Cinematical Seven: The Problem with Chick Flicks
Filed under: Comedy, Romance, Cinematical Seven
Do you ever feel like you just don't fit in? Of course you do, we all do. But it's never more obvious to me then when I sit down to watch a so-called chick flick. Whether it was the 'woman's picture' from the Golden Age of Hollywood, or He's Just Not That Into You's new message of faux-empowerment, it has been a long time since a movie has more to offer my gender than shopping montages and romantic self-pity. Just to keep it all straight in our minds, what exactly makes a chick flick a chick flick? According to popular definition, a chick flick is "a film, usually about relationships, which is popular with females and comparatively unpopular with males". In other words, anything you have to drag your boyfriend to.
It's time for us gals to unite and start demanding a little more from our entertainment. With plenty of room for stories of love, loss, and marriage, Labels or Love cannot be the sum total of the 'female experience'. So, here's my call to arms with a list of the worst crimes perpetrated by 'chick flicks'. You can't change what you don't acknowledge, so let's begin.
1. Two Kinds of Stories -- married or dead?
According to conventional Hollywood wisdom, women are only interested in trying to get married, getting married, getting divorced and then eventually dying of a horrible disease. It doesn't exactly take a Women's Studies degree to see the pattern in most feature films marketed to women -- they are centered solely on personal relationships. I'm not saying that these stories don't have value, but it can't be the only game in town, and I refuse to believe my entire life revolves around making a family, losing a family, and then keeling over after coming to terms with something.
See: Terms of Endearment
Stepmom
One True Thing
...and just about any film starring a woman that has been released in the last 100 years.
2. They Make You Feel Bad about Having a Career...and being good at it.
Here's a depressing thought: The last movie I could think of that mixed love and career in a positive light was made in 1940. In His Girl Friday, Howard Hawk's screwball masterpiece, our leading lovebirds give us one of the best examples of a gal's (ex) husband that not only supports her career, he loves her because of it.
Cut to 2007 and The Devil Wears Prada. This time our fearless heroine goes up against the dragon lady of all bosses and then ... dumps it all and runs off after her boyfriend (a character that was relatively unimportant in the original novel compared to the film version). Or How about Kate and Leopold? A bitter ad exec finds love with a time traveling aristocrat and decides to follow him back to 1876! Yeah, because who wants the stresses of the modern world? You know, like voting and equal rights.
In the world of chick flicks, successful women are by all appearances, terribly unhappy women. Heck, they are worse than unhappy, they are alone and unloved simply by the matter of their success.
See: The Devil Wears Prada
Working Girl
Baby Boom
Kate and Leopold
3. The Grand Romantic Gesture...or the 'You Complete Me' Syndrome
Have you ever chased after a loved one in an airport? Stopped a wedding? Proposed in the middle of a crowded subway platform? Probably not. If you even tried half of those romantic tricks in an airport, you would be tackled by NSA agents before you even got through the gate. I've been watching movies long enough to know that the grand romantic gesture is usually the most convenient way to wrap up a story line. If you've had your two leads circling each other for two hours, you're probably looking for an economical way for them to ride off into the sunset -- enter the grand romantic gesture.
So what's so wrong with that you may ask? For starters, you could fill an Oprah audience with women lamenting the loss of a romantic spirit that never existed in the first place. Just remember, for every girl out there waiting for Lloyd Dobler to stand outside her window blaring a Peter Gabriel song, there's a guy cursing the day that John Cusack was put on this earth.
See: Jerry McGuire
Notting Hill
Love Actually
4. Two Words: Wedding Porn
You don't have to tell me that gals can go a little overboard when it comes to 'the big day'. But by the time I sat through the third slow pan of Carrie Bradshaw in a designer wedding gown, I knew that this had gotten out of control. Weddings are a great source of story material; you've got family conflict, romance, traditions, drunken best men – it's all there for the taking. But, I can't help but notice that not much has changed since we were first told about Cinderella putting on her fancy dress for the ball and riding off in a souped-up pumpkin.
See: Sex and The City
27 Dresses
Bride Wars
The Bachelor
5. Single Girls are Unhappy Girls
According to every single chick flick I have seen, my uncoupled status makes me needy, uptight and emotionally fragile. Not to mention that I'm harboring a biological clock countdown that could rival the doomsday device. Close, but not quite. Sure, there is pressure in our society to couple off like it's the boarding gate to Noah's Ark, but never once have I swigged vodka while singing All by Myself in a fit of self pity. Well maybe once, but I was singing Enough is Enough (thank you very much) and song choice really does make all the difference.
See: Bridget Jones' Diary
When Harry Met Sally
6. Shopping Makes Everything Alright
In the ultimate chick flick, Pretty Woman, Julia Roberts is a woman who has worked as a prostitute on the streets of L.A. Presumably she's a streetwise gal. But what's the worst thing she feels happens to her? Not the murder of one of her 'co-workers' or her best friend's drug habit. What makes her stop and re-examine her life is that she isn't allowed to shop -- because being denied access to a Rodeo Drive boutique is right up there with the great tragedies in life, I guess. Never has mindless consumption been so pronounced as in last summer's chick flick behemoth, Sex and the City. I lost count of the amount of 'ohhs' and 'awws' when Carrie is shown her new shoe closet by Prince Charming/Mr. Big -- I still gag thinking about it.
See: Pretty Woman
Sex and The City
7. Where's Our Judd Apatow?
Maybe the worst part of sitting through a romantic comedy/chick flick is that the humor is bland, and sister, I mean bland. I always wonder if one of the reasons the Apatow brand has become so successful is because it combines quality comedy with a romantic story -- and say what you want boys, The 40-Year-Old Virgin is a rom-com.
Critics usually like to point out that the women in Apatow's film are humorless wet blankets...and that is probably a debate best left to another time. The sad fact is looks are king when it comes to an actresses' career and audiences would still rather watch a marginally funny hot chick than a hilarious but average-looking gal. Hollywood doesn't demand the same level of funny from its actresses as it does from its actors, and even though the business is packed with amazingly funny women, they don't get the job. Even when they do (and I'm looking at you Baby Mama), filmmakers still tack on unneeded romantic subplots and watered-down sisterhood. Regardless of what Christopher Hitchens may tell you, chicks are pretty damn funny if you give them the chance.
See: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
Along Came Polly
So can we turn this all around? Maybe it is about time us ladies started protesting with our box-office dollars. Don't women want to be superheroes, spies, and renegade cops? Of course we do, but you would never know it from the box office. Think about it, we've got every two-bit comic book hero getting a movie deal, but no one is willing to touch the Wonder Woman feature with a ten-foot golden lasso.
There is plenty of room for all kinds of movies, but when am I finally going to be able to go to the multi-plex and see a movie starring women that doesn't reside in the 'Chick Flick Ghetto'?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-22-2008 @ 11:14PM
Bill said...
Being of the male gender, I have no clue as to what women want. I think Catwoman, Tomb Raider, and Aeon Flux gave female action heroes a bad name for awhile. But a lot of these chick flicks actually are big hits. While I'm sure a lot of women comiserate with this story, a lot of women will turn right around and go rent 27 Dresses or something that no straight male could possibly sit through without the promise of sex.
Now go fix me a sam'ich, woman.
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10-22-2008 @ 11:16PM
Bill said...
However, I have to say I do miss Janeane Garofolo. I would rather see a movie with her in it anyday over Sandra Bullock.
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10-23-2008 @ 3:42AM
Nikki said...
I know there are lots of women out there that pay homage to the chick flick and, being female myself, I have been guilty of enjoying one from time to time (Kate and Leopold and The Devil Wears Prada, for example). However, I have noticed that not many female superheros worth mentioning have graced the silver screen. And once in awhile, it would be nice to see a woman in a movie who was a complete person, without needing a guy. Don't get me wrong, the idea of true love is great but when one part of your life takes over everything else, that classifies as an obsession. So bring on the heroines already!
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10-23-2008 @ 8:55AM
Erika said...
Our Judd Apatow you ask? How about Diablo Cody?
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10-23-2008 @ 9:15AM
NP said...
Being a man, I probably can't enter into the discussion on this the same way that the ladies can, but I can just offer up a very recent example of a female-centric film that avoids ALL of these chick flick tropes: Happy-Go-Lucky. I know films like Happy-Go-Lucky are the exception, not the rule, but it's so nice when they do come along.
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10-23-2008 @ 9:16AM
Jennifer said...
This is why I watch action and horror movies- especially zombie movies. Now a days, they finally have women becoming badasses- maybe not at 1st but eventually they're right there with our "hero". For example, take Rose McGowen in Planet Terror, after losing her leg to zombie-like creatures El Wray (her ex-bf) got her a gun leg and began taking out the baddies herself. How awesome is that? Then we also have Asia Argento in Land of the Dead. She picks up and gun, after not being given too much of a choice, and starts killing zombies her-fricking-self. Also in these films is an additional romatical plot with the hero and our new heroine. If they can do this in horror movies why the hell cant they figure out a formula in chick flicks?
The last chick flick that I recall in which the female character stayed basically to who she was, was the modern day adaptation of Taming of the Shrew i.e. 10 Things I Hate about You. Then there's also She's All That with Rachel Leigh Cook. The point of these movies is that the character's really didn't change just cause a man came around. That should be the message that Hollywood is giving us, not this "women are nothing without men" B.S. Give me a break that's just stupid.
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10-23-2008 @ 9:28AM
Eric H said...
Its sad the movies that most women lament, action and horror, have some of the best examples of strong and independent women. Die Hard, Batman Begins/The Dark Knight, Feast, Nightmare on Elm Street, well you get the picture.
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10-23-2008 @ 9:45AM
ML said...
I admit, I'm not a fan of "chick flicks" and consider most to be terrible and not entertaining at all. But then, I tend to identify with male characters more than female characters anyway. There's always Ripley (Alien), of course (and, as mentioned, a good many horror films). But the most recent Catwoman (Halle Berry) and Elektra were just awful. They don't count as movies, let alone movies with strong female characters.
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10-23-2008 @ 12:00PM
rob said...
Im so tired of seeing movies about "female empowerment"..I guess what is praised on Oprah goes a long way in our culture.
Diane English took a classic COMEDY called The Women and turned it from a biting funny movie about catty women who love their men to a movie about Politically Correct women who all have fabulous careers, dont need men at all, go around telling thier housekeepers how much they love them, and are sweet and caring and nurturing to each other..in other words a modern day feminist fairy tale. For her efforts Ms English should be hung from a tree. Why cant a funny comedy just be funny? Why cant we show women being catty?
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10-23-2008 @ 12:12PM
SunKing said...
Good article. Chick flicks have a place in cinema as its no different in its stereotyping of women as action films are in their stereotyping of men (i.e. that they assume all we're interested in are boobs, guns and gore). Anyway the fact of the matter is, they're never going to be great movies, they' exist to make a buck or two.
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10-23-2008 @ 12:49PM
L. said...
It's all supply and demand. There are plenty of women who lap up every second of chick flicks. Maybe they're just the subset who care about marriage, babies, and shopping and demand a female lead.
It hadn't occurred to me until I read this that (at least) 95% of the movies I watch have male lead characters. I guess I just don't particularly care if gender is a trait I can identify with in a character.
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10-23-2008 @ 2:16PM
Christian M. Howell said...
Several males on here made the point exactly. They say they don't know what women want; as if women are aliens or something.
They want what we want, a fulfilling job, a full social life, respect, love, etc.
The problem is that too many of us "believe the hype" that women are somehow fundamentally different and could never want the same thing as males (NOTE THAT I DON'T SAY MEN).
My best friends are women and some of them don't even know it. When I talk to women they seem amazed at my body language or something.
Sexism is the last frontier. Can I be in the front of the group that stomps it out? If I had the choice of Tom Cruise vs. Katie Holmes for close friends; well Tom let's just say, what are you kidding?
Well, I'd better stop. I'm losing my temper. I'm so sensitive about this topic.
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10-23-2008 @ 8:26PM
AJ Wiley said...
Yesterday I was watching the Katharine Hepburn/Ginger Rogers classic Stage Door, which is dominated by an almost entirely female cast, all of whom are amazingly sharp and witty. It actually made me quite sad to think that there aren't many movies like this being made, none that empower women simply by putting them on equal footing with men, where by virtue of existing they deserve.
As for Wonder Woman, the problem is that Warner Bros. pissed off Joss Whedon, the guy who could've made it into a masterpiece. Universal also seems uninterested in his psychological horror film Goners, which would feature a strong heroine.
It's a depressing state of affairs.
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10-24-2008 @ 12:47AM
Mike said...
Whoa... while I generally agree, I must say that Terms of Endearment is one of the greatest films of all time (is this hyperbole? Yes, but i also kind of think it's true). This movie is nothing remotely close to a generic "chick flick." Is Margot at the Wedding a chick flick 'cause it's about women? No, it's just an unsatisfying story. Terms of Endearment is one of the great character pieces told by arguably the greatest mainstream Hollywood storyteller in recent memory.
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10-25-2008 @ 2:03AM
Kathleen said...
random reccomendation? Black Widow. (1987) Debra Winger hunts down Theresa Russle. Well written, very interesting plot and the men are just decorative. One of my favorites.
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10-27-2008 @ 11:38PM
Becki said...
Great insight and so true. I have tired of many chick flicks over the years . .but . . some are still guilty pleasures and most have memories that are generated when rewatched.
I could watch Notting Hill a MILLION TIMES and never get tired of it. And I do love some of the storylines in Love Actually. . .
Oh - very curious - what about the chick flicks that star men? About a Boy is one of my faves - and truly, dont you think its a chick flick?
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