Forced to revolt againts my favorite type of movies

Today I went through my files from college. I came across this woman's studies paper. I found it comical that I wrote all these negative thoughts about my favorite type of movies...chick flicks. I mean, I get all my good advice from these movies-if he doesn't call you, he's just not that into you. If you cant find a date to your ex's wedding, hire one. If you think you're fat, you probably are. If he pays you to be your date for a week, but then falls in love with you and finds you at your apartment right before you're about to pack up and leave for good, then you will probably live happily ever after. These are all truly realistic ideas and I think that everyone should take into consideration the messages that these movies portray! haha right?

How to Be a Woman

When she walks into the room, everybody stares at her beautiful face, painted with foundation and blush. She wears the finest clothes created by top designers, complimenting her perfect, flat stomach and perky breasts. Men flock to greet her and she has the ability to get whatever she wants. She is that woman that every other woman envies. Her face can be seen on the covers of hundreds of DVD’s, known as “chick flicks,” found in the homes of numerous ordinary women. However, these women are not average women that one would see walking down the street on a daily basis. These women are created and edited to fit an unrealistic standard. These women convey unattainable body images, a lifestyle that is unreal and a love life that is laced with lies.
Chick flicks, movies geared towards women, portray women in a way that most women cannot truly relate. Instead of creating movies that women can connect with, creators of the chick flick produce scenes that could never become reality for most women. The unattainable body images and spontaneous lifestyles that women in chick flicks portray are ideas that a majority of women dream about, but may never achieve. These ideas presented in chick flicks coax women into believing that there is only one type of woman that society accepts. If a woman is not thin, is not beautiful, and is not a sex object, chick flicks suggest that she is not the ideal woman. However, this is not true. This stereotype marginalizes the women who are not model skinny or conventionally beautiful, making the idealized images of women in such movies unrealistic and degrading.
The stereotypes that chick flicks create of women with beautiful faces and flawless bodies portray a small majority of women, creating an unrealistic reality that is being conveyed to women. In the movie, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Kate Hudson as the character Andee fits the chick flick mold perfectly. When the audience is first introduced to Andee, she is wearing a cute dress with stiletto heels, her skin is flawless and there is not a hair out of place. She is also extremely thin, and later in the movie the audience is reminded of how important it is for women to maintain a small frame. Michelle, Andee’s good friend, is also a tall, thin and beautiful woman. However, she has just been dumped by her boyfriend and blames it on being “too fat.” The fact that Michelle believes that the cause of her breakup is based upon her body implies that body image decides whether or not a woman is considered attractive. This reinforces “the importance of a thin body as a measure of a woman’s worth” (Beauty and Body Image in the Media 2). Instead of being praised for their minds, women in chick flicks are praised for their bodies. Because Michelle feels as though she was dumped because of her “fat” body implies that men only are attracted to women and their bodies, not their minds.
In chick flicks, the women that men are attracted to always depict the perfect body image, which is seen in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. When Ben, the heart throb of the movie, makes a bet with two of his women co-workers that he can make any woman fall in love with him, women who are not considered conventionally beautiful are made into a joke. The first woman that the co-workers choose for Ben is noticeably overweight. Ben says “come on you can do better than that” and his co-workers laugh. The fact that Ben and his co-workers joke about the overweight woman suggests that women who do have a little extra weight are not beautiful and could never obtain a relationship with a man. This implies that inner beauty is useless and that body image is everything. The second woman the co-workers choose lacks sense of style and is referred to as ugly,” which conveys the idea that having the latest fashion makes a woman attractive. When the co-workers finally choose a woman for Ben, they choose Kate Hudson who is tall, beautiful, blonde and thin. The fact that Ben will only consider the tall, thin and beautiful woman suggests that a woman who lacks such flawless qualities is not accepted. However, “media images of female beauty are unattainable for all but a very small number of women” (Beauty and Body Image in the Media 2). The stereotypically thin and beautiful women in chick flicks do not portray reality.
Complimenting their stereotypical body images, Kate Hudson’s character Andee and her friends have stereotypical careers. Andee and her friends work for a woman’s magazine called Composure, which is a magazine geared towards women. Andee and her co-workers show up to work every day in their bright and somewhat revealing clothing discussing the latest gossip. This, however, would not be acceptable in a real world business environment. Unlike the women from Composure, the women from the advertising company are dressed in structured, neutral colored suites. Compared to Andee and her co-workers, the two women from the advertising agency look more professional. Also unlike Composure, the advertising company’s boss was a man. The two women who worked for the man were dressed more “masculine” compared to the employees of Composure. The two women of the advertising company were referred to as “lips and hips” by the men of the company. This shows the superiority of the men of the company and the little respect that they have for women. “Women’s bodies are often dismembered into legs, breasts or thighs, reinforcing the message that women are objects rather than whole human beings” (Beauty and Body Image in the Media 2), which is demeaning to women.
To degrade women even more, Composure is a magazine that solely focuses on the latest fashion, diets, and plastic surgery because politics are not “fit” for women’s magazines. Andee, the “how to girl,” wants to write about foreign affairs and politics, but her boss will not let her. The fact that articles about politics and foreign affairs are not included in the magazine because it is a woman’s magazine conveys the idea that women are only interested in beauty and fashion. This is degrading to women because it insinuates that women are not intelligent enough to be aware of what is happening in the world. While Andee wants to write about intelligent things, she is only the “how to girl.” The “how to” articles that she writes do not convey positive messages or ideas to women. In fact, her own articles influence her own life in a negative way.
Not only do the messages that Composure present negatively affect the women characters of the movie, but they also negatively affect the real women audience. Andee’s article idea for “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” is supposed to inform women about how not to act when in a relationship. However, Andee’s actions toward Ben, the man she is trying to lose, suggest how women should not act in order to keep their men happy. By creating a relationship that is based upon lies, where Andee is using Ben for an article and Ben is using Andee to win a bet, the idea of a genuine relationship becomes improbable. The relationship between Andee and Ben suggests that relationships are a joke. Andee claims that men hate women who are “clingy” and “needy,” therefore; she over exaggerates these qualities. She even tells Michelle, her friend, that if she was not so “needy” she would not have been dumped. This implies that a woman should change her personality in order to cater to a man’s needs. If a woman does not act how the man expects her to act then he will not want to be with her. This is a negative message to send to women because if a man rejects her, it means that she is not good enough. This influences women to avoid being themselves around men.
Chick flicks that stereotype the ideal woman as being thin and beautiful make it difficult for women to overcome and reach such unattainable standards. Women who are average, intelligent and personable are being challenged by movies like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.Because chick flicks only portray one type of woman, women who do not fit the chick flick mold are being pushed aside and not taken seriously. Instead of inspiring the every day women, whoever that may be, chick flicks ignore the realities of being a woman in society. Not every woman is model thin. No woman has a flawless face. No woman should feel the need to change for a man. If chick flicks continue to stereotype women, the world will become filled with women who cannot love themselves or their bodies as they are.