For years, calling a movie "for girls" sounded like a veiled insult. Just having a story revolving around female desire, gossip with friends, and a closet full of shoes rather than childhood traumas automatically relegated it to the corner of frivolous, inconsequential, and minor. But the release of Material Girls, starring the irresistible trio Dakota Johnson-Pedro Pascal-Chris Evans, bursts onto the scene this summer as proof that romantic comedies are experiencing a second (or third) awakening. More irreverent, more self-aware, and more ambitious.
Welcome to the new wave of chick flicks.
"The term itself is already a statement of intent. It means, in a very informal way, girl in Spanish. These are movies, series, and books that in many cases have proven to be true commercial phenomena with a popularity that has endured for decades, but are generally considered to have low narrative quality by the audience they are aimed at," explains Pilar Baradat, predoctoral FPU researcher in Communication at Blanquerna, a center of the Ramón Llull University.
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The chick flick phenomenon arises from the so-called chick culture, consisting of a series of manifestations of popular culture from the late 90s and early 2000s in the United States and the United Kingdom, especially focused on young middle-class women. Baradat points out, as she develops her doctoral thesis on this topic, that "audiovisual and written chick fiction is one of the clearest forms of manifestation of this cultural trend, but women's magazines, certain types of music, and even some car models created during that time also form part of this culture."
"The biggest problem with automatically classifying this type of content as stories for girls is that, essentially, it devalues the content. This type of content is labeled as if all works that appeal to feelings or romance automatically have less artistic rigor simply because they are aimed at a predominantly female audience," comments Bel Bárez, a teacher and creator of literary content on TikTok. "All that is being reinforced is the idea that this type of fiction is superficial or trivial, when many of these contents address very deep themes from a more emotional standpoint."
The trivial view of this type of fiction comes from an escapist cinematic trend, an escape from reality, in contrast to more serious stories. In short: we seek series and movies with a flat EEG, that allow us to disconnect our minds from everyday stress and frenzy. They can be Turkish novels that brighten our grandmothers' afternoons, or cheesy romcoms to watch as a couple, like Notting Hill or Love Actually.
"We are in a complicated socio-economic moment, and historically, whenever this happens, certain genres within the entertainment industry experience a boom. Just as screwball comedies surged after the Great Depression of the 1930s, now the audience also favors fictions with escapist elements, especially in the case of romantic ones," says Berta F. del Castillo, Digital Communications Manager at Freemantle Spain. The cultural journalist and film and series critic also believes that, thanks to the democratization facilitated by social media, "it is a much more recommended genre, something that did not happen when the monopoly of opinion rested with critics who do not usually view this type of proposals too positively."
Comfort series, cozy fiction... there are many English terms to define the same thing: audiovisual products with simple plots, characters that generate empathy, and memorable scenes that serve as a hug on gray days. Del Castillo gives the example of Gilmore Girls: "It premiered over two decades ago, but many viewers continue to discover and enjoy it today. In this case, escapism is combined with a nostalgic feeling that has made it a must-watch annual tradition."
Bárez believes that a big part of the appeal "is the possibility of a happy ending for those characters with whom we feel so identified, which gives us hope for ourselves." So... are we tired of more serious fiction? "On the contrary, many of us still enjoy deep and complex stories that make us reflect and leave us thinking about them for a long time. Both styles coexist harmoniously, each bringing different things, and I think that is the key. It's not a matter of replacement, but of balance."
Pedro Pascal and Dakota Johnson dancing in 'Material Girls'E. M.
From the popular Sex and the City or Gossip Girl to Emily in Paris, between social satire and light escapism, chick fictions have also been constantly criticized for the superficial or stereotypical way they represent women. "They often idealize romantic love and promote behavior models that do not align with the feminist values promoted in previous decades," argues Baradat. "These characteristics are closely related to the context in which they emerged: the rise of post-feminism, a trend that, while it incorporates certain elements of feminism, also celebrates traditional femininity and individualism, leaving aside many of the collective struggles of the original movement."
After its golden age, from the late 90s to 2007, there was a significant decline in its production. A trend that has been reversed in recent years. The reason? Although Hollywood seems obsessed with superheroes and multiverses, streaming platforms like Netflix or Prime Video have been betting on content that recaptures the codes of classic romantic comedy, from The Bold Type to The Summer I Fell in Love. Anyone But You, the unexpected box office hit starring Sydney Sweeney in 2023, grossed over 220 million dollars from a budget ten times smaller. "Its economic success clearly demonstrates the popularity that spread like wildfire on social media, especially on TikTok, confirming that there were many viewers willing to consume this type of stories," says Del Castillo.
The key to success: a perfect mix of 90s nostalgia, gentle empowerment, beautiful bodies, quick dialogues, and an aesthetic that turns each frame into a carefully crafted Instagram story. But, have things changed in the last 20 years? "New productions attempt to be more inclusive. I would highlight Bridgerton as a representative of current escapist romance: even being a period piece, much of the cast is not white, something that many chick fictions of the past were lacking. However, the central themes, female protagonism, and target audience of these series remain similar to what we saw 25 years ago," Baradat concludes.
Fiction made for women (importantly for, not always by) is nothing new. In the literary realm, the queen mother of this subgenre would be Jane Austen, back in the 18th century. An author who had to use pseudonyms and whose work was denigrated for addressing relevant topics for women. The same happened with weepies, melodramas from the last century focused on a female audience.
Baradat explains that these works use known narrative formulas that repeatedly work: "It is common in chick lit books for the main couple to break up in the third act, all so that in the climax they can create that grand finale where they reunite and solve their problems. It is something we anticipate, and yet, it works to explain the story."
The push for literary adaptations to revive the industry is also not new. Bridget Jones's Diary, with four installments, or The Devil Wears Prada, with a sequel on the way, are just a few examples of fledgling fiction adaptations of best-selling novels. The latest? My Year at Oxford, Netflix's summer favorite: a sweet amalgamation of clichés that turns into a tear-jerker of a drama.
Currently, most book adaptations come from Wattpad—the global platform for reading and writing novels—such as the After saga, Fault in My Heart, or To All the Boys I've Loved Before. The BookTok boom has also greatly influenced publishers and authors when it comes to selling the rights to turn their work into a box-office hit.
"Many of the stories that have been adapted already had a very large fan base, which has generated a lot of expectation and interest from both audiences who already knew these stories and from new audiences. Streaming platforms have known how to leverage their appeal to attract the attention of both teens and adults through social media," says Bárez, who confesses to being an avid reader of this type of novel.
Del Castillo agrees with her, insisting that platforms need to produce new fiction with a speed that traditional television can't match, following a quasi-Fordist logic. Turning to already developed plots with proven success is, for them, a more than succulent proposition: "To this must be added the enthusiasm of fans of the genre in the literary world, a group easily transformed into loyal viewers."
All that said... are we witnessing a new golden age of romantic comedies? According to Baradat, the summer release of The Materialists is neither an isolated nor irrelevant event, especially given the film's creators. "We're used to the companies behind chick-lit fiction being Hollywood majors or platforms. This one, on the other hand, was distributed by A24, a benchmark in the independent film scene, and directed by none other than Celine Song, director of Past Lives." With a profile far removed from more commercial cinema, Song has just been announced as the screenwriter for the sequel to Bridesmaids, something that indicates the industry's interest in supporting this type of production with top-tier authors. "We could say we're facing a possible new era of commercial fiction for women," the researcher concludes.