A friend of mine (and fellow author) has allowed me to post this here. :)
Hope you like it.
Why Guys Hate Chick Flicks
Have you ever really wondered why guys complain about chick flicks? You know we would rather watch an action picture (oh, yeah!) or some gross slasher/zombie movie, but why?
Oh there are a lot of excuses thrown around. Just ask some of your friends. If they aren't trying to impress you with how urban sensitive they are, they might answer with comments like, "Chick flicks are boring" or that "Chick flicks are unrealistic. No guy would do something like that" or "They're too emotional."
The truth is, chick flicks make us doubt. We see the portrayal of the hero on screen and we ask ourselves if we have that much courage, that much love. We ask ourselves if we could overcome our doubts and insecurities and make that kind of decision.
For example, in the movie, Love and Other Drugs, Anne Hathaway portrays a woman with an incurable disease and she tells her lover, “I'm going to need you a lot more than you need me.” And Jake Gyllenhaal, who plays the hero, replies, “We'll make it to the end... I just may have to carry you part of the way.”
We see scenes like this and doubt ourselves. Although, we do have an inner impulse to be something better in our little lives, we have our doubts and “maybes.” We live our lives on “maybes” and it makes us uncomfortable to think about them. We ask ourselves, “Could I do that?” Do I have the courage to love that much? Or take action to protect the one's I love? Or are we all weak and end up relying on the the government or the authorities or whoever if something terrible happened?
We'd like to believe in the ideal, we really would, but all we can say is “Maybe.” Action flicks are one thing; chick flicks remind us of our doubts. They make us ask, “What would I do?”
So we avoid chick flicks. It's easier that way. But sometimes, just sometimes, we watch or read and nod to ourselves and think, “Yeah. Maybe I could be someone's hero, too.”
