Chick Flicks

Hey G/U/SB/Y,

I haven't forgotten about you; on the contrary, I think about you quite a bit... but that's the subject of another blog.

Today, I'd like to speak with you about Chick Flicks: I've figured out why guys pretend not to like them. Yes, pretend. Really, we enjoy the story, the cute girl(s), and the way everything works out in the end.

Why do we pretend not to like them? Well, it's simple really. Every single movie written for women is starring us. Maybe it's only parts of us, or an exaggerated version of us, but we are still the main storyline. And as members of the male species (I won't go so far as to say men, because there are many adult male children), we strongly dislike the comparisons we see between us and the leading male role.

If we were watching these rom-coms alone, we wouldn't care. We could just enjoy the movie. But when the collective we watches them with the collective you, we can glance over to the other side of the couch and see the wheels turning in your head. We know you're sitting there, nodding to yourself, saying, "My man can be just like that sometimes."

On the flip side, some of the characters are written to such impossibly romantic heights that there's absolutely no way that we can compare... but we still see you thinking, "I wish he could that for me some time..."

And while we know we're not perfect, Chick Flicks point it out. Well, they more than point it out. They paste it on the Silver Screen for the entire world to see, judge and laugh at. At least when we're alone, we can pretend it's some other type of guy it's talking about... but we can't ignore it when we're with you.

So when you want to watch "He's just not that into you..." or "The Notebook", and we squirm around it... We're just not in the mood to be judged.