Chick Flicks: Contemporary Women at the Movies

From An Affair to Remember to Legally Blonde, chick flicks have long been both championed and vilified by women and men, scholars and popular audiences. Like other forms of chick culture, which the editors define as a group of mostly American and British popular culture media forms focused primarily on twenty- to thirtysomething, middle-class—and frequently college-educated—women, chick flicks have been accused of reinscribing traditional attitudes and reactionary roles for women. On the other hand, they have been embraced as pleasurable and potentially liberating entertainments, assisting women in negotiating the challenges of contemporary life.