Jezebel

My boyfriend would laugh in my face if I tried to take him to that movie.

He watches Golden Girls with me, though. So I guess he's got a little bit of woman in him.

@Archetype: My douchey exbf actually read these books. As "research."

Not really chick flicks, but I luvs me a good teenspliotation movie.

10 things I hate about you, she's all that, etc. (Hides head in shame)

So they add two girls kissing and a pillow fight and everyone's happy.

You know the movie Unaccompanied Minors? That was based on a story told by a woman on This American Life. They changed her into a boy for the movie because girls will go see movies with a protagonist of either gender, but boys will only go see movies with male leads.

I'm thinking this continues on into adulthood, no?

What hell is up with Isla Fisher's costumes in this movie, people? Seriously? Because they be lookin a hot tranny mess.

Hey Hollywood, how about you abandon the "chick flick" genre altogether? I won't miss it. I mean, Kate Hudson might, but I won't.

@westvillagegirl: Research for what, exactly?

I've totally read the books. And, as I've said about 10 times on this blog, I have absolutely no shame!

So there will be a boobies montage while trying on tops at Bergdorf?

@redheadedstepchild: That just means you're breathing.

@vivresavie17: She's probably styled by Patricia Field.

I love Isla, but she can't quite pull off the weird outfits like SJP.

@Archetype: I actually got my brother into the 1 a.m. GG reruns. He does a great impression of Dorothy yelling "Your initials spell BED?"

@LadyNo: Isn't that why Harry Potter had to be Harry? and not Harriet? Because both girls and boys would read it?

No No No No! The very last thing we need to do is to make guys see chick flicks! What if they start acting like the guys IN chick flicks? BLERG!
@westvillagegirl: this is my point exactly. Most women don't act the the CHARACTERS in chick flicks or chick lit, nor should they.

The word "Shopaholic" alone would turn me boyfriend off. He already has to deal with me.

Dudes don't avoid these movies because they don't like them; they avoid them because it's girl stuff, and they'll be tainted if they do. Same reason you never put a girl in a commercial for boy's toys. Same same reason people get pissy when boy's names start being used for girls. Because it's girl-like, and being an omg girl is degrading.

@redheadedstepchild: dude, that's different. Stick it and Blue Crush are my "cheer up" movies.

Ha, my BF said once that while watching a trailer for "Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood" that he could literally feel his peen shrinking - if he ever saw the whole movie I'd apparently have to get a new Mr. Pants.

@JessicaLovejoy: Boosh and/or Kakow!: I don't think so, I'm quite sure that Harry was a character in a book before he was a marketing tool. I have faith in the sincerity of J.K. Rowling's creative process.

@Hamsterpants: I have a strange adoration for that movie, truly. I think it's because I related to the crazy character, though.

Am now horrified. Becky *never* dressed badly. EVER. She *dressed beyond her means.* There is a huge difference.

There are grafting Chick Flick Klutzy Movie Cliches onto the wonderful Shopaholic story! BOOOOOO!

Maybe if this movie were on cable, and my bf had drank a little too much scotch, and there was the possibility of boobies, then maybe he would watch it. But that's a stretch. But I don't think that he would be fooled into thinking that this was another Wedding Crashers.

@JessicaLovejoy: Boosh and/or Kakow!: That's at least why Harry Potter's so popular, I think. I mean, all those Fine Lines books we talk about? I'm sure very few boys read them because the lead characters were girls, and therefore uninteresting.

@lisas: Some people DO get pissy when girls have boys names. Mine is technically gender neutral, but it was a curse when I was in elementary school in South Carolina.

@LadyNo: Yes! I always say this when people say there aren't enough good movie roles for women. It's because only women will go see those movies.

I've been told (on this site, actually) that it's because boys aren't taught to value girls as much as other boys. But I think that's baloney. I think the main, maybe the only real difference between men and women is the idea of empathy. Women are good at empathizing with people, both similar and different from them (that's why they are the mothers in the equation) and men simply aren't.

I have to believe this is the case because nothing else explains to me the existence of the Patriarchy. We women aren't stupid. Way back when men were taking over everything and making the world the way it is - women weren't stupid then either, they just had more empathy. Men took advantage of this because they had less.

@Archetype: I had a loony boss who had a bunch of lady friends who called themselves the YaYas, and I tell ya, Type, those gals made MY ballsack shrink.

@JennaW: Actually, thinking back to the book, you're right. Didn't she dress from, like, Jigsaw and other more upscale high street stores? Beyond her means, but not Super Kooky Designer.

She also bought lots of books and wine. I read it before I traveled to London and I remember my excitement when I finally realized what Oddbins was. In the book, I figured it was a second-hand shop.

Isla Fisher, you are cute. Let's meet for coffee, mk?

@Hamsterpants: Heh, it's like the older woman's answer to SATC.

@JessicaLovejoy: Boosh and/or Kakow!: Umm. Is there no truth to the JK Rowling writing them for her son/growing out of stories she told her son?

Maybe I made it up in my head?

@redheadedstepchild: Yes - only she had a daughter. But she told her daughter stories about a boy called Harry.

okay y'all, men today are whiny enough, we don't need to make them even more sensitive with this chick flick nonsense. Please, give me a violent movie any day of the week: Chopper, Pulp Fiction, hell, I'd even watch a Scorsese meat-fest before I watch a Kate Hudson romcom.

@distractedbyshinyobjects: Right, but do women have more empathy than men naturally, or because they are socialized into it?

Okay, now re the outfit in that pic? She has orange (!) gloves, a yellow and green purse, a purple belt and a plaid cape. So this is a movie about a blind shopaholic, no?

@vivresavie17: and what happened to her gorgeous red hair?!

@BeAgrestic: As cute as it sounds and looks on screen, if a guy I'd rejected sang a song to me in front of a huge crowd of people, stood outside my house with a boombox over his head, showed up at the airport and tried to stop me from going to the Paris Art School, etc. whatever etc., I would call the fucking cops. When I get dumped I don't boil a bunny, so guys can at least maintain their half of the living-in-reality bargain.

@littlemissvan: My thought is that at least part of it has to be natural. Perhaps socialization has deepened the divide between them. In fact, it definitely has.

But those early women weren't pushovers, the patriarchy would not exist if something hadn't been natural to start it off.

@littlemissvan: AND - I love your name and avatar :)

@Hamsterpants: Am I alone in thinking that "YaYas" should only refer to one's tits or Greek grandmother?

@distractedbyshinyobjects: Wow. I did make it up!

I'd totally be into Harriet Potter.

@Hamsterpants: Stacy London would say "it doesn't *match*, but it *gooooooooes*" wit

h some circular hand motions around the entire clothed area. Having said that, this is a totally retarded outfit to wear in real life but it's going to look pretty vibrant and awesome in a theater.

@and Begorrah: The whole thing reeks of testicles to me.

Heh, there's my new band name - The Reeking Testicles.

@deadbeat old lady: Aw, random newlines, I don't like you at all. You don't gooooooo. Where did you come from?

@deadbeat old lady: Stacy and Clinton would hate me. I am very matchy-matchy. And proud of it. I was wearing a lavenderish color yesterday and was seriously bummed that I did not have lavendar or at least lilac shoes.

@Hamsterpants: Oo, you can open for my new band, Rectal Braid, when we go on tour!

@Archetype: Yes and French Connection, and like that -- much of which she bought in second hand shops or in sales -- but she still was a compulsive shopper which is where the plot comes in ;)

@Archetype:
Ha! Am I married to your BF? Cause mine is ditto! :)

@and Begorrah: OMG, the Rectal Braid again. Oh Cosmo, quit making shit up so the popular kids will talk to you.

@Hamsterpants: My mom and her fellow Southern middle-aged ladies call themselves the TaTas. Totally different, with a totally different implication, and I love it.

@BeAgrestic: I'd rather a girl have a gender neutral name than a boy. Because I'm sexist? Or gay? Something.

@BrutallyHonestBabes: Mine would actually ship me off to the theater with mini bottles of wine and some friends and then pick our drunk asses up.

He's sweet like that :-)

And, he loves Dorothy.

@Archetype: My boyfriend watches Golden Girls too! And, now that I think of it, Sex and the City...and I don't watch either...but I promise he's straight!

And all this time I thought that "Wedding Crashers" was a dude movie (complete with handjob scene and bare breast scenes) with some token "girly" touches like romance and wedding dresses thrown in.

For my man to be interested in a "chick flick" there would have to be car chases, gun fights, bare breasts, and/or scenes of masturbation gone awry. In which case, there'd really be no point in calling said movie a "chick flick."

@homeslice: I'm the same way. Gone with the Wind never really worked for me because one of the men was named Ashely. If that makes me a hypocrit, so be it.

@and Begorrah: exactly. I generally have a big problem with guys or girls forcing someone to see something that they hate under the guise that it's bonding experience. My decision to not force a guy to take me to SATC has quite a bit to do with my not wanting to be dragged to a torture porn movie.

@and Begorrah: Absolutely not. Except we had a dog we called Yaya not too long ago, but only because her name was actually Naya and my two year old (at the time) could not pronounce that.

My eeeeevil Sis-in-law has YaYa friends, too. She totally missed the point, btw.

@deadbeat old lady: "The orange makes it POP." Sometimes I imagine Stacey and Clinton are judging my outfits when I get dressed in the morning. Most times I just grab whatever's clean.

I'm not sure if the it's the appeal of the chick flick that's wearing thin, they're just running out of recycled plots. (Don't get me wrong, I love recycled plots, Bring It On anyone? My adoration of that movie will never cease.)

The next "Wedding Crashers"? Because they both ha