Category Archives: Devi’s Discourse

Hear the term “Chick Flick” and what pops to mind? A girlie rom-com like PRETTY WOMAN or BRIDGET JONES’ DIARY? A female-driven comedy like BRIDESMAIDS or a musical like MAMMA MIA? Or is it a tearjerker like LOVE STORY or a weepie teen flick like THE FAULT IN OUR STARS? Hell, it might even be something more action-oriented, like THELMA & LOUISE or WONDER WOMAN.

And herein lies the problem. Just what the heck is “Chick Flick” trying to say?

Before we explore films from a feminist perspective, we need to synchronize our understanding of what feminism is (and isn’t). I am forever hearing people use and abuse it in ways to suggest that word does not mean what they think it means. It’s time we fix that. Nigerian Author CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHE, in her […]

As you probably know, the BECHDEL TEST hails from a gag from DYKES TO WATCH OUT FOR, a 1980s underground comic strip by CERTIFIED GENIUS, ALISON BECHDEL. It unfolds when two women pass by a movie marquee and one asks the other if she wants to catch a flick. The friend declines with the following qualification:

“I only go to a movie if it satisfies three basic requirements. One, it has to have at least two women in it who, two, talk to each other about, three, something besides a man.”

She concludes that the last movie she was able to see was ALIEN [1979].

To reiterate, this idea came from a comic strip, that’s C-O-M-I-C, meaning it was intended to be funny. Yet, since then it’s evolved (devolved?) from a witty exaggeration into a cinematic aspiration. And why? Because so many contemporary Hollywood films fail this absurdly deficient litmus test. And when the occasional anomaly does manage to hurdle this ridiculously low-hanging bar, some people have the poor taste to call that “progress.”

How did this happen?