Chick Flicks: An Origin Story
If you’re a woman and you exist, I’m sure you’ve heard people refer to The Notebook, or Sleepless in Seattle, Bridesmaids, the new Ghostbuster’s or any movie either featuring a predominately female cast or a stereotypically feminine plot as a “Chick Flick.” But where does the term “Chick Flick” even come from? I think it’s important that we learn where the term comes from and unpack whether or not we should kill it with fire or try to reclaim it.
According to the site, Phrases Finder, Chick Flick is defined as, “A film with characterization and storylines that appeal especially to women.”
Seems pretty straightforward. So why is the phrase derogatory? Why are women constantly made fun of for their interests, while men are walking around unironically watching Michael Bay films and the Fast & Furious franchise? Yes, people make fun of those movies for their choppy dialogue and glaring plotholes, but they don’t belittle the audiences who enjoy them. There’s no phrase or category to label hyper-masculine films like that. No one calls them “dick flicks,” for example, even though that’s a great name— I mean it was staring us in the face this whole time. So I beg the question: Why are chick flicks put down by so many people?
Let’s get into the history:
It wasn’t until the 90s that the term became widely used to describe films that featured women and dealt with issues women were experiencing: motherhood, sexuality, assault, romance, identity, etc. Prior to that, “chick flicks” referred to sexually explicit films.
The first known use of the phrase was in the 1988 Bergen County Record, which described movies with heavy erotic elements, such as "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls," "Twilight People" and "Black Mama, White Mama," which the newspaper called "another chick-flick set in a slammer in the Philippines.” These films appealed specifically to the male sexual fantasy, and naturally, were a hit with their target audiences.
According to MTV, the very first movie to be called a “chick flick” was Steel Magnolias:
“In 1989, the movie “Steel Magnolias” featured a predominantly female cast and enjoyed a largely female audience, and was thus one of the first movies to be dubbed a “chick flick,” according to Dr. Deborah Barker and Dr. Kathryn McKee from the University of Mississippi.”
Then in the 90s, we got “chick film” with the release of Thelma & Louise:
“'Sassy', August 1991 "Now even the most unlikely movies go to the violent place, like the chick film Thelma and Louise."
And then a year later, with the release of Sleepless in Seattle (which begun the golden age of romantic comedies, in my opinion), the phrase “chick flick,” was rampant. Any and all romantic comedies became classified as “chick flicks,” something Nora Ephron was acutely aware of. In fact, she shows us the blatant stupidity of the arbitrary label in this scene. She’s aware that audiences will inevitably label her film a “chick flick,” and chooses to poke fun at the concept that romantic comedies are about love, so therefore they are only to be enjoyed by women and not men.
Washington Times Article, 1993: "What with 'Sleepless in Seattle' updating the concept of the chick's flick in the national consciousness..."
However, even with Ephron’s early nod to the idiocy of this idea, the phrase continues to thrive to this day and is used specifically to belittle female-driven stories.
The Hangover? A comedy.
Bridesmaids? A chick flick.
See the problem?
It’s clearly time to re-evaluate the usage of this phrase. I’ve always been torn on whether the phrase itself is bad or if it was made fun of because it was used to describe inherently feminine media. However, much like women feeling the need to describe themselves as a “Girl Boss” rather than “a Boss”, “chick flicks” do not need their own classification. They’re movies, just like masculine movies are simply, movies.
With that said, I think we can reclaim the phrase if we use it to go back and look at the movies that have been classified as “chick flicks” and have an open conversation about how the label has led to a gendered bias in film. We can call them chick flicks only to point out what male audiences have been missing out on by dismissing them as “too feminine.”
There’s no point in denying the flimsy use of this phrase to belittle arguably great movies: Thelma & Louise, Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally, Mean Girls, and the list goes on and on. If we use the ghost of chick flick’s past to reflect the perception of women’s media today, only then will we be able to move forward and finally call narratives with women at the forefront what they are: movies.
