CHICK FLICKS

Recently I wrote about how much I enjoy movies such as The Expendables (as in Expendables 3 – hooray) and Fast and Furious # whatever. Keep em coming I say.

Meanwhile, Harlequin Romances are still being read and enjoyed and whether disguised as Historical Fiction, the good old ‘bodice ripper’ is alive and continuing to make Female hearts beat faster. Personally the beginning and end of these books are enough for me, so instead Movies are usually my way of getting my romance transfusion. 

Time and again though, as I come out of an early show, I smile in sympathy at the poor devils (male) waiting patiently with their ‘significant other’ to get into what a sane Woman would consider very obviously a Woman’s movie.

Poor guy, broken in obviously and broken down too. I feel like handing him some Oxygen and pointing to the exit door so he can save himself before it’s too late.

Meanwhile, the North American Woman and the magazine writers who tell her who she is supposed to be, seem to still promote the Having It All and now the 'Equal' sharing of responsibilities around the house. The Woman is (at 77% of the Man's salary) told she is a ‘Business Woman’, and that her time is as valuable as any Man’s. She declares vehemently, to anyone who will listen, that she is strong, invincible, etc. 

Naturally she is also a star, a legend, important, and her time is precious. She is au courant of the latest jargon and to those of us who don't do it, has learned a new way of living that is I suppose, the latest try to change the relationship (battle of the sexes), genetics and hormones and create a level playing field between men and women. 

She sees herself as a dynamo and powerful but she can, she thinks, still turn on being a  Woman again when she needs to. To prove she is sexy, she brings on the Pole Dance and the Slutty Hooker garb. I think she is just trying to speed up the time spent/wasted on Sex. No Intimacy wanted here, it takes too long. 

I suggest the Man involved with this type of Woman worry when there is a new Clock opposite the bed, it saves checking her wrist watch. However, if you are already holding her Purse, you are ready for therapy because you are actually already Her Bitch. 

I notice among Men there is a pack mentality spending more time together as a group going on long after College and showing no sign of couples forming. Safety in Numbers perhaps. It may be the only way these fellows can try and figure out what today's Women want from them, if anything.* 

All this aside, I personally give myself a pass to watch mushy, improbably romantic movies in which everyone goes to bed happy and sighing in satisfaction. Whatever works to keep us hoping and believing in Love and Fidelity and sweet perfect people being out there somewhere.

I say, there is no reason Lightening can’t strike twice. My entire Marriage was among many happily married second marriages, that incidentally, are still going strong today. The younger generation though may not be as lucky because they seem able to get together and split up pretty easily and don't hang around long when the going gets tough. 

Nevertheless I still hope that somehow Men will have been resuscitated in time for my Nieces to somehow discover there is still a Man out there for each of them, actually just like dear old Dad and earlier generations of Men.  

It might take a Miracle but I hope that the broken Men who now parrot ‘Happy Life, Happy Wife’ can some day again enjoy saying ‘I enjoy being a Man’. Maybe it will be possible when they find Woman who likes Men to be Men and Women to be Women and probably thinks ‘I wouldn’t trade being a Woman for all the Tea in China'.


*University writing by Women that All Sex is Rape and a Woman needs a Man like a Fish needs a Bicycle or some such is what makes me wonder whether another gender is evolving.