Netflix Wants Us to Stop Calling Movies "Chick Flicks," and I'm With Them

The term minimizes just how important these films are.

Getty Images
  • Netflix recently tweeted a PSA asking for pop-culture to stop referring to romantic comedies and films starring women as "chick flicks."
  • The tweet received mixed reactions on Twitter.

    What do the films like The Wedding Planner, Bridget Jones’s Diary, and 13 Going On 30 have in common? Despite their pop-culture status as classics, lighter-fare films like these—starring women—are often dismissed as frivolous. But according to Netflix, it might finally be time for us to stop referring to this genre as "chick flicks."

    Yesterday, the streaming site tweeted an interesting proposal. “Can we stop calling films 'chick flicks' unless they are literally about baby chickens?” Netflix wrote, adding that the term is generally used to describe romantic comedies, which implies that movies that are both romantic and comedic are of sole interest to women. They also nodded to the fact that the description minimizes the amount of work that goes into creating these projects. “Romantic comedies and/or films centered around female leads go through just as much editing, consideration, and rewriting as any film,” the thread continued.

    Of course, Twitter had mixed reactions. Many responded with the all-too-expected cry of, “STICK TO MOVIES, NETFLIX,” along with things like “PC culture” has gone too far.

    Listen, I get it. There are bigger problems in the world. And there is also irony in the fact that when you Google "chick flicks," mostly Netflix movies come up. In fact, as several users pointed out, if you search for "chick flicks" on Netflix, you'll get plenty of options:

    Honestly, though, I do think we should hear Netflix out.

    How many movies can you remember opting out of going to see in theaters because it fell under the chick flick category? Anytime a film has a female lead starring alongside other women, it's automatically implied that the film is of a lower quality than one fronted by a male. In my opinion, the label does, in fact, further the idea that films starring women can only be one-dimensional.

    Forget that Bring It On tackled cultural appropriation years before we had the words to express it, or that Legally Blonde followed a law student who stood up against and took over an actual case being led by a professor who sexually harassed her. Because plotlines centered around a journey experienced by a woman are often categorized as silly "chick flicks," audiences often miss the positive messages and strong, expressive characters these movies gave us.

    I look forward to the day characters like Elle Woods get the respect and recognition they deserve.

    The movie industry as a whole is still largely dominated by men. USC Annenberg reported last year that for every female director in Hollywood, there are 22 men. That dynamic makes it easy for critics—and mostly male critics, as it turns out—to write off films that center around women’s experiences. Not unlike Elle Woods herself, they’re deemed trivial and silly. But why don't comedies starring Adam Sandler get similarly labeled?

    And as one Twitter user pointed out, the "chick flick" dynamic could be contributing to the gender inequality cycle in Hollywood. Labeling films starring women as "lesser than" could be part of the reason hard-working female actresses are offered lesser than salaries, too.

    Netflix isn’t just calling for us to stop using the term “chick flick.” They're also drawing attention to the fact that this gendered term makes too many assumptions. As the platform noted on Twitter, there aren’t categories specifically labeled for men in the way “chick flick” is. This suggests that a story centered around a male protagonist is universally-appealing, whereas a story with a woman protagonist only appeals to other women. It’s also a pretty alienating term, implying that you have to fit within the binary, cisnormative restrictions of male and female to enjoy these movies.

    So the jury is still out on whether or Netflix may have been the best platform to speak up about this label. Still, I do commend them for speaking up when no one else was to support films starring women. I look forward to the day characters like Elle Woods and other “chick flick” leads get the respect and recognition they deserve. As for me? This story has inspired me to go binge some of my favorite classics. See what I did there?

    For more stories like this, sign up for our newsletter.

    Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
    More From TV & Movies