Most chick flicks out there these days (and from last 10-15 years) consist of broken-hearted over some guy or girl who broke up with them. The movies lead to them crying in front of the TV watching sad movie. Where did it say in the guide of movie making of how a women/girl grieves a broken heart? The movies over the years like Legally Blond, how to lose a guy in ten days and Bridgette Jones Diary all have the women at some point crying eating chocolate or Ice Cream crying over the guys in their lives.. Where did our women power go? When did chick flicks define how we women grieve over relationships?
Also it's an interesting contrast compared to how men are allowed to grieve for relationships which I think often includes things like bashing women as a whole and either getting angry or trying to get the woman back. It seems like the active role is more left for men where as women are expected to be more passive and like you said, sit at home and cry about it – Briar9 years ago
I wonder whether it's men or women writing these scenes and movies, and what that says about how either gender thinks women (should) process their sadness. – chrischan9 years ago
I'd be careful about beginning from the assumption that these films have successfully defined how women grieve, and thus constitute a dissipation of female power. Yes, they often express a certain limited understanding of the emotional states women (and men) experience over the course of a romance, and depend for affect on their disinterest in other parts of that real world experience. But I wouldn't take it as self-evident that they effectively impose that understanding onto the lives of a viewership otherwise inclined toward something more. In a good movie, one finds something truthful. In a lazy, badly told, uninventive work of cliche, one will find only the leftovers of better films, and either move on or be satisfied. – TKing8 years ago
I don't think it's so much that chick flick style grieving is what women feel they must do, but since so many people learn about experiences they don't or haven't had from TV and movies, they come to believe that that is how women do or should grieve. Where it gets frustrating is when women are criticized or misunderstood because they don't react to a breakup in the way people will expect. – chrischan8 years ago