with them further. It was so nervous to knock on their door to get the permission to interview them. Fortunately, they were willing to help me complete the survey and shared their opinions on media portrayal of sex, love and romance.
The first person I interviewed was called Lesley Koo, which is a Korean majoring in graphic design. I asked her to fill out the survey first, then I asked her some questions based on the survey she completed. According to her results of the Dr. FUN’s Love Quiz, she does not agree with most of the arguments.
As you can see above, the respondent disagrees with the statement because she thinks not only partners, but everyone can be separated when one person does not want to make commitment and contribution to another person. She also does not believe in “love at first sight.” In her opinion, she can “like” someone at the first glance, but it is difficult for her to “love” at the first sight because she does not have a better understanding of that person. For the third question, she does not think her soul mate needs to know what she is thinking or feeling without telling. The reason that she disagrees with this statement is that she does not think she could know what she is thinking or feeling as well. She agrees with the forth statement without thinking a second, showing that she is still romantic when meeting the right partner. Besides, she does not agree that the man should not be shorter, weaker, younger, poorer, or less successful than the woman since she thinks this statement is too stereotype. The statement that bickering and fighting a lot mean that a man and a woman love each other passionately is false as well but it is interesting that she recognizes this as a way to find whether they are suitable for each other. Lastly, she highlighted a point that she does not believe that the right mate “completes you”. Instead, she believes that you completes “yourself” and make your dream come true because you cannot expect your partner to fulfill you.
Her desired qualities for her romantic mate are honest, steady, smart, principle and optimistic, in which I think those qualities meet her beliefs from the quiz. Those responses have shown that she is a very mature person when considering her partner. After interviewing with her, I found that her beliefs meet her understanding of the sex, love an romance. The movie “One Day” especially shapes her value of love. She realized that sometimes we do not really know who we really love because we focus on “finding the one” too much that we tend to ignore “the one” is actually around us. Other media such as “The Proposal” also influences her choice. Although she does not think the media portrayal of sax, love and romance are realistic, she believes that the main idea behind the media can be influential.
The second respondent is an American girl called Alena. Although Alena and Lesley are roommate, her perspective is much different from Lesley. In the Dr. FUN’s Love Quiz, she believes that most of the statements are true. The statement she does not agree with is that to attract and keep a man, a woman should look like a model or a centerfold. This respondent thinks that men should accept women for who they are. Furthermore, she also denied the statement that the love of a good and faithful true woman can change a man from a “breast” into a “prince.” She believes that it is difficult to change a person as they are born that way. The last one that the respondent disagrees is the statement “in real life, actors and actresses are often very much like the romantic characters they portray.” In her opinion, real lives are more complicated than in the movie. Therefore, she does not think the media portrayal of sex, love and romance are realistic.
Her desired qualities in romantic mate are positive, thoughtful, generous, outgoing, fun, respectful. In addition to generous and outgoing, other qualities are not negotiable. In the social media, those qualities are usually portrayed for male protagonist. In the interview, I found that the examples she mentioned about the influence of the media actually explained the reasons that she made those choices on desired qualities as well as the quiz. She took the Last Song, Pretty Women and the Bachelor as her examples, especially in the movie “Last Song”, it not only illustrates why the respondent chose thoughtful, positive and such those qualities for her romantic mate, but also explains her belief in “love at first sight” and “nothing can separate you and your partner if your partner is cosmically predestined.”
Based on the quiz she completed and the interview, I feel like she is a more romantic person than the first respondent. She fully believes in love and tends to place her love first. Therefore, she can commit everything into love, regardless of the differences in value and challenges from the external environment.
Overall, I found that they have completely different opinions on love and romance. It is interesting to know that their responses on the Dr. FUN’s Love Quiz are entirely different. The results of the first respondent are mostly false, where as the results of the second respondent only have three answers to be false. Those represent the different level that is influenced by various mass media, which therefore is interesting to find out the differences in their thoughts towards love.