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Girls on Film: The Infamous Chick Flick

October 24, 2013 by Monisha Dadlani Leave a Comment

womeninfilm

The genre of a “Chick Flick” is very confusing to me.

This category is almost always linked with another one. More often than not, a chick flick falls into the “romantic comedy” genre as well. If not comedy, at least some aspect of romance must be involved as well. But then what are the qualifications for a romantic comedy to fall under the category of chick flick as well?

Romantic Comedies in general recently seem to have gotten a bad name. They usually are not viewed as a high cinematic art form such as other genres such as drama, thriller, etc. Often times these movies are considered trivial. Despite this, almost everyone I know has watched and enjoyed rom-coms in their movie-going experiences. Even though almost everyone watches these movies, many times romantic comedies are linked with the “chick  flick” genre. I have been trying to figure out what makes a rom-com a chick flick as opposed to a pure rom-com.

Does the gender of the protagonist have anything to do with this distinction? Or is it the quality of the film that categorizes it?

Does a bad rom-com automatically go into the category of chick flick?

What a “good” romantic comedy means is obviously subjective. For me, almost anything pairing Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan automatically fits into the pile of good romantic comedies. The best example would be “When Harry Met Sally.” To me, this is one of the greatest romantic comedies ever written. It brings up the question of  – can males and females really be just friends? The movie would argue no. In talking to my friends, nobody considers this a chick-flick? Why? Because both guys and girls enjoy watching it.

Does that mean that if a movie is a chick flick that only girls have to enjoy it?

On IMBd, the number one chick flick is “Mean Girls.” To this day, I have not found one person, male or female, who does not like this movie. So then is it really a chick-flick? I have friends that would argue yes and no.

“It’s a chick flick, but I still like it even though I am a guy.”

So then why isn’t “When Harry Met Sally” a chick flick? Is it the protagonist?

In “When Harry Met Sally” both characters are equally represented on screen. Could that be it?

In that case, wouldn’t “The Iron Lady” with Meryl Streep be considered a chick flick?

But it’s not.

So does that mean that a chick flick has to be a comedy with a female protagonist? “Mean Girls” certainly fills that category.

So in that case, does romance have to be involved in a chick flick? “Mean Girls” isn’t necessarily a romantic comedy because it is a high school comedy, so maybe that isn’t a prime example.

What about “Julie and Julia,” also starring Meryl Streep as well as Amy Adams. Female protagonist. Check. Comedy. Check. Romance? A little, but not any more than any other movie, and certainly it is not the focus of the film.

So is it a chick flick?

Does the lack of romance in this film automatically take it out of the chick flick category?

How about “He’s Just Not That Into You”? I would consider it a rom-com, but would it be considered a chick flick? It has a female protagonist, there is comedy, and there is romance. This film makes the top 100 IMDb best romantic comedies list, but not the list of 100 best chick flicks. Why is that?

It looks like a requirement for a chick flick is:

– Female Protagonist
– Comedy
– Romance

But in that case, the majority of romantic comedies would fall into this category.

What about “The Notebook”? No comedy, not a female protagonist. Yet many pick this as the stereotypical chick flick. Why is that?

Why is it that romance seems to make its way into every chick flick?

People compare “The Hangover” to “Bridesmaids” in that each have dominate casts of each gender. Although “Bridesmaids” was hilarious, there was so much romance involved, as opposed to “The Hangover.”

Why is it that movies that are supposed to gear towards females all need to have romance?


Monisha Dadlani

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