  깜찍 하 게 재미있 으면서 도 생각 해 볼 만 한 내용 이 있 는 글 을 만나 기 는 쉽 지 않 다 . Gloria Steinem : Women Have ‘ Chick Flicks . ’ What About Men ? I was on a flight from New York to Seattle when a long delay on the tarmac prompted the airline to offer us a free movie . As the flight attendant read the choices aloud , a young man across the aisle said , “ I don ’ t watch chick flicks ! ” I knew what he meant , and so did the woman sitting next to me . A “ chick flick ” is one that has more dialogue than car chases , more relationships than special effects , and whose suspense comes more from how people live than from how they get killed . I wasn ’ t challenging his preference , but I did question the logic of his term . After all , much of what we read as great literature in school may well have been called “ chick lit , ” especially if it had been written by women . Think about it : If “ Anna Karenina " had been by Leah Tolstoy , or “ The Scarlet Letter ” by Nancy Hawthorne or “ A Doll ’ s House ” by Henrietta Ibsen — if “ The Invisible Man ” had been “ The Invisible Woman ” — would they have been hailed as classics ? Suppose Shakespeare had really been the Dark Lady who some people still think he / she was . I bet most of her plays and all of her sonnets would have been dismissed as ye olde Elizabethan chick lit and buried until they were resurrected by stubborn feminist scholars of today . Indeed , as long as men are taken seriously when they write about the female half of the world — and women are not taken seriously when writing about ourselves , much less about men and public affairs — the list of Great Authors will be more about power than talent , more about opinion than experience . Still , this was not the problem of the guy on the plane . He was just trying to find a movie he wanted to watch . His “ chick flick ” label might help him avoid certain movies , but shouldn ’ t he have a label to guide him toward movies he actually liked ? I realized the problem began with the fact that adjectives are mostly required of the less powerful . Thus , there are “ novelists ” and “ female novelists , ” “ African - American doctors ” but not “ European - American doctors , ” “ gay soldiers ” but not “ heterosexual soldiers , ” “ transgender activists ” but not “ cisgender activists . ” As has been true forever , the person with the power takes the noun — and the norm — while the less powerful requires an adjective . Thus , my fellow passenger was left with only half a guide . Bias is , as always , unfair to everyone . Inspired by the blood - and - guts , monosyllabic war movie that had taken us off the tarmac and into the air , I realized the answer by the time of arrival . The opposite of a “ chick flick ” is a “ prick flick . ” Not only would this term serve movie marketers well , it would add to the lexicon of literary critics . For example , it could characterize a lot of contemporary fiction — works from Philip Roth and Bret Easton Ellis , for example — as well as the plays of David Mamet . It could also guide readers to preferred nonfiction , from the classics of Freud to the collected radio ravings of Rush Limbaugh and the tweets of Donald Trump . Most of all , this new and simple label could guide confused viewers through the thicket of downloadable movies to these types of attractions : All the movies that glorify World War II . From classics starring John Wayne and Ronald Reagan , both masterful actors who portrayed heroism without ever leaving the studio back lot , to Steven Spielberg ’ s “ Saving Private Ryan , ” in which the character would rather risk death than be rescued , Hollywood may have spent more money on making movies about World War II than was spent on fighting it . No wonder , because that was the last war in which this country was clearly right . Without continuing reminders of it , how are we to keep on believing that we still are ? All the movies that glorify Vietnam , bloody regional wars and now , the war on terrorism . These may not be as much fun to watch — Vietnam was the first major war we lost , and we haven ’ t been so great about stopping terrorism either — yet such movies do allow us to see mass mayhem in , say , Africa or South Asia or the Middle East , and so to justify whatever this country might try to do there . Movie violence also diverts attention from the fact that , since Sept . 11 , more American women have been murdered by their husbands or boyfriends than Americans have been killed in those attacks , the Iraq war , and the long war in Afghanistan — combined . All the movies that portray violence against women , preferably beautiful , sexy , half - naked women . These tend to feature chain saws and house parties in films for teenage boys , and sadistic rapists and serial killers for adult males , plus humiliations and deaths of uppity women for the well - educated misogynist . All the movies that portray female human beings as the only animals on earth that seek out and enjoy their own subordination and pain . From such whitewashed versions of prostitution as “ Pretty Woman ” ( literally whitewashed , since poverty and racism mean that white women are much less likely to be prostituted ) to such complex plots as “ Boxing Helena , ” a man ’ s dream about amputating the arms and legs of a rebellious woman who , when she is living in a box , falls in love with him — all provide media justification and how - to manuals for sadists . As you can see , this one simple label could guide men like the guy on the plane through the diversity of features , as well as the TV series we binge - watch . It could also help women , and empathetic men , to know what to avoid . However , I am just optimistic enough to believe that , if that young man were to experience a derisive adjective himself , he , too , might feel limited and gradually explore beyond it . Then , a woman - directed war movie like “ The Hurt Locker ” could show him that close - up combat was not as simple as it was made to seem on the back lot , and the latest in the “ Star Wars ” franchise could make him cheer a female heroine . He would also be rewarded by such irresistible movies as “ Hidden Figures , ” about three African - American women whose brainpower fueled the American space program , or two such universal stories as the lost boys and found men in “ Lion ” and “ Moonlight . ” These movies meet the “ chick flick ” entry - level test of being more about people than special effects , more about relationships than chases . And in the Academy Awards season that just closed , all three went a long way toward ending the division of human beings into the powerful but made - up categories of race and gender . As Tarell Alvin McCraney , the playwright whose life is loosely represented by “ Moonlight , ” has said : “ We think of ourselves as more educated when we talk about homophobia . But at the end of the day , if we look at all real homophobia , it ’ s anti - feminism . It ’ s really misogyny dressed up , or pointed at men . ” So , yes , we may be beginning to get beyond dividing the world of movies into “ chick flicks ” and that other term , too . ( Editorial sensibilities are not yet quite equal , thus that particular “ c ” word is unrestricted , yet the “ p ” word it rhymes with can be used only once here . ) And yes , it ’ s scary to leave a familiar half - self behind . This past presidential election was partly a backlash against the challenge to and loss of outdated gender roles . Still , I am learning , and I bet the young man on the plane is learning , that seeing whole people on screen is helping us to become whole people , too .  