My friend Howard once suggested I should try finding a girlfriend by randomly walking up to women and saying, "You look like a real Marshall Crenshaw fan." Sure, I'd endure endless rejection, perhaps the occasional macing, but if I finally found someone who said, "Why yes, I am"...Well, presumably everything else would fall in place.
In other words, any woman who is a hardcore Crenshaw fan probably wouldn't make me sit through shit like Must Love Dogs or Because I Said So or the awful, awful romantic comedy of your choice. I know an alarming number of women who are drawn to this sort of thing. Why?
I hate the term "chick flick" and I'd like to think it's meaningless. There are only good movies and bad movies, and we're not drawn to certain things because of our gender. I mean, sure, give me a bag of popcorn, a bottle of Heineken and a screening of The Dirty Dozen, and I'm happy. But that's a good movie. Okay, a good movie with Lee Marvin, Jim Brown and Charles Bronson blowing up Nazis, but still...
If I'm going to watch a bad movie, I'll do so because it's bad. (Neil Diamond IS The Jazz Singer!) And if I want to watch a particular type of movie, I'll go with a good example of its type. If I want bone-crunching action, I'll watch The Dirty Dozen, not some lame Van Damme crap. And if I want a romantic comedy, Jeebus, I'd stay the hell away from anything involving Kate Hudson, Mandy Moore, Sandra Bullock...anything made in the last twenty years, basically.
My point is, just because Hollywood marketeers target your demographic, you don't need to cave in.
