Chick flicks, they are often shunned by men for their emotional, romantic stories and overly heart warming messages, but now a new study done by Kansas State University says that the men do like the lady movies. The good people at imdb.com gave us this on the story:
A study by Kansas State University psychology professor Richard Harris contradicts the popular notion that women drag men to “chick flicks” and that the men merely endure them. “The choice to view a romantic movie was usually made together as a couple, not just by the girl,” Harris said in a statement released by the university.
The study also indicated that men enjoy such films almost as much as the women surveyed. “I wouldn’t write off the male audience just because it is a romantic film,” Harris advised studio execs. “I would suggest marketing to the men in the audience.” Last year Harris authored another study that appeared to validate gender stereotypes when it came to horror flicks. Watching them, guys generally acted brave; women often grabbed their date or covered their eyes. “Guys didn’t like it when their date was unafraid, and girls didn’t like it when their dates were scared,” Harris said.
This makes me smile, I can remember on more that one occasion taking a guy to a “chick flick” type movie and having to lend him tissues by the credits. I also agree with the other part of the study around the horror movie study, I can’t help but scream and shake whoever is beside me during a good fright flick…poor John can attest to that. When we saw The Descent together last year I screamed and grabbed his arm so much that I’m positive I left a bruise and caused hearing loss, John on the other hand was very masculine in his screams of pain.
I think Harris gives good very advice when he tells studio execs not to ignore the man audience members going out to see touchy feely films, this is a market that is not really being tapped into.
Of course it must be a difficult thing to sell men on the idea that what they need is to have a good cry.
