Theres Always A Consequence: A Content Analysis of

How the Media Portrays Extra-Marital Affairs

Anna Cadriel
SOCI 4309 Qualitative Research Methods
Dr. Rachel Romero

INTRODUCTION
Think about the last time you saw a romantic movie. If you were in a relationship
or not, did you secretly want your significant other to stand outside your house, in the
rain, with flowers, and proclaiming their love for you? What about when movies and
shows do not portray the happily ever after? In this study I will be analyzing how extra
marital affairs are portrayed in recent popular movies and what that could mean for us as
the viewer.
Movies have been the main form of entertainment for years, and it is an easy way
to spread the point of views of the producers, writers and sometimes even of society. The
media influences a lot of our thoughts on what relationships are supposed to be like and
how your significant other is supposed to treat you. Women have always been selfconscious about their sexuality whether they should be considered a prude or a
promiscuous woman and I think it is crucial that we see the hidden messages in such
media.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The topic for my research project is the portrayal of extramarital affairs in cinema,
focusing on the women as the adulterer. There has been a recent trend where movies have
been interpreting what it is like to be a woman who carries out a relationship outside her
own marriage. The literature could agree that mass media has a large influence in society
(Bangura, 2012; Benuto, Haboush, and Warren, 2011; Fenton and Finlay, 2015; Gilpatric
2010; Welsh, 2010), portrays women as the damsel in distress or over-sexualizes her if
in an action film (Fenton and Finlay, 2015; Welsh 2010), and that extra marital affairs are
somewhat intricate to understand when you are on the outside perspective (Jenfreau,

Jurich, and Mong, 2014). The literature did not mention dramas or films that portray
extramarital affairs and the consequences these subliminal messages can have on women.
Subliminal Messages
Many of the things that tend to influence our knowledge have come from forms of
mass media (Bangura, 2012; Benuto, Haboush, and Warren, 2011; Fenton and Finlay,
2015; Gilpatric 2010; Welsh, 2010). When we watch certain films, we usually disregard
the subliminal messages. Fenton and Finlay (2015) discussed how womens individual
sexuality in movies such as Basic Instinct, Body of Evidence, and Disclosure, reinforces
the heteronormative and hegemonic ideals in society. The viewer of such movies thinks
that the women is strong and independent, but at the same time realizes that the character
is sexy and has a strong sexual presence. Welsh (2010) focused on the use of fear in
thriller movies as a way of punishing these female characters for their explicit sexuality.
Bangura (2012) researched how the news portrayed African-American men and how that
was link to this sense of fear we have towards them. He concluded that African-American
men are seen as the common criminal of society but most of the truth behind what
news sources show is left out (Bangura 2012). Banguras research can really help when
analyzing the thriller aspect of the movies I will be analyzing. Benuto, Haboush, and
Warren (2011) conducted a quantitative research on how North American media has a
negative affect on adults as well as teens or young adults. We forget to include adults in
most of the research that regards self-esteem and, realize how their self-esteem is affected
by the media (Benuto, Haboush, and Warren 2011). Gilpatric (2010) questions if female
lead roles like Sarah Connor or Lara Croft, actually break down gender barriers or only
reinforce the hegemonic society.

Sex Appeal
All this literature tends to focus on the individual person or female thriller leads,
but none of them focus on the mechanics of relationships between the female and male
characters as to marriage. In the movies that I will be studying, the female character that
is being unfaithful to her husband tends to reach out for a guy that is more thrilling than
her husband. I found it interesting that the other man always turned out to be abusive or
psychotic. Welsh (2010) discovered a correlation between the girls who were more
promiscuous in the thriller movies that he was analyzing and how prone to being killed
they were. The more promiscuous the female character, the more likely she was going to
be killed by the villain, than her virgin costar.
Damsel in Distress
Another common theme in the literature was the idea that female leads are either
the supporter to their male counterpart, the one needing saving, or the sex symbol (Fenton
and Finlay, 2015; Gilpatric 2010; Welsh, 2010;) Even though the women they studied in
their films were portrayed as powerful and independent, the truth came down to the fact
that they still depended on their male leads (Fenton and Finlay 2015). Gilpatric (2010)
pointed out that the female character has a feminine character by showing emotion and
being nurturing. Welsh (2010) also supported the idea of the damsel in distress by
concluding that the female character in slasher films who were considered nice girls
or less promiscuous, were fought over by the villains or protected by the male characters.
This victimization of female characters and also violent actions towards more
promiscuous females can leave a negative connotation towards women in general (Welsh
2010).

Major contributions from the literature will help me analyze the films when
looking at themes. The fact that the films tend to punish the women in slasher films or
action films, really support the idea that the same is happening when looking at the wives
who are being unfaithful in these films. The literature also helped to understand the extent
of the effect that media has on society. The gap in the literature is the focus on women in
action and horror films and not in dramas, and also their race and marital status. My study
will help fill in this gap and contribute to these studies as well.
DATA AND METHODS
To analyze how films portray extra-marital affairs and how that can affect us as
viewers, this study used unobtrusive methods. I conducted a content analysis of the
movies Unfaithful (2002), Chloe (2009), Temptation (2013), and Addicted (2014). I also
analyzed films such as Fatal Attraction (1987) and Good Deeds (2012) where the movie
focuses on the male lead carrying out the affair, which will be helpful to compare to the
films in which the female lead carries out the affair. One other particular reason I
selected Good Deeds and Temptation was for the fact that they are both written and
produced by Tyler Perry and his film production company. Having the opportunity to
compare these movies will make it interesting for the study and its findings. I chose to
conduct a content analysis because of the fact that I will be watching these movies and
paying attention to particular patterns when looking at how the wife and husband
characters evolve, along with their relationship. I also chose to do a content analysis due
to the time restriction for the study, which was only a semester. Any other method
required more time than a semester, a review board, and monetary funds, along with other
requirements.

I will be analyzing these movies since they are popular films among viewers, and
they clearly depict marriages with infidelity issues. The film industry has been around for
more than a century, and has been a main form of entertainment that reaches a huge range
of audiences like families, couples, kids, elders, straight, gay, and many races and
ethnicities. The movies we watch influence our thoughts and values and we can see this
when we hear little girls hoping to be like Ariel from the Little Mermaid, adults wanting
their significant others to be like Ryan Gosling from The Notebook, and women wanting
to be successful like Sandra Bullock in The Proposal but also have their Ryan Reynolds
to be their partner.
I began to watch the movies in chronologic order from oldest to most recent so
that in a way it would be random and I would have some structure as to what movies I
would watch after without bias. As I watched the movies, I would write down turn of
events and plot twists, along with body language within the main characters, costume
designs, and sexual activity. Noticing there was a general order as to how the plot of the
movies were presented, I then divided each movie into 4 parts: how the couple functions
before the affair, what triggers the affair, what happens during the affair, and what
happens after the affair. The purpose of dividing the movies like this was to help me
categorize major events that happen in each section, making it easier to look at themes
within these events and to compare and contrast them to the other movies I was
analyzing. Once I had the themes or analytical codes, I could use the events within the
four parts as support.
DATA ANALYSIS

This study aims to understand how extra marital affairs are portrayed in popular
movies and what that could mean for us as the viewer. To answer this question I analyzed
six popular films that depicted marriages with partners who engaged in extra-marital
affairs. The movies were Unfaithful (2002), Chloe (2009), Temptation (2013), Addicted
(2014), Fatal Attraction (1987), and Good Deeds (2012).
Once the data was collected and analyzed, there were three main themes. (1) The
husbands in the movies were perfect; (2) The women were the ones carrying out the
affairs; (3) There are consequences for women who cheat on their husbands. These
themes are the answer to the purpose of this study, which is to explore how extra-marital
affairs are portrayed in media. I will discuss these themes through examples from the
movies and expose how that affects us as viewers.
The Perfect Husband
All the male characters playing husbands or fiancs in these movies were perfect
husbands. Most of the male characters were middle-aged, successful careers, caring
fathers, and loving fathers. In Unfaithful, Chloe, Temptation, Fatal Attraction and
Addicted, all male characters very successful and were able to balance their careers with
their responsibilities as the head of the household which only reflects our patriarchal
society. In the film Addicted, the lead male character, Jason, not only has his successful
career, but also spends more time with his children than his wife Zoe does. Jason is also
depicted as the man who loves his woman unconditionally both spiritually and physically.
The sex scenes in Addicted were very explicit and led to believe that Jason was not just in
it for the sexual gratification, but as a form of loving his wife, Zoe. The same went for the

movies Temptation, Unfaithful and Good Deeds, these partners were all very in love with
their wives and made the audience feel compassion towards them.
In Fatal Attraction, even though the husband, Dan, is the one that carries out the
affair, yet he is portrayed as the a loving and caring husband and subliminally blames the
girl, Alex, for being clingy and psychotic. One quickly forgets that Dan cheated on
his wife and instead turns to dislike Alex, the lover, and blame her for everything while
also thinking that she, in a way, deserved to die for almost destroying a family. This is
powerful in the sense that as an audience, we receive these messages and always
prosecute the female mistress, but take it in as normal when talking about a man being
unfaithful, reinforcing that boys will be boys. When looking at Unfaithful, the husband
ends up killing his wifes lover, and the wife completely overlooks it as long as they can
be together. Not only did the plot shift from the wifes affair to concentrating on Richard
Geres character, Ed, but the audience also receives a message that it is okay when a man
acts in a violent way, to the point of taking someones life, as long as it helps maintain
their marriage intact. I understand that these are just fake stories, but the power of
subliminal messages in the media go beyond what is made up and what is real life.
In the film Good Deeds the main male character, played by Tyler Perry himself, is
engaged to his fianc Natalie, who is also very successful and career oriented, and is the
CEO of his deceased father. He then meets a more modest woman named Lindsey who
works as a custodian in his building, which humbles him as well. Tyler Perrys character
finds himself emotionally betraying his fianc and also kisses Lindsey, but the plot of the
movie is set up for the audience to empathize with Tyler Perry and think that he does

deserve someone else other than his fianc. This point is also important for another theme
in this study that I will explain later on.
The Reincarnation of Eve
In the majority of the films I analyzed, the women are the ones carrying out the
extra-marital affairs which was surprising to me since in the past, most television shows
and movies always place the husbands as the ones stereotypically carrying out affairs
with their secretaries. In these recent films, that was anything but the case.
Four out of the six movies I watched involved the wife engaging in the affair, and
in five out of the six movies I watched portrayed the women involved in the affair as sexcrazed. In films like Addicted, the female lead role, Zoe, is in love with her husband but
that is not enough when it comes to their sex life. As the plot unravels, we find out that
she is addicted to sex, but instead of setting up a tone of compassion or understanding for
her, the movies skips over her sex addiction issue, the focus was on how she destroyed
her life. Zoe always wears business casual outfits, hair and make up done, and when she
goes to have her affairs, she has on full sets of lingerie. The same goes for the rest of the
women in the rest of the movies; they all are always dressed in the best brands, concerned
with their careers, and ready when it comes to lingerie. This is very off point when it
comes to the reality of what average women act, look, and dress like. It is important to
note that majority of males have always dominated the film industry, and we can see that
when we look at how women are being sexualized in their character.
You Reap What You Sow

Not only are the wives carrying out the affairs, but they also receive major
consequences for their actions, which leave them without a family, husband, and career,
along with major psychological trauma and regrets.
In the movie Temptation, Judith, the main female character meets Brice, her
husband, at a very young age, and they have the whole childhood sweetheart love story.
Like in the other movies, Brice is portrayed as this loving and sensitive husband that is
modest and would do anything to make Judith happy and help her succeed in her practice.
Judith then is introduced to Harley, a very successful tech-programmer that is
immediately intrigued by her, and she engages in an affair. Judith then also becomes
involved with drugs as her affair with Harley grew, and lost her family, her career, and
her husband. Additionally, Harley was discovered to be manipulative and abusive along
with having AIDS that later we find out Judith contracted from him. Judith was left alone,
without her extravagant career, with AIDS, and having to go back to get her medication
from her ex-husband and his new romance.
This is also when I compared Good Deeds, also by Tyler Perry, with Temptations
and realized that they both engaged in affairs, even if Tyler Perrys affair was not
physical, but had totally different outcomes. The fact that the types of affairs are different
is also a huge insight into how men are also being portrayed in extra-marital affairs, and
also in romance films. I have to state, as well, that the majority of Tyler Perrys movies,
seeing that I have viewed most of them, carry the same type of message where women
are the ones involved in drugs, extra-marital affairs, are vain, and in need of a righteous
male to save them.

In the film Addicted, Zoe, the main female lead, also carries out an extra-marital
affair with a man who we later realize is also possessive and abusive that tries to kill her
when she wants out of the relationship. In Chloe, we encounter a storyline that is a little
different since the main female lead, Catherine, only suspects that her husband is
cheating, and she later engages in an affair with a woman named Chloe in spite of the
events. Chloe, like the other men in the movies, also becomes obsessed with Catherine
and threatens the lives of Catherine and her family. In these three movies, Chloe,
Temptations, and Addicted, the writers create a tone in where the audience feels as if the
women who cheated deserved these consequences. The writers then add to this tone when
the husbands take a mercy approach when talking to their wives because of the fact that
they are loving and compassionate men.
This is a dangerous message that we relay to the audience, If you want out of
your marriage, or decide to commit a human mistake, you will reap what you sow. This
message can compare to the fact that we tell girls to watch how they dress because they
never know what kind of men they will attract. We never emphasize to men how to treat
women. Not every husband is picture perfect, and they too are guilty when it comes to
what happens in the relationships. Infidelity is a tough subject to address since it can
bring many personal opinions or experiences, but as researchers, we have to understand
that both men and women are free willed to do whatever they want with their emotions
and bodies without having to fear terrible consequences.
CONCLUSION
In this study I aimed to analyze how extra marital were portrayed in recent films.
There were three main themes when I analyzed the films that helped to answer the

question. The first theme was that the movies portrayed the male characters as perfect
husband. The second theme was that the wives were the partners that engaged in the
extra-marital affairs. The last theme dealt with the consequences the wives had to deal
with once they began the affair. The reemphasis of a patriarchal society through out these
films reflect the fact that the film industry is still very male oriented. Also, the promotion
of grave consequences to the actions of what females do with their sex life can be
reiterating the emphasis on a male hegemonic society.
Limitations to the study include the element of only analyzing six movies
compared to many other movies that deal with extra marital affairs. The majority of the
couples in these films were heterosexual, and left out the LGBTQIA+ community in the
film industry. No other methodologies were used to analyze media which would have
helped to strengthen the results, but doing content analysis led me to the answer of the
research question.

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