What is Bitch Flicks?
Bitch Flicks is a website devoted to reviewing films through a feminist lens. We’re interested in conversation about movies—good and bad—and the roles that women play in them. We strongly believe that movies both shape and reflect social values, and that the post-feminist leanings of many women today are misguided.
Not all movies we’ll review are feminist. We love all kinds of movies; whether blockbuster, foreign, independent, comedy, romance, period piece, art house, western, drama, thriller, horror, experimental, or science fiction—or any combination of these—we’ll treat movies with the same kind of respect they show their viewers. We might even look at TV shows.
It’s also worth noting that we’re not interested in reviewing only new movies–we’re not in the business of getting you out to spend money at the theater. We see movies at the theater and on dvd from the video store, online, and the library. We’re also not concerned with “spoilers.” While we’ll try not to give away twists in new movies, we believe that a movie’s plot is often its least interesting element, especially when thinking about implications for women.
The bottom line is that we need feminism, and we also need Bitch Flicks.
Why Bitch Flicks?
We love movies—and watch so many that we thought we’d try to turn our movie watching into something productive. What we don’t love about movies, however, is how rarely we see smart, complex women represented.
In October 2007, Jeff Robinov—President of Production at Warner Brothers Films—declared that the company would no longer greenlight films with female leads. Whether this remains official company policy isn’t as important as the implications of this statement: women are seen as a liability—unless, of course, they play second string to a male character.
We—and you—know all too well the kind of women’s movies out there: chick flicks. When asked to describe a “chick flick,” perhaps the first definition that comes to mind is that it’s a movie a man wouldn’t want to watch. And a movie many women wouldn’t want to watch, incidentally, either.
A majority of so-called serious films today—and in the past—are shockingly unconcerned about women, and some seem to exist in a world completely inhabited by men. Yet women are generally expected to see and like these “great” films.
Bitch Flicks seeks to bridge the gulf between these two extremes. We want to give women a unique voice, and we want to engage women and men in conversations about persistent sexism in film. We also wish to publicly demand that Hollywood and filmmakers across the United States and the world stop pandering to inaccurate and sexist views about who women are and what women want—in regards to movies, at least.
A Note about Our Web Address
Plug the term Bitch Flicks into a search engine, and you’ll likely be taken to porn. We’re a different kind of bitch, existing somewhere between romantic fluff and pornography. We’ve taken the “i”s out of our address, because it’s not about us. It’s about all of us.