Geek Goddess Felicia Day tweeted that “I’m speaking solely from my vagina when I say I’m super excited about that new Julia Roberts movie.” For those of you who have tivo or weren’t paying attention she’s referring to EAT, PRAY, LOVE which opens in August and, at least from the trailers, looks like a cute, entertaining summer flick.
Day is rationalizing wanting to see a movie that appeals to her because it is a pretty stereotypical woman’s film (and blames the desire on being a woman). Not that I fault her for either sentiment, because I think that unless the film features people in period costume, I utter something vaguely similar*. A part of me, the rational intellectual part, knows that movies like EAT, PRAY, LOVE pander to the “girly” side that is all emotions, love stories and kittens and that I should be looking for either a “serious film” or at least something with explosions. Serious films can be about love and romance, but are not based upon an Oprah Winfrey approved novel that’s much beloved by women or any movie with a pink and purple color scheme or is only about finding romance. It is pretty insulting to my gender to automatically sum up a film by its target audience and proclaim it stupid because the target audience is women. (Never mind that the majority of romantic comedies are really, really bad.)
Should people apologize for wanting to see a movie that looks like it’ll be entertaining? The very act of apologizing is a way of admitting fault either for an action of a flaw. I wish that women weren’t always apologizing for wanting to see movies that appealed to their sensibilities, and I wish that there wasn’t the group of equally pernicious women who attempt to reject feminine storylines for the ones that their male peers prefer. Plenty of movies directed towards men are idiotic. But men don’t preface their intentions or excited with ‘this is coming from my dick that I’m really excited about seeing GREEN HORNET.’ No, movies the guys want to see are ‘awesome’ no matter how clichéd ridden or unentertainingly bad it will be. They don’t experience guilt over their choices, why should we?
*Especially if the main character is a 19th Century poet or features either Charlie Cox or Emily Blunt.
